June 16, 2014 Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI

Monday,  June 16, 2014

56 degrees at 7:45 in the Platte River Campground at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.   Made pancakes for breakfast and did a little maintenance before heading out.  We take a few back roads, looking for wildlife but see only forests and some grasslands.  At some places the forest is so dense that it is very dark, especially where there are lots of fir trees. The trees canopy the roads at times.

  In some areas there are carpets of ferns which instead of growing in the fan shape we are used to seeing, grow a long stem and then spread horizontally – trying to capture more light, we assume.

We take the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive which opened in 1967 and gives some great views of the dunes and woodlands.  At one of the stops there are two other couples and we discover that all of us are from Texas!  Mini reunion J

The sand dunes are very large with some sparse vegetation.  On one walk at Sleeping Bear Dune Overlook we spot these wild grapes and got the scent of the day – honeysuckle.

 There used to be a knob atop one of the dunes which was the sleeping bear but it has eroded.  The legend was that a mother bear and two cubs were forced into the sea by wildfires in Wisconsin and swam this direction.  A storm came up and the mother made land but the two cubs drowned.  This knob was the spot the mother bear camped out to watch for her cubs.  The two visible Manitou islands represent the lost cubs.

Lots of families bare-footing it in the sand, especially at the Dunes Climbing area.

We begin to head back to Traverse City to use their library and come across this beautiful Iris Farm! All shades and only a few past their prime.

The Traverse City Library is beautiful and they have amazingly fast wi-fi.  Beth is able to catch up on the blog, pay a few bills and check email while Greg reads a few newspapers and magazines and gets caught up on the world.  We give kuddos to the librarian and leave a rave review in the suggestion box.  In addition to normal books, they have a huge children's area, a large music library, and a large computer area.  The place is very busy.

We find the local Walmart and do some grocery shopping, then look for a place to watch the US vs Ghana World Cup match.  Greg asks the librarian if there is a Buffalo Wild Wings, which there is, and that is where we go for dinner and the game.  Quite a few people watching and the right team won! U-S-A, U-S-A!

Back to Walmart for the night.