For Ben’s birthday, Adam drove the entire family up to Petoskey to hunt for Petoskey Stones.
This was the only area we missed on our RV trip last summer, so we made sure to check out all the sites still on our list of things to see.
On the drive up, we visited Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Of course, the minute the kids saw it, they started running up at full speed.
There are gorgeous panoramic views that no camera can do justice.
Afterwards, we made our way to Traverse City for dinner at Harrington’s by the Bay. This dinner fulfilled another one of Ben’s obsessions, trying new types of fish. Ben tried Bang Bang Shrimp and Beer Battered Perch.
The next day, we went to Petoskey State Park. This was one of two good places to look for Petoskey stones, according to a few blogs on the internet.
The waves were massive, which is fun for playing in the surf, but makes it difficult to snorkel for stones. Though they tried…
There were lots of people on the beach and we saw a few of them scouring the shoreline with spray bottles of water, looking for Petoskey stones. Ben and Adam started looking right away, but without immediate success, Ben gave up.
Since Chicago Beaches are closed now, a beach day was a special treat, and the other kids enjoyed it immensely.
Finally, after much searching from Adam and a little searching from me, we started finding some Petoskey stones.
Ben got a little less morose, and started looking again.
Later we left the beach and headed for Kilwin’s for ice cream and fudge.
That evening, after a full day in the sun and water, we gave the kids some down time. We ordered a pizza in the hotel.
We had heard there was another beach worth checking out for Petoskey stones, so after dinner and lots of fudge for dessert, we went to check it out.
Magnus Beach was magical.
The woman in the picture above saw Ben looking for stones and brought him all the bags she had collected to give to him. She was staying in the RV park nearby. Apparently her husband kept asking her why she was collecting them since they weren’t going to bring them all home.
She explained that because the water was so choppy lately, many new stones had washed up on shore. We found a bunch more on our own as well.
As we were collecting stones, another group came over and asked if we wanted the last piece of birthday cake leftover from their celebration.
Finally I realized Aaron was upset that he wasn’t finding any stones of his own, and the nice lady gave all hers to Ben. But she came through again! She led us to another RV and there was a woman giving away more Petoskey stones! Hers were painted and unpainted.
Afterwards we strolled through downtown Petoskey, Adam offering to buy us souvenirs.
The next day we headed back home, stopping in South Haven for a very loud (there was a live band) lunch at Captain Lou’s.
Finally, we went blueberry picking at DeGrandchamp Farms.
In our usual grand style, we left with 12 pounds of blueberries.
I also left with this….
