We had a friend who for years had been inviting us to visit her at their summer cottage in Petosky, MI at a place called Bay View Association. Since we would be driving past that longitude, it got added to the agenda.
First reflection, Michigan is amazingly large, and is a very weird shape, which leads to some confusing nomenclature. MI is shaped like a huge mitten, with a giant shark hanging over it.
The mitten is the Lower Peninsula, and it contains everything you know about Michigan: Detroit, Flint, Battle Creek, etc. The Upper Peninsula is a long and large swath of woods with very few people in it. BTW, Michigan got it in a compromise in 1837. The original map had the MI state line running due east from the southern tip of Lake Michigan, but they were forced to give up this land to Ohio. That explains the little jog in its southern border, aka, the Toledo Strip, which includes Michigan City (Ohio), South Bend, and Toledo. Michigan got the Upper Peninsula in return. As it turned out, the Upper peninsula was rich in iron ore and timber.
So, we were driving to the Upper Lower Peninsula: the pinky of the mitten.
We took a shortcut from Niagara, across Ontario, then back into the US to Flint, and from there speared North and ultimately Northwest.
Things to know about driving across Ontario:
- It is much larger than you think.
- There is not much to see.
- The highways are good.
- Most of Canada lives near here, so there can be traffic, especially trucks.
- Kph, not mph. Adjust to that. 100 kph is 62 mph. For a quick conversion, cut kph in half, then add 20%. So 100 cut in half is 50. 10% of 50 is 5 which means that 20% of 50 is 10; 50+10=60. Get the kids to do the math (or just look at the smaller kph numbers on your speedo).
- Your US cell plan will not work here, which includes texts, phone, and Google Maps if you have not downloaded the maps ahead of time.
- You should probably call your credit card company ahead of time to let them know that you will be there, so they don’t shut you off.
- Canadian Border Service Agency staff are very polite.
- US ICE staff are scary (they asked my kids in the backseat “Do you know these people?”). I know they bear a heavy responsibility, but a fact is a fact: they scared the kids.
Things to know about driving up the Lower Peninsula of Michigan:
- It is very big. It reminds me of Maine, but much bigger- Maine is 32% the size of Michigan.
- Once you get away from the cities, it is a big empty place.
- There is a not a lot of ethnic diversity.
- For much of it, there is not a lot to see.
- Fill your tank.
- Download your audiobook ahead of time, don’t count on cell service.
- The speed limit is 85 mph (-ish).
- At 85 mph, expansion joints in the concrete make it feel like and sound like you are riding a train (thud-THUD… thud-THUD…thud-THUD…). It can be soporific.
- Fireworks are legal and reasonably priced! The kids loved the packages that said “Shoots flaming balls”- how epic is that?
Lake Michigan, Petosky, and Bay View Association
Petosky is a nice town, with a small hospital, a chocolate factory that gives tours, a lot of restaurants, a Walmart, a marina, and several fireworks stores. Nice place! After all of the big empty to get there, it was a surprise.
Lake Michigan is the nicest body of water we have ever swum in. It is as clear and blue as a tropical ocean, but unsalted so you can open your eyes. Depth is hard to judge when you look into the crystal clear water- at first, I thought it was not deep enough to dive, but when I got in and looked around, it was 20 feet down to a clear, sandy bottom. The water was cool but not cold. My wife, sitting on the shore, could see us swim- at an angle, 100 feet away and 15 feet deep. As the bumper sticker says “unsalted and shark-free.”
Bay View Association was like a time machine. It is hard to describe and harder to believe that it exists. It has been there since 1900, a Christian-themed summer retreat, with fine cottages that are passed down like heirlooms. Each cottage is unique and had been burnished through generations of skilled woodworking and one-upmanship. The cottages are on the south side of Route 31, and the beach on the northern side, so they built a walkway bridge. The cottages, the town common, and the beach are like a time capsule. Free-range children ride freely around, without parents, drop their bikes and run across the bridge unsupervised to the lake, where the activities staff work . The parents get together in the beautiful buildings and grassy commons to listen to lectures and classical music, play games and chat; in the evenings there are concerts on the common and kids run around with sparklers, chasing fireflies. Really. It is like Instagram come to life.
Because of its generational nature, it is also a bit insular. You won’t Airbnb this place, you need to be invited. Don’t get me wrong- as guests, no one gave us the stink eye, but everyone knew each other, except us. It was homogeneously White, but we never felt unwelcome. It has electricity, plumbing, internet, and coffee shops; it has no walls to keep the world out. But somehow, it has kept the modern world out. This is a Methodist Christian community, but no one proselytized to us. Still, these values have shaped it and kept it in amber. The shore had an activity hall where 118 years of youth have gotten together for water activities, card games, and evening dances. A century of active little ones and awkward teens have summered under that roof. The kids were not on iPads, they were running and playing like it was 1970 (or 1930). It felt like a lovely place, and it is a place that I wish I could call home.