The-PITTSTOP: TUNNEL OF TREES AND POLISH RESTAURANT

Just as we were leaving our site at the Petoskey State Park (I never did find any Petoskey stones), this little black squirrel showed up!

In my previous post I promised a writeup of our visit to Charlevoix and the Mushroom Houses. That didn't work out because Charlevoix was inundated with visitors for two big events - an annual art and crafts festival and a poker boat charity event. The boats pay to join, and start in a town called Boyne at the other end of Charlevoix Lake. They do a 150 mile route over 2 days, collecting player cards at multiple stops and at the end of the route, the best poker hand wins a grand prize (don't know what the prize was, but it is mostly about raising money for charity). Anyway, traffic was snarled all over the town and no parking sites were available at all, much less for a motorhome. We decided to wait out the weekend and try again on Monday, but on Monday, all the tour slots for the Mushroom Houses were full. So, we moved on.

Art and Craft Festival in Charlevoix

We drove north along the west coast of Michigan through a scenic 20 mile drive called the Tunnel of Trees. Heavily wooded, along northern Lake Michigan and lots of multi-million dollar mansions with views of the Lake. It is a narrow, twisty road that is popular with motorcyclists, but not so great in an RV as the road is essentially 1 1/2 lanes wide, with no center line. Luckily, there were some narrow shoulders that were road level and I was able to ease over and make it just wide enough for vehicles to share the road. Happily, it was not a busy road and we enjoyed the beautiful ride.

Just as the narrow road ended, we arrived in a small town called Cross Village where we planned to stop for lunch at a well-known Polish restaurant called Legs Inn. As we neared the restaurant, we spied dozens of cars and RVs parked on the side of the road because the small parking lot was full. I dropped Jack off and hiked the quarter mile back to the restaurant where he was getting close to the front of the line (no reservations accepted).

Fascinating history of the place: A Polish immigrant arrived in early 1900's and with the help of Ottawa Indians, he built an Inn. Rustic and all wood, he was his own architect and carved totems, Indian heads, tables, bears, eagles and fantastical figures from wood burls and tree trunks. His descendants still own the Inn, but it is only a restaurant now.

The front door

Beautiful gardens with lots of outdoor dining seats overlooking Lake Michigan

One of his fantastical wood sculptures

The bar area

The store of the Inn.

They bring Polish teenagers/young adults over on a VISA summer program so they can work in the restaurant and the sound of Polish being spoken lends an added air of authenticity to the restaurant. We ordered pierogi, of course and then branched out to a dish they describe as Polish/Canadian Goulash Poutine. It is traditional Polish goulash served over french fries and covered in melted Mozzarella. Wow, was it delicious. Wish I had ordered a serving of goulash to go. A pretty church stands just down the street from the restaurant.

After lunch we drove due east to cross the remaining portion of this peninsula that has Lake Michigan on the West and Lake Huron on the northeast. We splurged on a lake front campsite At Mackinac Mill Creek Campground with a view of the Mackinac Bridge that crosses the Mackinac Straits and joins the lower Michigan peninsula to the upper peninsula. There is a bit of smoke haze today - our first encounter with the Canadian Fires, but it is expected to clear out in a day. Made for a gorgeous sunrise photo, but is obscuring the bridge quite a bit.