Charming Charlevoix and Shipshewanna

It's been a long time since Sparky saw her family, so in early August we went to Charlevoix, MI to a small family reunion. Charlevoix is a charming harbor town surrounded by three lakes--Lake Michigan, Lake Charlevoix, and Round Lake. It's a small town, population of about 2300 people, but it most certainly is charming and a lovely place to visit. We were only there for two days, so we missed lots of possibilities of things to do. It's only 48 miles to Mackinac Island, and 17 miles to Petosky. Had we had more time, we would have definitely explored a lot more of the area!

One of the coolest things about Charlevoix is the "Mushroom Houses".  They were a series of houses designed and built without blueprints by architect Earl Young, back in the early 1900's. The houses are affectionately nicknamed "gnome" houses or "hobbit" houses. If you look carefully, there is a gnome sitting in the second window to the right in the photo below.

They have signature cedar shake roofs, wide wavy eaves, exposed rafter tails, and are a horizontally designed build instead of vertical. They are designed to blend into the landscape as well. There are 26 residences in Charlevoix and 4 commercial properties in downtown Charlevoix that are mushroom houses. They are made of limestone, fieldstone, and boulders found in northwest Michigan. The nice thing about these houses is that you can see a great many of them clustered in parts of town and it is definitely a walkable tour.

One of the coolest ones is called the "Thatch House". The original walls were set in 1919. In 2013, Michael Sietz purchased the house and put his own spin on it. The roofing material is real thatch, designed to last for over 60 years. He renovated the inside to make 6 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, with three fireplaces and two living rooms. You can rent this house! No idea what that costs, but it's a year round vacation rental.

The Thatch House

 Several of them are near the hospital in a section of town called "Boulder Park". Here is a map showing the clusters...

In the short time we were there, Sparky took some daily walks to the Mt. McSauba Recreational area. There was a challenging 18 hole disc golf course there, dunes along Lake Michigan, a .7 loop hiking trail on a beautiful wooded trail that wound in and around the disc course and the beach. 

silly Eldo!

While we were there, we enjoyed eating at the Weathervane Restaurant, another Earl Young design, and watching the drawbridge go up about every half hour. The food was fantastic at the Weathervane Restaurant and the views of the channel with the boats and ships passing right outside the restaurant made dining there a pleasure.

We had a wonderful time with family...It was a lovely visit full of laughter and love. Here is Sparky's extended family....

Anything else you want to add Sparky? asks E. Well, while in Charlevoix, you could take a ferry to Beaver Island, the largest island in Lake Michigan, but we didn't have time to do that. For a small town, there a lot of places to visit  and some fine eating establishments as well. All too soon, we had to return home as Sparky needed to start school with an early first day long term subbing assignment.

Once back in Elkhart, it didn't take Sparky long before she made her semi-weekly trip to Shipshewanna, to get holiday crafting ideas, view sewing projects in her favorite fabric stores, and get a fresh homemade pretzel at JoJo's Pretzel shop. Look at how beautifully decorated Shipshewanna is for fall!

Here is a fun vignette of scarecrows....

Sparky's favorite....

And that's the latest from Sparky and Eldo...Happy fall, y'all! See you down the road.....