Playing Tour Guide

A visitor! Hooray! I've been keeping a list of the many fun things I could share with company here on my new old turf, and a few weeks ago my friend Sarah gave me a chance to entertain. She made the trek from Minnesota for a gorgeously sunny and warm May weekend, a perfect opportunity to enjoy the local sights without the summer crowds.

Like all good tourists, we spent a day at Sleeping Bear Dunes. We hiked the Empire Bluffs trail to admire the towering dunes and the sparkling blue expanse of Lake Michigan.The spring wildflowers were at their peak - the woods was gloriously green and carpeted with beauty. We paused many times along the trail to fix our camera lenses on trillium, bellwort, Dutchman's breeches, squirrel corn, violets, and trout lilies.As the temperature climbed, Maisie transformed from ever-ready-explorer dog to flop-down-panting-in-every-patch-of-shade dog.
She revived immediately when we got to the beach in Empire for a picnic lunch and some frisbee in the cold waves, though.Then Sarah and I got our own workout trudging up and up the sandy slope at the Dune Climb and running all the way back down, laughing and weightless.We kept an eye out for morels, without success. But back home that evening, we hopped on bikes and zipped over to the woods at the Commons to dig up a bucket of wild leeks, also at their peak. We cooked them up with a bunch of asparagus, some sorrel from the garden, and scrambled eggs...and then for dessert we made cherry-strawberry crisp from the stores in my freezer. Because you can't come to Traverse City and not eat something with cherries in it, even if it's not July. An excellent day all around!

And that was just one day of three! Here are a few highlights from the rest of the visit:

• A Maisie-led tour of all her favorite sniffing spots along the morning walk route, with an extra loop tacked on to hit Higher Grounds for coffee and make a short foray into the springy woods beyond.
  
• A stop by new-baby-central to borrow a bike from my cousins, followed by two-wheeled tooling around town - out past Oryana and the library to the Boardman Lake trail, then downtown to browse a few local establishments, enjoy the view at the waterfront, and catch dinner at the just-opened Front Street outpost of Zakey's.
  
• A trip to Moomers for the best local ice cream, complete with picture-perfect view of green fields, red barn, and the happy cows themselves.
• A great big rumbly night-time thunderstorm.
  
• Saturday afternoon at Birch Point Farm for the May-Day work party and other festivities. (We weeded the rhubarb patch.)
• Final evening in Petoskey, with a walk around town, dinner at home with my parents, and the added benefit of a slightly shorter drive home for Sarah the following day.
• And, accompanying her back to Minnesota, another houseguest:

This visitor was quite unexpected. We found the very small, very fuzzy baby duck peeping loudly near my cousins' backyard. A lengthy search didn't turn up any likely duck families. A trip to McGough's farm supply produced a bag of duck food but no other leads. "Looks like you've got yourselves a duck!" they said, unhelpfully but cheerfully. So we tucked the little guy into a large box with a hot water bottle for company and a dish of water, kept our eyes out for other ducklings to no avail, and when Sarah headed home, the duck went with her. Word has it that our friend is now learning web-footed ways alongside some baby geese at the home of one of Sarah's 4-H colleagues.

I can't promise to provide future visitors with a duckling (in fact, I can almost guarantee a duck-free return trip), but many more good things are in store for those who make the journey to northern Michigan. And don't just take my word for it - check out this terrific article from the New York Times about my hometown (and the bookstore where I had my first real job in high school and college).

Who's coming next?!

(Photo notes: Beach image and dune image are by Sarah. More of Sarah's photos here, and mine here.)