Exploring Glen Arbor and Empire with friends

Friends of ours from our old hometown were going to be vacationing in the same area as us, so we made plans to meet up on Thursday when we arrived in Empire.

After getting set up on our site at Indigo Bluffs RV Resort in Empire,

we drove up the road to Glen Arbor to meet our friends.

The boys were all glad to see each other, and it’s amazing to see how they’ve all grown into such handsome young men!

We had some lunch while we caught up with what everyone has been doing and the new adventures coming up this year, and after sharing a pitcher of beer, Tom and Joe were both feeling pretty relaxed!

To wear off some of that lunch, we walked around town, browsing in some of the shops and enjoying the sights.

There are the usual T-shirt shops and ice cream stores, but there are also artist galleries, bookstores and even furniture shops.

We walked to the beach, admiring the pretty flowers along the way,

and checked out the water when we got there.  Not too much of a beach here, but the water was nice.

Headed back to town, we passed by some more interesting decorations,

 

 

on our way to our favorite destination in Glen Arbor – the Cherry Republic.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the Cherry Republic complex, enjoying an assortment of samples – dried cherries, cherry salsa, cherry candies, cherry wine (for the adults), and cherry pop.

We left with plenty of our favorites, including a bottle of cherry sangria and cherry pop for the kids!

We’d pretty much exhausted town, but weren’t ready for dinner yet, so we drove back to the RV Resort to relax and visit some more, and let Casey out for awhile.

A few hours later, we decided to go into Empire for dinner.  IT’s a small town, without too many choices for dinner, but we’ve been to Joe’s Friendly Tavern before and have been impressed with the quality of the food and the prices.    

 

We had to wait “just a minute” for a table, so Krys and I walked to a little shop across the street that was really cute . . . we didn’t get to look for too long – it really was just a few minutes before our table was ready.

Joe at Joe’s Friendly Tavern . . .

 

Tom ordered the “gigantic burrito”, and the rest of us had hamburgers, which were excellent.  He said his burrito was delicious, too . . . and he actually finished the whole thing!!

 

 

After that dinner, we needed to wear it off, so we walked a few blocks to the beach.  Empire has a beautiful beach, and there were several groups of people enjoying the beautiful summer evening with campfires on the beach.

We took some family pictures on the beach,

The Gimmarro’s

The Kluck’s

and some more of the boys . . .

along with a couple of young girls who couldn’t resist getting in the picture with them!

We spent a little more time at the beach, enjoying the sights and the sunset . . .

 

and the boys had to get in a little play-time!!

We parted ways then, but we were glad we were able to meet up with our friends and spend a very enjoyable day with them! 

One of our favorite areas of Michigan

When I was young, my family camped several weeks each year at Young State Park on Lake Charlevoix, and tom and I also camped there many times in the past when we were in a tent, and our pop-up, and even with our Class C motorhome.  Our current beast of an RV, though, is much too big, so we had to find an alternate location for enjoying our favorite area of the state.

 

We heard about the East Jordan Tourist Park on another blog, and decided it looked like a great spot for us.

After crossing the Mackinac Bridge, we made our way south and east to East Jordan, at the southern tip of the south arm of Lake Charlevoix.

We had just arrived when the sky opened up and we ended up parking the RV in torrential rain!  That’s only about the 2nd time we’ve had to do that!  Fortunately, we were on sandy soil, and the water drained away quickly – except for a big puddle in the road that all the campground kids loved riding their bikes through . . . Bryce, too!

We didn’t quite get the beach weather we were hoping for while we were there, but we didn’t get anymore rain either . . . just clouds and temperatures not quite warm enough for the beach.

There was a nice beach, though . . .

with playground equipment,    

and resident wildlife.

This little city park is very popular, and it was full the entire time we were there – many of the campers stay for weeks, and come back year after year.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even with all those people, though, it was very quiet and peaceful.  East Jordan is a cute little town, with several shops and restaurants, a grocery store,     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and even an ice cream shop where you might be lucky enough to get a free cone . . . if your mother named you right!

One afternoon, we needed to take Nicolas up to Petoskey to meet with a recruiter, so we left a little early to visit Charlevoix on the way.

On the way, we passed the Ironton Ferry. 

 

Since we were already on the Charlevoix side of the arm, we didn’t need to ride the ferry, but we have many times in the past.  This picture is from our trip to the area in 2001 . . . at least one of the boys was happy to be riding the ferry!

 

 

 

 

 

 

In downtown Charlevoix, we walked along the new waterfront area,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

admiring the new look and the expanded harbor area.

They can sure fit a lot more boats in the harbor now! 

There are some really beautiful cottages along the water,

and some beautiful boats, too!

We got some lunch at Subway, and walked through several of the shops along the main street. 

 

Soon we arrived at our favorite shop – one that has been bringing my family to Charlevoix for decades . . .

only to find that it has closed!

We were so sad and disappointed!!  Another family member has opened a new shop across the street, reportedly using the same recipes . . . and their candies were pretty good, but it just didn’t have the same “feel” to the shop!

From downtown, we walked under the drawbridge and along the channel that connects Lake Charlevoix to Lake Michigan,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and down to the beach.    

The boys and I were on the hunt for petoskey stones!

The water surprisingly wasn’t too cold, although the waves made it difficult to search for stones without getting wet!

It turned out to be a pretty nice day!

We continued north on US-31 to Petoskey, and were glad we had chosen not to come through here with the RV . . . there was a lot of traffic, as expected, but also plenty of construction!

We still had some time to kill before Nicolas’ appointment, so we drove on up to Petoskey State Park to see if we could find some more petoskey stones.

The beach was beautiful,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but there wasn’t a rock in sight!!

Before we left the park, we drove through the campground loops.  Like most of Michigan’s state parks, this one is primarily suited for tents, pop-ups and small RVs, but there were about 10 sites in the very last loop that were open enough for large RVs, even ours.  I’m not sure we’d want to stay in Petoskey, anyway . . . too crowded!

We had time for one more stop on the way to the recruiter’s office . . . at the Kilwin’s Factory Store – YUM!  We got there just in time for a tour!

We saw toffee and taffy being made,

and the chocolate-coating machine . . . although it wasn’t currently working, it was getting cleaned.

At the end of the tour we got to sample a delicious “tuttle”  (like a turtle) – yum – and got a coupon to use towards a box of tuttles, but we didn’t buy any . . . it was time to get to the recruiter’s office.

Nicolas had a nice meeting and gained some helpful information about bootcamp, and then we headed back to the RV for dinner. 

We made one last stop at Fisherman’s Island State Park, and found a few more petoskey stones.  I even found one that will make a perfect pendant for a necklace!  I just have to figure out a way to polish them!

We may not have had great beach weather for our days in East Jordan, but we still had a very nice stay . . . and it looks like the weather was going to improve for our next stop!