Bay View and Castle Farms

This past weekend we pulled up stakes and moved the motorhome to Petoskey, MI for the weekend. It is about a 2 hour drive from Suttons Bay northward up the coast and takes you through the small city of Charlevoix.

Charlevoix sits between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. The city is one of those picturesque places that makes the local chamber of commerce's job easy. It looks great from any angle. The main street through town is lined with flowers, the businesses all face and partially surround the bay, and the recently updated city marina is close to the restaurants. To draw a better mental image, imagine the main street running north with the businesses and restaurants (several with outside seating) on the west side of the street. On the east side of the street the city has a narrow city park area with benches. Right at the park area is the marina, so when you are seated at an outside eatery you can gaze past the flowers to the boats that are only about 150 feet away. Very nice indeed.

So where are the pictures you may ask? Well, Charlevoix was in the middle of a celebration and street fair, so there was no parking available for anything the size of our motorhome. We hope to return to Charlevoix for pictures before we leave Michigan.

We arrived in Petoskey and set up shop in the Petoskey KOA (Kampgrounds of America). The campground was absolutely packed with campers and RVers. Each campsite was equipped with at least 8 kids and all their toys. Each evening the campers fired up their camp fires and created so much smoke we thought the campground would make the TV news as a wildfire. We were glad to stay only 3 nights at the KOA.

We did go to the adjacent community of Bay View, MI. Bay View has many old homes worthy of a stroll and viewing. We had a pleasent smoke free walk and aquired a few photo's. Here are some examples of the homes in the area.
We also made a trip to a place called Castle Farms.

Castle Farms is styled after midevel-style castles and although it is modernized, you can see the influence. There was a Fiber Arts Festival in progress at the facility which included all kinds of spinning related gear and supplies, a sheep herding dog demonstration, live entertainment, etc. The sheep herding dogs were something to see- those dogs are remarkable.

Castle Farms:



After our weekend trip to the Petosky area, we returned to Suttons Bay and the Wild Cherry resort.

We will now have to relax and recover from our KOA experience.