Friday, July 2, 2010

A Day Up North

Mrs. Manifesto and I took off yesterday morning and headed north from the lake house to Traverse City for a day in Traverse City and Old Mission Peninsula. It's great to have a day away and we enjoy visiting our old haunts up north.


The day started in downtown Traverse City to put together a kayak route on Old Mission Point, pick up lunch, and a bottle of wine. We stopped in at Backcountry Outfitters and spoke to Sandy Graham who unfolded a map and took his time helping us determine where we wanted to put the kayak in the water for a couple hours. (I'm starting to figure out that any shop that is a dealer for Native Watercraft is going to have a helpful and squared away staff. We were more than impressed with Sandy.) Next stop was to a place called Morsels where we picked up tasty pita sandwiches and dessert.  A quick stop at the Blue Goat for a bottle of local Chardonnay and we were off for Old Mission Peninsula.

We put in the kayak in the last access on Old Mission Point and began a couple mile paddle to the lighthouse area. We were astounded by the clarity of the lake water and color tones of deep greens and blues.  We came across a old shipwreck that lays broken in the shallow water.  We ended up near the lighthouse for our picnic and for an hour or so enjoyed a leisure lunch which is something that parents hardly get a chance to do.

After our kayak trip and picnic we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Old Missions Peninsula with a stop at 2 Lads and Black Star Farms wineries, and a couple roadside fruit stands for fresh berries and cherries.  After a quick dinner in downtown Traverse City we headed back down to the lake house but we certainly felt like we had made the most of our day away.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Cameron,
Thanks for the positive feedback, I was talking to my buddy Andy Zimmerman of Legacy, who I used to work for at Wilderness, and used to purchase from back in the old days. He called me today to tell me about your blog, thanks for the kind words.

Sandy (Backcountry of Traverse City)

Cameron Mortenson said...

Sandy...thanks for leaving a note. We were really impressed with the shop and you taking the time to make sure we were taken care of. Looking forward to getting up there again soon.