Perhaps it was good that the weather turned on the day we had the greatest distance to travel?  But you know, driving through that weather isn’t so good.  We were pleased when it eased off.

We were travelling in a westerly direction, heading for Torch Lake, but hoping to have time to take a look around Traverse City on the way.  We drove past acres of Christmas trees and through miles of lush green landscape.

As always, we stayed on the smaller, regional roads and didn’t use the Interstate at all.  As a result, the view through the windscreen was the classic road trip view.

I made some progress on the socks!

And before too long, we reached the lake.  Lake Michigan, that is.

Traverse City lies at the southern tip of a finger of the lake and is a popular holiday spot.

As soon as we stepped out on to the street, it was clear we were amongst the holiday crew.

We dropped into a cute little shop and immediately noticed the strong  “Michigan” identity.  In particular, the “mitten state” is very much in evidence.  Love it!

I don’t think my Hero was tempted by the Traverse City look in the shop next door, however.

It was fun to walk through the town and do a little window shopping.

With a wealth of smart, independent shops, browsing was fun.  I was admiring the style of this lovely bath and body product company store, taking pictures of well-designed window arrangements and great colour schemes.

Right next door was a great independent bookshop too.  Road trip conversations tend to include reminiscences of previous trips and this morning, we were trying to recall the name of the actor we’d seen in the Coyote Cafe, Santa Fe, some years ago.  Was it Matthew McConaughey?  It wasn’t, but neither could we remember who it was.  So, walking into the bookshop, one of us might have uttered a suggestion in the form of a name of some actor or other, which unsurprisingly,  piqued the interest of Sharon, one of the booksellers.

Of course, we had to explain what on earth we were on about.  Poor Sharon hadn’t really anticipated an encounter with the three of us, who finish one another’s sentences and have weird points of reference.  But she too had been in Santa Fe at the same time as we were there, knew the Coyote Cafe and was keen to help us remember just which actor it was who’d been there at the next table that night. 

I was sure his name began with M, so when we eventually worked out that it was Dermot Mulroney, I wasn’t totally wrong      We agreed that at some point in the future, we’ll probably encounter Sharon again and when we do, we’ll whisper Dermot Mulroney in her ear!

We ‘recovered’  a few doors down in the Cherry Republic.  Well seeing the motif on the sign, with the magic word ‘pie’ in there too, how could we go wrong?

Yes.  Everything is cherry in here.  Cherry good.

The Cherry Bears are in here too and the decor reflects that.

Right up my street!

Having sampled our way around the chocolate covered cherries, the cherry salsas, the cherry maltesers, the cherry sausages (yes, really), we decided to stop for a drink.

Cherry Ginger Bear for me, Cherry Root Bear for him!

Hehe.

Michigan is a “pop” state.   Geddit?

Fortified by cherries and more cherries, we wandered further up the street, finding another great bookshop at the other end of town.  How civilised is that?

This bookshop had a balcony level and around the balcony was the greatest collection of quilts including this pretty one made from fussy cutting a floral fabric.

But the weather was coming in over the lake and my Hero was keeping an eye on the forecast.  He’d chatted to a chap called Dave whilst I tried clothes on in Chico’s and he too was aiming to leave before the storm.

There was just one more “must do” before we headed off.  We needed to eat ice cream at Moomers.  (Thank you for the recommendation, Joanne!)

At last, we made it to Torch Lake, where we’ll spend a few days with friends in the most gorgeous lakeside setting.

Thankfully, the storm didn’t arrive.  Fingers crossed for sunshine tomorrow!