2017 MICHIGAN Petoskey 1 - Usually Land of Fabulous Fall Colors

We missed our annual meet-up with friends Tim and Nancy from Chicago this summer due to a family emergency. So we re-set a date to meet them in Petoskey, Michigan, on Mike's birthday.

A big plus this time of year is that fall colors on the trees are usually peaking up north. At least that is what was predicted in early September. But we had too much rain and not enough cold temperature days this year, so the "peak" wasn't happening.

We saw some color, but not the usual spectacular reds, oranges, and golds. Mostly still green with some yellow and a small splash of red.

T&N were coming from Chicago via Grand Rapids and we were coming from Kalamazoo. Mike and I stopped at our fave rest stop that decorates for all the holidays and seasons. This time they had fall arrangements.

In Traverse City, we had a little business to do before connecting with T&N.  The four of us finally met at the Park Place Hotel bar. We imbibed in a welcome cocktail, then off to lunch.

We tried a new place called Franklin's, located downtown. They are apparently known for steak, but I got a shrimp po' boy and Nanc got the griddled cheese sandwich--both wonderful. Don't remember what the guys had, but something meaty, I'm sure. We all agreed the French fries here are fabulous. Prices on the high side, but great atmosphere. We would go back.

A cool piece of art here was this chef's knives arrangement. Amazingly they were about 6x6 feet each in size and made completely with various colors of push pins.

From T.C. to Petoskey was about 90 minutes. We were glad to get to our hotel to totally relax and catch up. After a splash of water to the face, we met in their room/s--The Presidential Suite. (It turns out there were at least six "presidential suites" on the top floor of this Holiday Inn!!)

This suite was impressive! It included a kitchenette including dishwasher, two full bedrooms, two full bathrooms (the master was HUGE and had a 6x6 foot walk-in shower with multiple shower heads), and TWO fireplaces (one in the living room and one in the bigger bedroom).

We brought along a bottle of Moscato and some crackers and cheese to snack on while we caught up on a year's worth of news. Everyone is happy and healthy at this time. Always a good report to hear this.
After that we decided to explore downtown Petoskey. It was over a mile away, so we drove. The two of us had been here many times, but always fun to see what is new in the shops. It didn't take long to find ourselves wandering into a bar, the City Park Grill.

We weren't very hungry after a big lunch and snacks, but we were ready for happy hour cocktails. Later we added an appetizer to share and soup to "hold us over" for the rest of the evening.

The bar was decorated for Halloween and Mike sat under this spooky cobweb, but no spider attacks or other creatures to worry about. Always happy times with these folks.