Day Three: Monday, June 20, 2011

Almost every hotel/motel today includes some kind of breakfast in their room rate, and last night's Holiday Inn Express blew most of them away. Their hot breakfast includes onion, pepper and cheese omelets, sausage gravy on biscuits, warm cinnamon rolls, pancakes and all of the regular cold stuff.  The pancakes were the most interesting of the offerings.  They came out of an odd machine that looked a bit like an over-sized deli scale.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Press a button and the machine dispenses batter onto an internal conveyor belt that cooks the pancake as it travels down the belt eventually spitting out the end of the machine in a manner that looks like the machine is sticking it's tongue out at you.  I tried one and it tasted pretty much like a pancake, expect that it was really thin, no more than 1/4 of an inch thick at best.

After breakfast we drove to Ludington State Park, which is only a few minutes north of Ludington itself, paid the $8 state park admission and began hiking to Big Sable Point Light.  We opted to hike out via the beach and back on a sandy road, nearly 4 miles round trip.  The hike out was fantastic - the waves sliding up on the brown and black sands, gulls flying overhead or wandering the beach, and hardly a soul around to remind me that we weren't that far from civilization.  Just as we arrived at the Light it began to sprinkle a little bit.  Inside we found a nice gift shop and I picked up a super-cool cap and t-shirt, and then we took a tour of the 112' tower.  The views were amazing, and made quite clear that a storm was moving in from the southwest.  We wrapped things up and began hiking back.  Just as we emerged from the end of the road into the campground the sky opened up and poured.  And I mean poured.  I left my camera and phone with Lu and hiked over a couple of dunes to reach the car and came back to collect him.  As we headed toward Manistee the rain let up, and by the time we arrived in Manistee for lunch it had stopped.

We stopped to eat at the first place we saw: The Boathouse Grill.  The decor was simple and tasteful, the menu had plenty of nice options and the waitstaff seemed friendly.  It seemed to take longer than expected for our order to arrive - and the waitress was apologetic - but it was worth the wait.  Lu's seared Ahi tuna salad and my chicken bacon Swiss with avocado and Idaho fries were delicious.

Next up was the Point Betsie Light, which was closed but I still managed to capture some great pictures, and then on to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  After a stop at the Visitor's Center in Empire we backtracked a bit to hike the trail through the woods to the Empire Bluffs.  The hike was beautiful and the bluffs were impressive.  By this point I was hot and feeling a bit worn out by so much hiking so we opted to check out the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, which due to its lush canopy of trees forming tunnels through the forest reminded both Lu and I of the scenic drive through Valley Forge.  As we exited the drive we opted to head toward Traverse City, find our hotel and shower before dinner.  About half way there the sky opened up again and poured, and this time made the earlier downpour look like a spring shower!  Thank goodness it stopped before we arrived at the hotel.

After a quick shower and fresh clothes we headed out for dinner at Phil's on Front. This place gets five out of five stars. The waitstaff was efficient and professional, but very personable. The atmosphere was modern but simple and complemented the old building with it's classic pressed tin ceiling.  Lu started with duck liver pate (served with crackers, diced onion, capers and mustard) and I with mac-n-cheese (roasted garlic and Parmesan), and for entrees Lu chose white fish Florentine and I the crab cakes.  Both entrees came with Michigan asparagus and white fingerling potatoes. The crab cakes were hands down the best I've ever had. Almost entirely crab meat with little filler, lightly packed, perfectly fried and super rich.  Dessert was a ricotta cheesecake for Lu and Louis XVI cake for me.  An expensive meal, but every penny; so if you ever find yourself in Traverse City head for Phil's on Front and order the crab cakes.