August 15, 2018: part 1, Petoskey

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The phone camera helpfully focused on the screen rather than the view out our hotel window.  This is the back side of the hotel -- a steep hill, with a lot of vegetation.  We weren't 20 feet from the hill, I don't think.  Not as bad as looking at the side of another building................

(We did ask about lake-view windows on the front.  There weren't any available.  And with all the traffic on that road, I'm not sure it would have been a net gain.  Hard to say -- I do like looking at the Big Water............

Inside the hotel room.  Weird picture-hanging job.  Uneven spacing, uneven height, and the one on the left is markedly crooked (and utterly immobile).

Big planter outside the hotel's front door.  Various coleus, petunias, and ... papyrus?

Looking down at the same planting.  I rather think this tall green stuff is papyrus.............

There isn't that much to do in Petoskey.  But we had to visit American Spoon.  They make a lot of really nice jams and other preserved things.  Relish.  Salsa.  Honey.  They had a lot of things open to taste. 

Their sour cherry jam is my favorite jam.............

We made some purchases............

See that table at right?  That's where a lot of the samples are.  Yum, yum............

The lunch place next door looks like it's part of American Spoon, given the number of their products I see on the menu.  I believe I could eat here. 

In the end, we did not eat there.  We ate somewhere else.  Which was ok, but not great.

This is the healthiest looking crab apple tree I've seen in years.  In Ann Arbor they all seem to be afflicted by something that makes their leaves sad.

This tree (in Petoskey) had healthy looking leaves and was absolutely laden with fruit. 

Looking over Little Traverse Bay from a street in Petoskey.  You can tell from the relative size of those trees in the lower left corner that we are, again, high up above lake level.  Nice clouds............

A similar view, included because we can see the rocks that I believe were put there by people to stave off erosion.

Closer crop of the above, with a better look at the rocks.

There are lots of nice flowers and other plantings in Petoskey.  I don't know how many coleus plants this is, but they all look very happy.........

Closer.......

I saw several sorts of petunia I'd not seen before.  These striped ones........

And these purple ones with the yellow centers.

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