Fishtown

July 21, 2015 By Kelle

I never intended Enjoying the Small Things to be a travel blog, but I guess these last few posts have been a little Great Weekends with Samantha Brown-ish. Well she’s my favorite, so onward. My great excitement for the things I love often overflows to this blog, and this state, these summers and Michigan adventures are a huge part of it. It’s been so much fun capturing a little bit of it, so thank you for coming along. Part of the charm of these adventures comes from the fact that we don’t live here. Our home in Florida is where it all happens, but my, is it nice to have a magical place for our season of crop resting before the next planting.

Our little amateur fish experience led us to the big dogs last week–a part of Michigan I haven’t seen since I was a little girl.

We took a day trip to Leland, Michigan–a small coastal town located on the Leelanau Peninsula between Lake Michigan and Lake Leelanau. A historic fishing village known as Fishtown remains active in Leland for commercial fishermen, its docks, old shanties and smokehouses open for guests to explore as well as some charming gift shops.

We stopped first in Suttons Bay for some shopping, another sweet lake village about fifteen minutes south of Leland.

We all loved their Bayside Gallery, an outdoor garden shop doubling as a colorful museum. We said lots of “Pretty! No touch, Dash.”

The kids loved The Princess and the Pirate store full of toys and books.

I’m not normally a dark beer drinker, but I’ve fallen in love with this smooth beer from the Upper Peninsula called Widowmaker.

Our favorite part of Suttons Bay–the library that overlooks an inlet of Lake Michigan. The sky was all moody blue while we were there, the air was crisp, and it felt very much like a storybook day considering the setting made up for most of the storybook. We were happy to indulge as its characters.

Pulling the kids off this playground after 45 minutes was not pretty.

On to Leland. “Okay, this is my new favorite Michigan town,” I announced for now the fourth time. So many favorites to keep track of!

We were welcomed to town by a large table displaying an impressive selection of Petoskey and Leland blue stones, all collected on Leland’s shores by a young man who will no doubt be a great entrepreneur someday. They were reasonably priced according to size and fabulousness–we bought three. Also, I could see the little cogs turning in Lainey’s mind. Screw lemonade stand–shells! Rocks! Beach treasures! The ante has been upped.

First Fishtown stop: Dam Candy for penny sweets and ice cream.

Then Diversions for hats. The entire ceiling of the store is covered with hats–sailing hats, captain hats, sun hats, newsboy hats, straw hats, any hat you can imagine–all for sail.