Showing posts with label cities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cities. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Traverse City
It is time to share with you, my friends, my adventures in Traverse City, the Cherry Capital. Last year when we visited we arrived late and didn't have time to really look at much other than that pesky muskrat.
This year I was able to see a bit more of the city, which was very pleasing to me.
We started off at Right Brain Brewery, since we had just left the Jolly Pumpkin and took that scary dirt road to Traverse City.
I was really digging the ambiance of this place.
They had an awesome wall full of hand painted beer mugs...
...a quirky flying buffalo sculpture...
...different colored walls with amazing artfully displayed designs...
...unique pictures...
...it was nice to sit on a comfy couch like a bar fly and take it all in.
After a few tasty brews, we walked around town. We went back to the muskrat bridge, but luckily there were no woodland creatures around.
Continuing on our walking tour I basked in the glow of some gorgeous buildings...
..looked at interesting metal "sculptures" in various windows...
...we also went back to the same hat shop we visited last year...
...we continued our walking tour, stopping by the Michigan State Asylum Hospital; which, I'm sorry to say, will have to be another post.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Wind in My Feathers
While out and about on vacation we made a stop at the local coffee house. Everyone went in to get coffee except me. I spotted this beauty in the parking lot and had to check it out.
I love Vespas. I would like one of my own, but the man said penguins aren’t allowed to drive them. They can ride on them, just not drive them.
As I was admiring this sweet ride, the owner of the vespa came out of the coffee shop. His name was Doug and he was a very pleasant and jovial fellow. He agreed to pose for a picture with me on his Vespa.
We chatted with Doug for awhile and he gave us some good tourist tips. He is friends with the owner of the coffee shop, so I want to give them a shout out. If you’re looking for a good cup of coffee or cappuccino in Glen Arbor, check out Leelanlau Coffee Roasting. Just follow your nose, you can’t miss the yummy smell of roasted coffee beans.
Then he mounted his vespa and rode away from us.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
About Town
Finally, another vacation post for my fans.
Near the end of our trip, we got out to explore the city we were staying in. It was very charming, lots of quirky businesses and buildings.
First up was the Totem Shop.
I had fun outside, but inside it just a lot of touristy trinkets; nothing sophisticated enough for a fancy penguin such as myself.
We headed over to the local bookstore to check things out; the woman likes to buy used books. It was located in a fun cottage. I really liked the flower boxes, they added a nice, homey touch to the place.
However, once inside, we discovered they mostly sold new and local books, not so much used books. But that’s okay, it was entertaining to flip through and look at the local books.
Resuming our sight-seeing, an interesting vending machine caught my attention:
At first I got excited, I thought it was stocked with tasty fish. But upon closer inspection, it turned to be just bait to catch the fish, not the actual fish itself. *Puff* All excited over nothing.
Continuing our tour we came across this place:
The man loves fresh, juicy, Michigan cherries. While we were there the cherry season was already over, but we stopped by this place just in case they happened to have some fresh cherries. No luck. The place did have all kinds of fun signs and décor that we enjoyed looking at.
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We ended up making a few purchases; some cherry ginger ale, and two types of wine.
At this point we were pretty tired, and with the woman not being very durable, had to sit down and take a break before heading back to the house.
On the way back to the house we stopped to get some ice cream. I didn’t get any pictures because my flippers were all sticky from the ice cream. But I assure you, you’re missing nothing, just a playful penguin enjoying his ice cream.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Windsday
One blustery, northern day we got to see a really neat old lighthouse. It was, of course, right by the water. It was too cold and windy to go walk on the beach, so we just enjoyed the view of the water from the lighthouse.
Being the history buff that I am, Mr. Penguin had to read the signs so he could learn about the lighthouse.
Near the lighthouse was a log cabin and more signs for me to read.
We decided to walk over the the log cabin to get a better look at it. I have never seen a log cabin before, so I peeked in the window to peep things out.
All of a sudden I heard happy shrieks behind me. There were some children around smiling and shouting, “El penguino!” Now I don’t know much about other languages but I assume they were talking about me; Mr. Penguin makes fans wherever he goes.
We walked back toward to lighthouse to pose for some pictures.
The wind was so strong and my lady friend was beginning to regret her choice of clothing that day.
Let me demonstrate for you just how gusty the wind was. Notice the arbor in the picture below.
Well, I went over to pose on it...
...before I knew what was happening a blast of wind came up and the next thing I know is that I'm hanging onto the lattice for dear life:
I decided right then and there that it was time for me to get out of there. I hurried back to the safety of the car. Mr. Penguin is too priceless to risk being blown away.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Anchors Away!
One of the cities we explored on the northern vacation was FishTown. Being a penguin, the name of this town obviously appealed to me. I pictured fish--glorious fish--everywhere; a buffet of all kinds of delectable fish for me to eat to my heart’s content. For me, we couldn’t get there fast enough; on the ride over I kept urging the driver and navigator to go faster. I couldn’t help it, I was hungry.
I soon discovered, however, that FishTown is just a town and, instead of fish everywhere, it was full of shops and art galleries. Initially, I was a bit disappointed, but the town is so charming I quickly got over any feeling of being mislead.
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We checked out a few of the art galleries. My favorite one had metal animal sculptures placed around the yard.
There were giraffes…
…an ostrich…
…a toad…
…a cougar…
…and a fericious looking creature called a tyrannosaurs rex. This last guy really scared me--he didn’t look very nice at all. *shiver*
Another thing FishTown has an abundance of is boats. Mr. Penguin has never been on a boat before and is anxious to try out his sea legs. We saw lots of fishing charter services but, much to my disappointment, we did not have time to go out on a boating excursion. I guess that will have to be an adventure for another (hopefully soon) day.
The buildings and general area around the water was so picturesque, I found lots of photo ops, as you can see:
Just look at the fun pirate flag...
I also really liked this cool weather vane...
We came across a big fish during our exploring of the town. My creative consultant suggested we get a picture of me kissing a fish. I was hesitant, but I closed my eyes and puckered up. Have you ever kissed a fish before? Yuck, I don’t recommend it unless you like wet, rubbery lips (which I now know I do not like).
While walking around we saw a gigantic tree. We puzzled over it, trying to determine what kind of tree it was. We decided on a cottonwood. I wonder if we were right.
We also found a serene park with a tree at the center.
The base of the tree was surrounded by hand-painted tiles of various animals. I looked and looked but, unfortunately, I found no penguin tiles.
By this point, posing for and taking pictures had left me pretty tired. Thank goodness there was a peaceful looking bench nearby where I could sit down and take a rest.
The man was pretty jealous of all the pictures I posed for during the day, so he insisted the woman take a photo of him. She obliged his request.
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See those flowers? The man was severely allergic to them. Almost instantly his eyes became red and watery, closely followed by the sneezes. He needed to get out of the park so there went the end of my restful break. I guess it didn't matter much; since we were all ready for lunch by this time, we decided to head back to the house.
I really enjoyed our little jaunt to FishTown and I'm glad I got to share it with all my friends.
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