Diary for Harry and Judy's RV Trip


Day 34-August 8, 2014-Old Mission Peninsula and more baseball

2014-08-08

Day 34-August 8, 2014-Old Mission Peninsula and More Baseball

The weather never changes, still 79 and sunny.

We rode around Silver Lake, the lake our campground is one.  It’s quite a large lake with big, summer cottages all around it.

Drove to Old Mission Peninsula which is 18 miles long and between a half mile wide at the narrowest and two miles wide at the widest.  It has cherry, blueberry and peach orchards, vineyards and eight wineries spread out over the peninsula.  The climate here is perfect for growing grapes, it’s protected from frost in the winter and the summers are warm.  We criss-crossed it,  going from Peninsula Dr., with its large homes right on the bay to route 37 which consists of mostly farms and some businesses.  We managed to go to all eight wineries, each one with a different theme and aura but with a lot of the same types of wine, mostly dry red which is what we like.  Lots of people out on this beautiful day and a few tour vans that go from winery from winery.  Each winery had at least a patio with a great view of the bay and most of them had picnic benches too.  We ate our lunch at one that had gorgeous gardens all around.   We shared tastings at all of them except the last one which, surprisingly didn’t have any wine we thought we’d like.

At the tip of the peninsula is the Old Mission and lighthouse, built in 1870.  It’s where the east and west arm of the Grand Traverse Bay converge.  What a beautiful, serene spot.  People have built balanced rock sculptures in the shallow, calm water.  Very unique.  The 45th parallel is about 300’ into the bay from here. 

As we were leaving the Old Mission we decided if we hot-footed it back to Traverse City we could catch another baseball game but traffic in Traverse City was crazy.  We thought it was just Friday night traffic but as we got closer to town we realized the main street was closed for “Friday Night Live”-a little towny thing with jazz bands, barber shop quartets and vendors.  Hmm, baseball game?/Friday Night Live? 
Baseball won out and we got there in plenty of time.  More people tonight than last night and these fans were more zealous than last night, too.  The Traverse City Beach Bums again romped the Frontier Greys, this time 7-0.  Every Friday night they have fireworks after the game and they were some of the best fireworks I’ve seen. 

Got home thoroughly exhausted after a long day.  Going to explore the bigger peninsula tomorrow.