Petoskey, MI

Finally arrived at Petoskey State Park located along Lake Michigan. I have never been to this part of Michigan before, looked forward to exploring. Got an annual non-resident pass for unlimited access to MI state parks since I will be camping at least 4 nights in the area. After setting up camp, there was time to check out the beach near the campground. Saw a lot of interesting stones but no sea glass. I could not find any Petoskey stones, although I hadn't a clue what they really looked like.

The next day, instead of driving, I walked 4 miles on the Little Traverse Wheelway (a bike trail) to downtown Petoskey. I needed the exercise after driving the past few days. The weather was great, intermittent clouds with low humidity. The Wheelway started as a hiking path near vegetation and beaches, then ran right next to the main road into town. That part was not fun, especially with heavy traffic. But I passed some beautiful houses in the Bay View area.

Then the Wheelway turned away from the road into sidewalks with established gardens and sculptures.

It took about 2 hours to get to downtown. The entrance was pretty! The opposite was the entrance to the marina.

Downtown Petoskey was charming, with quite a lot of visitors. There were cute little stores, including a bookstore that had a display of banned books on its storefront with the sign "Read a Banned Book". Each book in the display had a note that described why it was banned. I walked all over with rests on benches thoughtfully located in front of stores.

Discovered that Ernest Hemingway lived in Petoskey for short periods. There's a statute of him in a park downtown.

I went into a store that advertised Petoskey stones and finally saw that they looked like, both unpolished and polished. On the walk back, stopped at a few beach areas and found some!

Took another 2 hours to get back to my campsite. This was a good day, tiring but good.