Wild Flowers and Local Trip

Summer is finally here in the Grand Traverse area. It was sunny and a high of 75 today. I decided it was time to get a couple photos of the flowers finally blooming. We also took the first Harley ride of the season up the Old Mission peninsula. It was refreshing, beautiful and a good reminder of why we love this area so much. You can go up the Old Mission and at the far north end really feel that you are in the country. Of course, the views of the bays remain beautiful. We finally visited a new winery, Two Lads, and it was perched on a hill with a great view of East Bay and situated kind of "across the hill" from Chateau Chantal. We sampled the Two Lads wines and found the first red that was actually GOOD! It is a 2007 cabernet franc and a bit pricy but we splurged for the $25.00 and picked up a couple t-bone steaks on the way home and had a meal fit for royalty. We do recommend the Two Lads wines if you get up this way and want to try them.

The wild lupines are actually beyond their peak but they were beautiful.

We brought a single sprout of the "snowball bush" that we had in Coldwater and planted it here. You can see that it is doing quite well.

One of the co-owners of Two Lads, Chris, met us in the parking lot of the winery and offered to take a picture of us with their tasting room and East Bay in the background. He is a nice young man, their wine is good and we hope they make a successful go of it.

We also explored a bit on the advice of one of Rose's co-workers. While on the Old Mission peninsula we drove to the village of Old Mission and to the north of the village is a new primitive park and natural area. It is virtually unknown and has lots of hiking trails. We did not try them today but plan to when the Denjas visit us at the end of June. There are so many great little spots like this in the area. Land conservation is alive and well up here despite lots of development.