Mom, Kirsten and I made a quick trip up north on Monday, and then back home on Tuesday:

We left at shortly after 6am, and headed up back roads towards Benzonia.

We stopped at Gwen Frostic in Benzonia.

The Heidelberg presses were running.

Next we headed on to Beulah for lunch at the Cherry Hut. The Cherry Hut opened in 1922.

We did partake in a piece of cherry pie for dessert. It was excellent. We left Beulah and continued up along US 31 to Mackinaw, enjoying the sites along the way.

We finally arrived at the Bridge View Motel (part of the Bell’s Melody Motel complex of four hotels) at 3:30pm.

We’ve stayed at that group of motels for many years. After dropping our stuff, we walked up and down the beach and waded in the warm water.

Then we went into town for some more bridge-viewing, shopping (including our favorite, Sign of the Loon) and dinner at the Depot. Then, back to the motel for wine on the beach with a camp fire. The sunset was amazing.

The next morning, Mom and I got up in time to watch the sunrise.

We walked down to Bell’s to grab a coffee and started the day relaxing on the beach.

We then all got ready, checked out and headed to the Pancake Chef in town for breakfast. We grabbed some fudge at Joann’s and Mom got a case of pasties before heading out of town down US 23.

Of course, we had to stop at a scenic overlook. That’s Lake Huron in the distance.

It took us slightly longer than planned to find the Ocqueoc Falls (the DNR website helpfully gives longitude and latitude, but not a street address). I didn’t get a full photo of the falls, but there’s a great panoramic Google Street View here.

You can get right in the river there, and play in the falls. Kirsten and I did wade in.

The falls area was quite busy. We decided to walk part of the trail system (about 2.5 miles), and were blissfully alone.

After leaving the falls area, we journeyed to our last stop at my grandparents’ cottage on Circle Drive. When I stopped to snap a photo of the sand cliff, an old guy stopped his car to chat about it. He’s been watching the cliff since 1960.

I haven’t been there in many, many years. They sold it 14 years ago. From their place, looking down to Mrs. Hodge’s home:

Looking up the street at my grandparents’ place, on the right.

I stood at the end of the drive; the dogs living at the house now were going nuts. I stood there and let them bark until the homeowner called out and asked if I needed help.

I went up and introduced myself, Mom and Kirsten. The owner came out and chatted with us. She bought the home from my grandparents, and remembered them fondly. She invited us in. The house is just the same as it was. She told us that Gramma made her promise that they would maintain the path through the field back to the woods, and they always had. She invited us to go down to the water, and then walk on the path. It was more than I could have hoped. From the house, looking down to the dock:

And here is the path through the field to the woods:

After leaving Ocqueoc, we went on to Harrison, to see Hudda’s cottage on Budd Lake. We stopped at the Dairy Queen on the way. I dropped Mom and Kirsten off at 6pm and was home at 6:30.

We had the best time. Lots of laughs and talking over good memories. I can’t believe we packed it all in during such a short trip.