Suttons Bay Michigan
August 19 – September 19, 2021
The month in Leelanau Peninsula went by quickly. I know it seems like I always say that we had a great time, but we really did have a great time. We stayed near Suttons Bay at Wild Cherry RV Resort. The park was nice, but we had no internet. We activated our DISH, so that we could watch college football. The peninsula is surrounded by Lake Michigan on the west and Grand Traverse Bay on the East.
Suttons Bay is on what I call the pinky of the hand (or the mitten) which is used to describe the shape of the lower peninsula of Michigan. While Suttons Bay is on the water it is not a typical seaside town – it seemed more like a typical small town. Suttons Bay had good shopping and a brewery called Hop Lot Brewery that we went to on a couple of occasions. The beer was pretty good. We also met a couple of fellow RV travelers that Steve follows on Instagram there.
We traveled into Traverse City a few times which was only 15 miles away. I really liked Traverse City. It had a really cool downtown with shops breweries and restaurants. My favorite shop was the Cherry Republic (a chain with several stores in northern Michigan) and you guessed it – contains all things cherry. The farmers market was awesome and I was able to finally find local flowers. Unfortunately, they were covered with fruit flies, so I had to put them outside.
We also shopped over in Leland and Fish Town. Fish Town which is a quaint section in Leland that has a collection of fishing shanties with shops and restaurants. It is cool looking but pretty touristy.
After biking, and shopping, our main activity was wine drinking. Wow! This place had tons of wineries. We did not come close to visiting all of them but we certainly did try. On the Leelanau peninsula, we went to 45 North Vineyard and Winery, Boathouse Winery, Aurora Cellars, Blustone Vineyards, Rove Estate Vineyard and Winery, Soul Squeeze Cellars, Shady Lane Winery, and Amoritas Vineyards. I liked the wines at Soul Squeeze, Aurora and Blustone. The Boathouse had live music on Wednesdays and Sundays which was awesome even though the wine was not. Aurora, Blustone and Rove had great views. We loved it! I mean who wouldn’t?
We also made plans with our former neighbors from Panama City Beach, Jim and Noreen to meet. Jim’s lifelong friend lives in the Mission Peninsula which is north of Traverse City on a separate peninsula and is home to – you guessed it – more wineries. The wineries on Mission Peninsula are larger and appear to be more established. As fate would have it, Noreen and Jim could not make it, so we traveled over to the Mission Peninsula and spent the day with Bob and Deb. We went to Chateau Grand Traverse, Chateau Chantel, Mari Vineyards and Bris Estate Vineyards. We ended the day at a very nice restaurant.
Next up – much more about Suttons Bay!
“Michigan and Again” by The Accidentals