My sister J reports that she’s used vacation rentals by owner (www.vrbo.com I think) several times to rent places to stay in northern Michigan and never been disappointed. Good to know! And I think I found the house of the chocolate-maker in Empire who told us about this website. http://www.vrbo.com/177844
Wine, beer, hard cider in the Leelanau Pennisula, Mi.
During our visit to the Leelanau Peninsula last month, we visited only one winery (Black Star) and weren’t impressed (although pretty place.) But my sister J and her husband want to go winery hopping up there this month so here’s one suggestion – based entirely on a knowledgeable friend’s review of the wine, not the winery persay: Forty-five North Vineyard and Winery – which gets its name from being located on the 45th parallel – is good wine, we’re told. So maybe the winery will be worth a visit too. see http://www.fortyfivenorth.com Tasting Room Hours are Mon-Sat, 11-6
Sun, 12-5
Another option: visit a hard cider maker. Tandem Ciders – near Black Star – looked like a neat place but it was closed when we dropped by. The season is more likely to be happening in September. We also found two local beers we liked – North Peak (out of Traverse City) and Bell’s (from Kalamazoo). Bottoms up!
Filed under Michigan
A good bike ride in Des Moines
We made a nice new loop on our bike ride Monday – starting on the Urbandale trail then heading north on the newly finished trestle-to-trestle trail into Johnston, which petered out too early at an ice cream stand – but then we cut through some housing developments and rode on too-busy NW 62nd street to hook up to the Neal Smith trail which we took to the Butterfly Garden at Saylorville Lake (some of it on recently improved trail), then headed back on the Neal Smith trail to the bridge that connects back to MLK Blvd. and the Urbandale trail.
A little improvisational but it worked and was a fun interesting ride.
Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines
The best bike trail in Iowa City – still looking
We tried again last weekend to cobble out a decent bike ride via trail in Iowa City and did only slightly better this time than last time – a few years ago. Part of it has to do with the lingering devastation from the 2008 flood – which wiped out some of the trail along the Iowa River – not to mention several major arts buildings including Hancher Auditorium. (It was sobering to pass by those hollow wrecked buildings.)
Part of it is that Iowa City doesn’t have the trail system of a place like Des Moines to begin with – and no casino revenues like in DM to construct and pave trails. We did begin at the southern end of the Iowa River Corridor trail south of town and it got off to a pleasant enough start – a tree-lined winding trail along the river but then it got diffuse and hard to follow around campus and when we picked it up again at the city park north of Hancher, the trail petered out into haphazardly marked residential streets and then it dumped us out with no further explanation – just as happened during our previous ride – on a commercial strip under construction (again still-recovering from the 2008 flood). We ended up taking a sharp right and winding through a very odd housing development – what’s called the Peninsula Neighborhood – that looked completely out of place with mock-old urban architecture in a rural setting. It felt like a movie set. Granted the brick rowhouses and single-family new-old home cottages and bungalows are attractive – but looklike they belongin Baltimore or maybe Washington D.C.
We did manage to make the ride into a bit of a loop, riding past the housing development and a golf course to the north end of the city park where we rode through downtown and campus to catch the trail back to our car.
Filed under bike trails, biking, Iowa City
Beau city, beau hotel – Talloires, France
My brother and his wife are going to one of our favorite places in October – the beautiful villages of Talloires and Annecy in eastern France, south of Geneva. We haven’t been there since 1989 but glad to see that the hotel we stayed in Talloires is still there – Hotel Beau Site (and it is indeed a beautiful sight/site.) http://www.beausite-talloires.com/index-en.php.
As I recall the hotel is near the French campus of – surprisingly – Tufts University. Now there’s a junior year abroad I’d enjoy.
Good reading while you’re there: Hotel du Lac a Booker Prize winning novel (1984) by Anita Brookner – set in Geneva. I think I was reading it at the time.
From my diary: “Talloires is a lovely town – the prettiest on Lac d’Annecy as far as I can tell. There is no or very little modern development. The small village is one curving street with old stone houses and a few cafes and shops. There’s a small waterfront down the hill, bordered by three or four hotels and five or six stone private homes. Our hotel has a big landscaped garden that leads to a long green lawn that stretches to the water. The lake looks a darker blue than we’ve seen earlier and the mountains are smaller but in some ways more dramatic because they begin as rolling green meadows and forest then end at the top with a jagged sheer rock face jutting out like some dramatic monument set against the sky.”
“We spent the morning walking around the fruit and veg market held each Tuesday in the old city of Annecy. It was lovely- beautiful narrow streets crowded with stalls filled with red tomatoes, peaches, olives, cheese; two canals lined with flower boxes. We ate lunch at an outdoor cafe alongside one of the canals. Then drove to see Gorge du Fier, a dramatic gorge, (http://www.gorgesdufier.com/en/faq.html) and a nearby chateau. Pretty drive.”
Filed under France
Consider Curacao?
A friend recently returned from a vacation in Curacao and suggested I put it on my list. So I have, after reading a bit more about it. Apparently it’s an island in the southern Caribbean, near the Venezuelan Coast – and part of a Dutch stronghold that includes Aruba (which is more familiar to me – my parents used to go there.)
D is going to Panama next February for work so I’ve been daydreaming about where I could meet him down there – have been thinking of Costa Rica, which is just north. Curacao seems too far from Panama for an easy rendezvous.
Filed under Caribbean, The Americas
Trapped by the “Illinois Tollway Unattended Toll Plaza” experiment on I-88
So we’re driving late at night on I-88 through Illinois en route to Chicago and we pull up to yet another tollbooth with our money in hand, $1.90, all ready to dutifully pay – and instead no one is in the booth and we’re greeted by a little flyer that tells us to pay online or by mail.
So we go on vacation for ten days, come home and I pull out the little flyer and find out that we have now committed a VIOLATION because we have not paid our toll within seven days. This hardly seems fair. Is it really OUR fault that the Illinois DOT has decided to save money by closing this one tollbooth from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. – which is often when we manage to arrive in Chicago after a long after-work drive from Iowa?
Okay, we could have paid it within 7 days but we were away from home and computers and checkbooks – which is what a VACATION is all about !! What really irks me is that it appears from the wording that even if you DO pay after 7 days this still counts as a VIOLATION. And after three VIOLATIONS within 24 months you’re in deep do-do. So there’s really no incentive to pay after 7 days because you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Why not give people a wee bit more time to pay – or just increase by increments the fee if it arrives after 7 days?
When I finally found someone to talk to about this at the Illinois Tollway office, she told me I was okay if I just paid by mail – i can’t pay online after 7 days. So I’ve just sent in my check. But the wording below suggests otherwise.
Here’s the online info.
MISTAKES HAPPEN
You have 7 Days to Make Your Payment
- The Illinois Tollway grants a 7-day grace period to pay your unpaid toll.
If you DO NOT have an I-PASS
| Making a payment can be done online or through the mail. Choose one of graphics below to learn more.
If you live outside the United States you must pay an unpaid toll by mail. |
Have the required information available |
|
Use our Toll Calculator to determine the total cost of your tolls.
In the event of unknown plazas or direction, toll calculations will be based on the maximum charge (per toll) on our system for your vehicle category.
Maximum charge per toll:
- Passenger Car (2 axle) – $2.00
- Small Truck (2-axle) – $3.00
- Medium Truck (3-4-axle) – $4.50
- Large Truck (5 axle) – $8.00
Missed the 7-day Grace Period?
- The unpaid toll has now become a violation.
- Violation notices are issued when 3 or more unpaid toll/violations are recorded over a 24-month period. Fines will be assessed.
- Payment after the 7-day grace period does not remove that toll from violation status.
Failure to pay tolls can result in fines and possible suspension of your license plate and/or your driver’s license.
Pay by Mail
In order to avoid the incident from being recorded as a toll violation, the mailed in toll payment envelope must:
- Have all the required information filled out completely
- Be delivered or mailed to the Tollway within 7 calendar days of the unpaid toll.
It is recommended you pay by check because your cancelled check is your receipt.
You can mail your payment with unpaid toll information to:
Illinois Tollway
2700 Ogden Avenue
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Attn: Cash Handling Division
What is the Illinois Tollway Unattended Toll Plaza Pilot Program?
The Illinois Tollway has launched a pilot program designed to improve efficiencies and reduce costs at
mainline toll plazas when traffic volumes are low. At the Pilot locations, Open Road Tolling lanes will be
operational 24/7, however all manned toll booths will be unattended between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and
only the far right cash lane will be open to allow cash‐paying drivers to pick up a toll payment form.
Cash‐paying customers will be given the option to pay online or mail in toll payments within the 7‐day
grace period.
Where will this pilot be conducted?
The Illinois Tollway has selected two toll plazas – the Spring Creek Toll Plaza (PL 99) on the Veterans
Memorial Tollway (I‐355) and the Dixon Toll Plaza (PL 69) on the Reagan Memorial Tollway (I‐88).
Manned toll collection lanes will be unattended during the overnight hours of 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. when
traffic volumes are the lowest.
When does the pilot program begin and how long will it be in place?
As of February 16, 2010, the Unattended Toll Plaza Pilot Program is effective at the selected plazas. The
Pilot Program will be evaluated over the next three months.
Why not reopen the cash baskets at the Toll Plazas?
Exact change baskets were eliminated from mainline toll plazas when
Filed under Illinois, interstates
One more Northern Michigan tip
A woman who runs a chocolate shop in Empire, Mi. recommended another website for renting places in that area – vrbo.com (which stands for “vacation rentals by owner” – she says it cuts out the middle-man/woman fee. worth a try although i was happy w/our visitupnorth.com rental.
When we next return to Glen Arbor, Mi.
At the end of most vacations, I always have a list of things I wish I’d done and hope to do next time (like the time I went to Spain and skipped Grenada – although I did get to Seville. Someday.)
So here’s my list for the Glen Arbor area:
1) canoe or kayak on the Crystal River. Our tubing on the Platte was a bit of a bust – too slow and sleepy. The Crystal River looks fun – narrower and more winding and mysterious. And we’ll skip the tubes next time.
2) visit the Old Mission Peninsula, especially the general store in an old wigwam.
3) visit Traverse City – we didn’t even get close to the place.
4) check out the towns of Maple City and Cedar something or other. (uh oh, I’m already forgetting names.)
5) do more hiking on the dunes and the other ride with the ranger on Point Oneida.
Filed under Michigan
Leaving northern Michigan
A huge storm knocked out the internet access at our cottage on Big Glen Lake so I’m running behind in my blogging. Yesterday we took a very short hike at Empire Bluff for another spectacular view of the lakeshore and dunes, then checked out Esch road Beach – a relatively remote beach known for nude bathers (although we saw none.)
Later D and I rode our bikes from the cottage to Glen Arbor and then to Glen Haven which has a little maritime museum and a couple of old restored buildings, plus a lovely beach. We stopped at Cherry Republic in Glen Arbor for a drink and some free samples of dried cherries in various forms. Kitschy place but fun and generous spirit. Bumped into Ranger Ryan – who we’d gone on a bike tour with the day before – and he seemed a bit taken aback that we spotted him in civilian gear. Also stopped at Becky Thatcher’s Jewelry design which has gorgeous jewelry made with local stones – including Petoskey stones, which I failed to find on my own, and a pretty blue/green stone from Leland that I”m told is not technically a stone.
The huge storm rolled in around dinner time and fortunately we’d already decided NOT to cook out. We went to Art’s Tavern, the local hang out in Glen Arbor which was jammed packed but we managed to cram into a booth after a half hour wait and had the best cheeseburgers of our trip (they made mine rare!). More tomorrow. we’re safely in Chicago now although D is still searching for a parking spot.
TakeBetsywithyou 