What every mom wants to hear from their child "That was the best day ever!" Today we took an adventure that if you get the chance to take please do:
We took highway 119 in Petosky as far as it goes....what does this mean: it means beautiful winding roads, nestled in what they call "The tunnel of trees" and that is exactly what it is a tunnel of the most beauiful lush green trees as far as the eye can see. When you are able to peak through them you see glimpse of Lake Michigan that literally takes your breath away. So we begin the 4 hour tour by stopping by Petosky State Park. There are more seashells then any 4 or 7 year old could ever need. We play on the beautiful sand for awhile and decide to return here later.
Our next stop a quaint little town called Harbor Springs, little shops, boats and it just makes you want to take a stroll and enjoy the sun.
Then we stop by Thomas Swift Nature preserve. A mile walk that we decide to do tomorrow.
Then highway 119 taks us through a very winding road with nature preserves on every corner...forget the Starbucks...nature preserves every 100 feet...who needs caffeine???
Our next stop is where we spend 2 1/2 hours and one of the highlights of the day. It is a place called Pond Hill Farm. I kid you not when I say as soon as you drive up, it is as though you stepped into the pages of Charlotte's Web. There are baby pigs and lambs to feed. There are huge hay bails. There are rocket bungee launchers that you buy veggies to launch across the fields for animals. We are having so much fun but we are not even close to seeing it all. We walk in to this little shop run by Marcia and Jimmy who are about 30. Jimmy has run the farm with his family since he was 18. They make all of there own jars of pickled everything, homemade sauces..the list goes on. We buy two big baby bottles of milk and skip(yes literaly skip with joy) to the next part of the farm. After feeding the baby cows, swinging on the tire swing, petting the baby lambs and saying hi to the chickens..we are giddy with farmyard joy!
Then we walk about 1 1/2 miles stopping only to pick blackberries and look and take pictures of all kinds of mushrooms(yes we will be making a book later for school). We cop a squat on some grass to have a snack as we see a shadow above us. Taylor screams"Mom look a bald eagle" There it was flying above us. The kids and I were so excited and it truly was a special moment. Then we fed jumping trout the size of my arm as we tried to get the food to them before the two ducks that we lovingly nicknamed "Pesty and Pestier" tried to get the food from us.
Happy and hot we headed back...on our way down 119. We stopped at a little tea house that truly looked like a doll house tucked away in the woods. The name Good Hart in Good Hart Michigan..perfect! After some homemade lemonade and a blueberry muffin the kids and I laughed and talked half the way back to camp.
The other half...the kids sleeping happily and me smiling the rest of the way, enjoying the peaceful drive and the amazing scenery!
- Jen