This weekend, Cyndi took a day off work so that we could spend a three day weekend together. We chose Port Austin, MI, which is the tip of the thumb in Michigan’s lower peninsula:
We chose this location for a few reasons: we’ve never been to that part of the state, it’s on the shore of Lake Huron, and members of my local astronomy club have recommended it for dark skies. Alas, the entire weekend was cloudy, so we couldn’t really do any stargazing.
On the way up, we stopped at B & B Winery that sold fruit wines. We had a tasting, spoke to the owner for a while, and bought a few bottles. The owner had previously owned a wool business(sheep, llama and alpaca), and was making wine on the side. But all her friends had pressured her to open a winery, so she did, and business has been great, even after shutting down for COVID.
In Port Austin, we stayed at an AirBnB, which was very close to downtown. Well, downtown is not that big. Port Austin is literally a one stop sign town; they don’t even have a stop light. We could have walked to town from the house, but the weather was a bit too cold for that. We were surprised that so many restaurants and stores were ‘closed for the season’, but I guess that’s northern Michigan for you.
Despite that, we did find a few good places to eat and have cocktails. Our first stop was Bird Creek Farms. Although the small dining room was booked, we got a couple of seats at the bar. The drinks were great, as was the food and service. We spoke to some of the locals, who recommended other restaurants to try and things to do.
The next morning, we drove to had breakfast at Days on the Lake, located on Grindstone Harbor in Grindstone City, MI. It is so named because it was a major source of grindstones, whet stones and scythe stones from the special abrasive rock that was close the surface in the area between 1838 and 1929; this rock is found nowhere else in the US. You can read a more detailed history here. The operations were all suddenly halted when carborundum replaced natural rock for sharpening tools and weapons. As a result, grindstones can be found all over the place, as decorations, monuments and littering the harbor.
Next, we drove to Port Crescent State Park and hiked some of the trails there. One of the trails recommended by the locals crosses a steel truss bridge, and eventually brought us to the mouth of the Pinnebog River, where it dumps into Saginaw Bay/Lake Huron:
Although the park was still closed to vehicular traffic for the winter, we were able to walk from the entrance to the Dark Sky Viewing Platform, which also doubles as a bird watching platform. There is a nice steel sign, describing how to tell the difference between various kinds of raptors in the area.
During our walk to the platform and back, we spotted and/or heard the following birds(next time I’ll bring my binoculars):
- Sandhill Crane
- Northern Flicker
- Chickadee
- Cormorant
- Swan
- Geese
- Vulture
Cyndi used the opportunity to study the differences between the various evergreens:
- pine
- cedar
- cypress
- spruce
- fir
That evening, we enjoyed dinner and drinks at a Lake Street Local, played a few games of pool, then walked down to Simm’s Bar in the Garfield Inn for more cocktails.
On the way home, we stopped at White Rock Roadside Park, which memorializes a large rock off the shore of Lake Huron. Among other things, this rock was used to mark the boundaries of a treaty between the white man and several native Indian tribes in Michigan. Like all such treaties, this was later violated by the white man, sigh.
Finally, I realized that our route home took us right by Adam and D’Arcy’s house in Troy, MI, so we dropped by for a lunch visit. It was a lovely end to our three-day weekend.