Charlevoix Charm and Family Time

We love the small town of Charlevoix, MI. It is about a little over four hour drive from Elkhart, IN, and some of my family were gathering together there in mid July. 

It's a scenic resort city of about 2300 people year round, and it sits on a narrow isthmus between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. Round Lake is a natural harbor right downtown. Charlevoix is also the major ferryway to get to Beaver Island, the largest island in Michigan. We didn't take the ferry, but we probably will on our next visit!

Sparky loves the "mushroom houses"--two dozen whimsical stone homes with wavy roofs built by architect Earl Young. They are built with local boulders and limestone. So picturesque, Sparky went around town snapping away....You can rent some of these, that would be cool!

Sparky and Eldo stayed one night at the Charlevoix Inn and Suites, a much more dated hotel. Rooms were clean but the place was in need of refreshing. The next night we decided to move to the Weathervane Hotel, where some of the family was staying, the hotel is in the style of the mushroom houses and built by Earl Young as well. It has 67 rooms and although the outside looks old, (it's built in a castle style-with turrets (!), the rooms have been refreshed and you are right on the waterfront! Actually, 300 feet from the beach. Rooms offer views of Round Lake, Lake Charlevoix, and the Charlevoix drawbridge. The suites feature fireplaces, two person Jacuzzi tubs and balconies.

The Weathervane Hotel

The downtown area is small but jam packed with many different types of restaurants and shops. The surrounding homes are full of character and whimsy, along with the mushroom houses.

There is lots to do here and some great restaurants and shopping as well. Sparky hopped on the Little Traverse Wheelway bike trail (26 miles if you ride all the way to Harbor Springs by way of Petoskey) with two of her brothers for a short ride one day, as the trail was blocked off for repairs. Still a good ride, I think we did about 12 miles after wandering through town trying to find where the start of the bike trail was! The trail skirts the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Little Traverse Bay. We rented bikes thru  Revolution Bike Shop and it was very reasonable. They did a great job of fitting the bike to the person as Sparky needed some adjustments before heading off and preferred a different bike style. No problem!

There is a shorter trail for riding bikes and it is the Lake to Lake Trail, a 4.5 mile paved path between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix.

We stayed at Sparky's cousins' place on a lake nearby, and had laughs, great meals and fun kayaking! 

So wonderful to be with family...Sparky had recently celebrated her 76th birthday back in Elkhart, and the family thoughtfully celebrated it again with birthday wishes, presents and the most beautiful flan dessert which tasted a lot like creme brulee, Sparky's favorite dessert. We had some great laughs about that, as Sparky's sister thought her favorite dessert was flan, so cousin Jill drove all over town trying to find a decent flan. Grocery shopping is not for the faint of heart in Charlevoix, just the basics are there. Thank you, Jill...it was the most beautiful flan I've ever seen! And the first one I've ever had!

We also ate at the Weathervane Restaurant inside the hotel, and the food was terrific! The restaurant has big picture windows all along one side of the restaurant facing the drawbridge so you can watch the boats coming through about every 30 minutes on the hour and half hour.

It was so wonderful to be with family. We are spread out all over the country. Sparky's brother Charlie is in California, her brother Rich and his wife are in Massachusetts and her sister, Lyle, and her husband are in MI. Hard to get everyone together....

Sparky is back into a more rigorous treatment plan, a second round of chemo with a newer drug and tougher side effects upon returning home, so it was heartwarming and a boost of spirits to be with family. Love you guys!

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.....