Oh, how I’ve missed travel while we’ve all been obsessing about masks and boosters. In late March, I received an email from Interlochen Center for the Arts (ICA) telling that my priority ticketing access had begun. (I regularly give them donations, paying back to them the educational benefits my younger son and grandchildren experienced while at camp and the academy. In exchange, them give me goodies like priority ticketing.) A few days before that, I had received from them in the mail a flyer showing some of the artists who had been booked for concerts during the summer. Real concerts. Real people in the audience. Live music! The Jazzman looked over the flyer and said, “I want to see Bonnie Raitt.” Her performance would be on Saturday, July 23. I was not familiar with her work—couldn’t sing on demand any song she was famous for. But when I did some internet searching, I learned she was on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of “100 Greatest Singers” and “100 Greatest Guitarists”. She recently received Billboard Magazine’s “Icon Award.” And Jas loves guitar, having spent a couple of years after his retirement in 2018 learning to play the instrument, until he burned out trying to learn how to read music. [Photo: Me and my baby boy in our annual picture in front of The Sign.]
Kresge Auditorium, moving out the Detroit Symphony, moving in Bonnie Raitt
And as I finished out the school year, overwhelmed with music, I would let my mind wander to what we could do on our trip to Northern Michigan.
The elements of this trip would be:
- the daughter-in-law who teaches dance for seven weeks every summer at Interlochen Arts Camp (IAC);
- her husband, my precious baby boy who works at his software development job remotely, so gets to spend his summers on the campus of our beloved Interlochen, where he was formed into the man he is today;
- my Texas granddaughter, who would be studying theatre at IAC;
- the best nextdoor neighbors we’ve ever had, who just happen to have a summer lake home on Torch Lake, an hour’s drive away from the ICA campus; and
- the fact that I love road trips and bought a new Acura RDX SUV in June and was dying for a road trip.
First, where would we stay? I explored the Interlochen housing options and spent some time on Airbnb and VRBO. I narrowed it down to Stone Hotel on campus, and Betsie Valley B&B, a traditional B&B five miles from campus. These two options were the same price, and breakfast was included at Betsie Valley. We decided to go the traditional B&B route and enjoyed it greatly. The inn is run by Peter and Denise, a couple a few years older than Jas and myself. Peter is 100% Irish, and Denise is 50/50 Irish and Polish. And boy, can Denise cook!
Thursday, 7/21/2022
We left home at 9:15 on Thursday morning, stopping four times along the way for gas, food, nature breaks, and old person knee stretching. We arrived at Betsie Valley at 5:00. After checking in and unloading the car, we headed to one of my favorite area restaurants. It used to be called Maddy’s Tavern, after the founder of Interlochen. It changed hands a couple of years ago. It’s now run by Boone’s Long Lake Inn, has a similar menu to Maddy’s, and is called Oaky’s. And my favorite Maddy’s Punch has been renamed Oaky’s Punch, but is still as refreshing. I enjoyed fish and chips for my dinner, and Jas had barbeque ribs. The waitress asked us after dinner if we’d like dessert. Jas gave her his best “tempt me” smile, after which I reminded him that we had enjoyed muffins at Panera on our first stop and a cookie apiece after our Subway lunch. He sheepishly told the waitress, “No, thank you.”
As we finished dinner, Jas said he didn’t want to just go back to the B&B to sit until bedtime, so we went exploring to some places he had never experienced. Driving west on MI 31 toward Lake Michigan, I aimed for Frankfort but turned one road too soon and we landed in Beulah, MI. We noticed the main drag was blocked off and filled with people, so we found a parking space and started walking. We stood on the shore of Crystal Lake, then went to see what was going on in the town center. It was “Music in the Streets” night, with a great eight- or ten-piece band playing wonderful jazzy music and people dancing in the streets. When the band took a break, we went searching for ice cream and found a Moomer’s store!!! Ah, if this is Michigan, it must be Moomer’s. After the ice cream, we got back in the car and continued on to Frankfort, where there’s a lighthouse, connected to the shore by a long concrete pier. We walked and admired the waves splashing on the rocks by the pier. As the sun started heading for the horizon, we headed back to Betsie Valley.
Friday, 7/22/2022
Friday morning, after a breakfast of expertly prepared Eggs Benedict, we headed out for Torch Lake, arriving around 11:30. We spent the afternoon playing with our pals. The first order of business was to admire all the changes they had made in the house since we were last there, a year ago. Jas had made several trips up to the house in early 2021 to help Alex with renovation projects, and the house doesn’t even resemble the very dated look from when they purchased it in 2020. After the tour, lunch was served—lake trout that had been frozen since catching, expertly grilled by Alex, along with one of Meta’s great salads. The previous Saturday had been Alex’s birthday, and Meta had arranged a fishing excursion for them and Alex’s cousins, who had come up for the day, and we loved eating this trout they had caught.
We had hoped to go out on the boat or to kayak in the afternoon, but the day was windy and the lake was choppy. Alex pulled Big Mable into the water, and we floated around and caught up on our Vitamin D exposure. After we got enough sun, we spent some more time on the deck with adult beverages before heading out to return to Interlochen.
On our visit the previous year, we had eaten our last meal of vacation in Elk Rapids, a town on Lake Michigan about 20 minutes away from Alex and Meta’s house. The restaurant we chose that night was Cellar 152. Alex and Meta had since eaten there and enjoyed it, but told us we really needed to try the brick oven pizza place across the street from Cellar 152. That was American House Wood Fired Pizza. The pizza, especially the crust, was great and we recommend both these restaurants if you’re ever hungry between Traverse City and Charlevoix.
Saturday, 7/23/2022
Breakfast: Waffles, real maple syrup, fruit, delicious!
Picture: Green Lake, from the sidewalk above Kresge Auditorium.
The classes at Interlochen are held Tuesdays through Saturdays. That way, if parents want to come up and see what their campers or their students are learning (during the high school year at Interlochen Arts Academy), they can come for the weekend and sit in on the Saturday classes. My daughter-in-law said it would be okay for me to come watch her contemporary dance class, so we spent an hour-and-a-half watching in amazement at the dedication and energy of the intermediate (grades 6-8) and high school (grades 9-12) dancers. Afterwards, Leslie gave us a tour of the new dance building, which had recently been completed. It’s an amazing and beautiful building, sitting on the edge of Green Lake, with a fabulous patio in front, perfect for cocktail parties. 😊
After the tour, we walked over to the Intermediate Lakeside dining hall to connect with my granddaughter, the lovely Miss C, who will soon be 12 years old. We got hugs and promised to meet up on Sunday morning, and then Tyler, Leslie, Jas, and I headed to Bud’s for lunch. Like every restaurant in the U.S. (and maybe the world), Bud’s is currently understaffed. The service is not what we’ve all grown accustomed to over the years, but the food is still great.
After lunch, we said goodbye to my kids, with plans to meet at the farmer’s market on the corner the next morning, and Jas and I headed up the west shore of Grand Traverse Bay to little town of Sutton’s Bay to explore. We walked the sidewalks, snooped in a few shops, and I bought a jigsaw puzzle to bring home. Then we went back to the B&B so Jas could nap before we went to the concert.
I had wisely bought premier parking, so getting in (and later, out) of campus was unusually easy. We stood in line at the grill tent to get hamburgers, and then got in line to take our seats.
[Our seats, with 4,923 of our nearest and dearest friends.] New Orleans singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Sullivan opened the concert and gave us a half hour of great music, great picking, and cool stories of his life. It was an enjoyable start to a fabulous concert. Then Bonnie and her band came on, and we enjoyed every minute of the performance. If you get the opportunity to see and hear her while she’s on tour promoting her new album, make it a priority. You’ll be glad you did!!
Betsie Valley B&B has a tradition of having dessert waiting for you when you return “home” after attending a concert at Interlochen. Denise had prepared raspberry crumble cookies, which I could have eaten two or three of. They were delicious and the perfect way to end the day.
Sunday, 7/24/2022
Breakfast: Omelets, hash browns, fruit, perfect way to start the day.
For years, a weekly farmer’s market/arts & crafts market has been held on Sunday mornings at the corner of M-137 and M-31 in Interlochen. There’s always something fun to explore—this week it was a trailer filled with rust-covered pipes. There were bakery vendors, veggie vendors, jerky vendors, handcrafted soaps, Corian cutting boards (I bought a set of three), jewelry, photography, honey, …. You get the idea. Leslie and Miss C and I always have a great time at the farmer’s market.
Leslie then took Miss C back to camp to check her back in for her afternoon activities, and the rest of us went to Bud’s. We got tea/coffee/whatever, Tyler and I did our crossword puzzles, and we killed time while Leslie finished her errands to camp and home. Then we headed up the Leelanau peninsula to Mawby Sparkling Winery for a tasting. They had some appetizers available for purchase—we got a prepackaged charcuterie board. And we each got a flight of three different wines. In the past I have had migraine issues with champagne. But I had no problems with these Michigan sparkling wines. When our hour is up, we searched our collective brains and decided to head up Old Mission peninsula in search of more wine or lavender. We crossed the peninsula to the east shore and headed north to Brys Estate Vineyard and Winery. None of us really wanted more wine, so went over to the cut-your-own flower and lavender field. Even if we hadn’t found flowers to take home, it was simply a beautiful day walking around near Lake Michigan.
We headed back to Bud’s, where Leslie had left her car, and everyone went to their homes to rest before dinner.
Traverse City has a cool food truck block downtown, a couple of blocks off the bay. The Little Fleet has four or five food trucks, two bars, and lots of seating spots. Great food, laid back visiting with old friends. We were joined by my “Oliver!” director from 2015 and my camp roommate from 2019. After dinner, we walked up Front Street to Milk & Honey for ice cream. Have you ever been to Cold Stone Creamery? This is the same concept as Cold Stone, but with fancier mix-ins. I had the Cannonball, and I’d go back in a hot minute any time to have it again!
And then we went home and packed!
Monday, 7/25/2022
Breakfast: “Biltmore Estate Breakfast Casserole”
Even with a big breakfast and loading the car, we were on our way by 9:30. I had been thinking for several days before the trip that I wanted to stop at Zingerman’s for lunch, and we were rolling into Ann Arbor right around 12:30. I google Zingerman’s, then pointed Google maps to Zingerman’s Deli. Oops, not what I wanted. I wanted the Roadhouse. We could have eaten at the deli, but there was a 40-50 minute wait for sandwiches. Repointed Google maps and headed to the Roadhouse. I had the Fried Grits Fritters. Holy Mother of Spanish Moss, they were great!! My Southern heart soared. With the fritters, I had a caprese salad. Jas had the Reuben, but gave it a thumbs down. He’s spoiled by the Reubens at Youngstown’s Kravitz Deli.
We moved along, stopping as usual, and pulled into our driveway at 6:00. Jas drove about four hours, and I fielded texts that asked me to step in and cover some pianists who were ill. That’s how a collaborative pianist makes money on vacation!
I loved the trip. Trips to Northern Michigan always make me smile. I loved the music, the visits with family and friends, and the great food at every stop.
Interlochen, Torch Lake, and Traverse City-Adjacent Peninsulas Photo Gallery
Photos in chronological order, beginning with 7/21/2022.
