Michigan 2013 Trip - Day 7

At St. Ignace we had to kill some time.  The restaurant we were wanting to go to was only an hour away, but it didn't open until noon.  So we went to the downtown and explored some of the shops and found a lady selling homemade baked goods that had the best cake doughnut I have ever eaten.  Instead of the usual dry crumbly texture, this one was soft and liberally sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  The others had decadent cinnamon rolls that were huge, and we bought a loaf of organic cheddar chive bread to go.

Mackinac Bridge

Mom on top of the tower.

The tower on top of the gift shop.

We found a few more gift shops along the way, and one had a large tower that mom and I climbed.  It offered a great view of the Mackinac Bridge.  After climbing, we had finally burned enough time that we could set out for our next stop, Leg's Inn.

Leg's Inn is a Polish restaurant out in the middle of nowhere on Lake Michigan.  It offers authentic cuisine and even better scenery.  And the building itself is amazing.  Built from found driftwood, local stones, and timber, Legs Inn is extremely imaginative.  It derives its name from the stove legs that decorate the front of the building.  At this restaurant, I went straight for the Pierogies and had several different kinds filled with farmer's cheese, potato, or sauerkraut and mushroom.  They were very filling, especially when everyone else kept piling the rest of theirs on my plate because they were full!  I also got some Zurek Soup, which is a sour soup made with sausage, hard boiled eggs and potatoes.  It was delicious!  Mom got the cabbage roll, and while it tasted good, it was kind of small for a $9 plate.  Actually everything seemed to have gone up quite a bit in price with the portions being minimal.  They're going for exclusive now apparently.  But it was still good and it was our main outing for the day.

Legs Inn

Jan in front of the Legs Inn teepee.

Group picture at Leg's Inn.

Mom with one of the statues at Leg's Inn.

Leg's Inn door.

We then headed South to Northport, a little peninsula stretching into Lake Michigan where you can visit the Grand Traverse Lighthouse and scope out the beach in search of Petoskey Stones, which are easier to find than Agates but still hard to look for.  At the lighthouse, I even managed to meet a little animal friend, although it wasn't quite as cuddly as the chipmunk Jan befriended earlier in the trip.

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Herb Garden at the Lighthouse

My new friend.

Christmas Cove - Petoskey hunting area.

We stopped for the night in Traverse City, at the Econolodge, which was probably one of my least favorite motels of the trip.  They had a pool, but it was completely unusable and had suds it was so full of chemicals and a very odd smell.  We sat down in one of the rooms with our homemade cheddar chive bread, some leftover pastie and some smoked whitefish we had picked up and had a picnic supper.