Fall and Food Up North

So while the colors weren't what we hoped for, and the weather was unseasonably warm, we still had a great time up north. And the food? Well, it was yummy. I mean, can I ever talk about a weekend away without mentioning the food?!

Saturday we started the day with a drive to Charlevoix to go to Juilleret's for breakfast. They bake their own bread there, so the french toast is a thick slice of cinnamon (or cinnamon raisin) bread. It tastes just like a cinnamon roll melting in your mouth. This weekend they had pumpkin bread, so you could have pumpkin french toast. Incredible! The waitress told us we didn't need syrup on it and she was right. We split the pumpkin french toast and each had our own breakfast. We all felt like we needed a nap after all that food!

After we walked a bit of our breakfasts off by exploring Charlevoix, we headed back toward Petoskey and up to Harbor Springs. We had a drink at a restaurant there, and then made our way up to Center Village. The route up to Center Village, M-119, is a Scenic Heritage Route. It's called the "Tunnel of Trees" and is a beautiful ride. The road winds back and forth, through trees that make a canopy. The water can be seen through the trees and down the hill on the left. Unfortunately, the colors weren't at peak yet, actually not even halfway there. But the drive was still really pretty.

The destination for most people, including a large contingency of bikers (motorcycles and bicycles) is Legs Inn. It's hard to imagine, but in the middle of some farmland overlooking the water is a huge Polish restaurant. The name "Legs Inn" is derived from the stove legs that can be seen around the perimeter of the roof (click on the link 2 sentences ago to see a picture). The only thing with the place being good, is that it's extremely popular. There was an hour wait when we got there, so we had a few drinks while we waited. By the time our name was called, we really didn't want to eat! We decided to head back to Petoskey and go to dinner there.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Mitchell's Pub. After that we went to Papa Lou's to watch football (and the Cubs lose - ugh). We ended up feeding about $30 into the jukebox there. Dean is a good DJ whether he's spinning tunes on his iTunes or working the jukebox. We heard everything from Journey to Counting Crows to Vanilla Ice. Yep, I can't tell you the last time I heard "Ice Ice Baby".

Sunday morning, Stein and I went for a walk along the bay. That's the great thing about staying at Phil and Kirstin's place (Stein's brother and sister-n-law). You can just get up and walk to town or walk to the water. As we made our way toward the lighthouse, we saw a lot of people fishing near the river. The salmon were swimming upstream and they were flying! We saw a handful of people running down the banks of the river in an effort to keep the salmon on the line and prevent the line from snapping. We also saw a handful of people with snapped lines. At one point near a waterfall on the river, the salmon kept jumping and jumping into the falls. When people caught them, the fish were at least 2 feet long. I've never seen anything like it. It was really exciting!

Later that morning, we set out toward home via Bay Harbor. Stein and Dean go golfing there every year on their annual golf trip, so they wanted to take us to lunch where the views are great. And the views didn't disappoint! (When I get the pictures downloaded, I'll post them). We sat looking onto the golf course from the second floor of the clubhouse. Views of the bay were right there. Just beautiful. And the food was really good. Stein and I both had the whitefish po' boy, which had a really tasty tartar sauce. When in Rome... When you're up north, you eat whitefish. So we did.

We took a different route home, which was a nice change. We went through Charlevoix, then took a ferry toward Boyne. The ferry, which held 4 cars total, took all of about 5 minutes to get from one side to the other. I just wonder why they don't just build a bridge, but it was a fun thing to do. As we drove through Boyne and on toward Gaylord, the colors were a lot more advanced. It was good to see that one of our goals - to see fall colors, was accomplished. We got home last night and were in bed relatively early. All that driving in a two-day span can be exhausting. And I wasn't even the one behind the wheel!