19th Stop - Traverse City, MI

Since we had a lot of rain our last day in Mackinaw City, everything was wet packing up in the morning (again!).  We were packed up and pulling out of the campground by 11:00am and arrived at Holiday Park Campground in Traverse City around 1:00pm.  We'll be here for a week...the longest stay at any place since we started this trip (we're here 7 nights!).

We really like this campground here...really nice site, wi-fi is great, we have cable, water pressure is great and it's close to a LOT of things. 

We pulled into our sites and Pat (Ed's sister) and Michael (her husband) were just walking up to our see if we had arrived;  they're staying here in their pop-up for the weekend.  After we got set up, we went for a walk with Gary and Carol and the dogs around the campground.  We left Gary and Carol (they headed into Traverse City and walked around) and headed up to Jan's (Ed's sister) and Jerry's house for a fish fry and a LOT of food for a going away party for Kris (daughter of Jan & Jerry) who will be heading to Los Angeles for a new job. 

Sunday, Ed and I went wine tasting with the family.  Ed had a hard time keeping up with lead-foot Jan; she forgot he was following her.  There's a LOT of vineyards and wineries up towards Northport and one of the ones we stopped at was the Ciccone Vineyard which is owned by Madonna's father and stepmother.
(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

Monday was a beautiful clear day and we loaded Molly, Mandy and Lily into the car and we headed to Sleeping Bear Dunes in Empire.  The Dunes are part of the National Lakeshore park overlooking Lake Michigan and LOTS of sand.  We drove through the park and stopped at some of the lookouts and then went to the dunes where Ed, Carol and Gary climbed up to the top while I sat back with the three dogs and took pictures and chatted with some people who were out sightseeing (I felt like the welcome wagon).

Tuesday we headed to downtown Traverse City and walked around town browsing at the storefronts along the way and found a good place for lunch. 

Wednesday we had another beautiful clear warm day in the 80's so we headed to Sutton's Bay to walk around, browse in the shops and had lunch.  If the weatherman is right, we'll be dropping into the 60's tomorrow!

Thursday ended up being cold and rainy and I started worrying about leaving my heavy jacket back home in the closet (well, it wasn't THAT cold but it will be probably be soon!).  BUT when the rain stopped, we had a beautiful sunset so there's a silver lining to every dark cloud, right?

Friday it was still chilly but a beautiful day but it was time to say good-bye to sister Jan, bro-in-law Jerry and niece Kris.  We met them at Sleder's Family Tavern (est. 1882) in Traverse City where they served all-u-can fish.  Let me tell you, Ed has had his share of lake fish since we hit Michigan and tonight he was able to get some more smelt (Kris is holding up one here in this pic) so he was happy.

Saturday, we'll pack up and head to Ionia where we'll be closer to Ed's Mom.  Carol and Gary will be leaving their rig in Ionia and heading to NY to visit family and friends they left behind when they sold their house (with OUR campsite) and moved to Arizona.