September 20


Following a morning run, we met and had breakfast at the Horizon Book store. This place gained national attention two years ago in a situation involving the Harper Lee novel called “Go Set a Watchman”, discovered and released after the author’s death to major hoopla. When it was quickly discovered that the novel had essentially no redeeming qualities, this store agreed to buy back every copy it had sold. It has also gained our admiration by serving very excellent croissants.
Next we returned to our health club for a workout. This was followed by some pickle ball and tennis. It was another unusually warm day, about 81 degrees with people swimming in Lake Michigan.
So as to continue with today’s athletic motif, we discovered something called the National Hockey League Prospect Tournament which is an annual event here. In the late afternoon, we drove to this rather remarkable Center Ice Arena, a place which actually contains not one but two full sized hockey rinks, and paid $10 each to watch the games being played. Apparently, this tournament features minor league players along with some “prospects”: players hoping to be invited to training camps. The place was literally crawling with major league hockey scouts looking over these players. We only stayed an hour or so, but found it quite enjoyable to see the NHL players of the future.                                                                   A pizza and beer dinner at a former train station turned restaurant (The Filling Station Microbrewery) ended another fun and eventful day.









September 21


Today’s excursion was to the northernmost point of the Leelanau Peninsula. We stopped first in the town of Northport, then moved on further north to the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.  



After stopping for lunch, we visited the Green Bird Cellars where we enjoyed tastings which included Hard Cider.
The evening consisted of dinner at a highly acclaimed restaurant called Alliance, operated by a man who created a monumental reputation as the owner of a truly iconic northern Michigan restaurant called Tapawingo in the town of Ellsworth. Sadly, the place closed several years ago. The food was excellent, but the service was entirely too fast; obviously trying to turn over the tables. We had to insist that they slow it down.