Petoskey is a bigger city on the northwest side of the lower Michigan peninsula. It is on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore. When we drove through the first time it seemed big and busy. When we visited again we came in from a different direction and got a bit lost looking for the Post Office. We ended up driving through the historic downtown area and through some of the older neighborhoods. Lots of nice, older, bigger homes leading down towards the harbor on Little Traverse Bay.
It is a pretty large bay to be called Little.
We found a place to park near the Marina by a ball field where young women were playing fast pitch softball.
We sat and watched for a while, a beautiful sunny day, temps in the mid 70s, low humidity – very nice. One game came to a close, the play seemed pretty good. Another started. It was a different level of play.
As we walked around the outfield fence we met a group of teenagers in uniforms, something Dawgs. I asked if they played next and they said yes. It was a big Northern Michigan softball tournament with teams from all over in age groups from 14 to 25, Thursday to Sunday, games at every ball field in town. They were friendly and chatty. Sometimes we meet some young folks and it seems like talking to old folks is the worst thing they have ever had to do.
We had a picnic lunch along and sat on a bench in the marina park to eat.
A nicely done park with lots of trees and a clock/bell tower which rang on the hour and half hour.
The walkway led to a stairway up to the downtown area.
The marina was protected by a jetty with a small light house. Some people were out there. All the while we were there more and more gathered. It appeared to be some sort of event. People were jumping off the jetty into the water while the rest cheered them on.
Sailboats were coming in and out.
And power boats all set up for fishing too.
A walk into the Marina got us up close to huge fancy powerboats that looked like they belonged on the Mediterranean Riviera.
This one was more appealing to me.
Or this one.
There was a mega power boat at the end of one one of the docks at the fuel pumps. It was longer than the slips on either side of the dock combined plus the dock itself. I chatted with the owner who was filling it up. 2600 gallon capacity, he had added 1600 gallons and figured he could get another 600 gallons in before it was topped off. The pump was 16 gallons per minute, more than 2 hours to fill it up. Diesel fuel at the end of the dock was about $4/gallon. Almost $9,000 for a ( 3 hour?) cruise to somewhere. He told me he started working at a gas station when he was 14, eventually bought it and then many more. He said he was 79 years old and still pumping gas.
We did see another form of transportation, a pair of clever fold up electric bikes.
Petoskey was nice. There was a waterfront municipal campground at the other end of town. Traffic was still busy. And it seemed bigger to us than where we really like to spend time but we enjoyed our visit.
More later with Much Love,
Roger and Susan
Home2 with Roger and Susan 