Petoskey, MI - Day 1

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Our day began at Twelvemile Beach Campground at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Grand Marais, MI. This was a quiet campground overnight, and offered beautiful scenery directly on the shores of Lake Superior. The only downside were all the trees that covered our Starlink satellite signal preventing us from having internet. And without internet, we also didn’t have any cell phone coverage. I missed the Nebraska Cornhuskers game last night which I was pretty sad about, but that’s how it goes sometimes camping and traveling away from home.

I don’t want to say that our family’s reliant on having internet, but we were all pretty twitchy this morning after spending 12 hours without it. We each refreshed our phones at least one hundred times trying to load something without much success.

Andi wanted to be on the road by 8:30am, so Tory and Aden were up and ready to go by then. Shaun and Laura pulled out of the campground behind us as we made our way to Au Sable Lighthouse on the north shore.

Unfortunately, the weather was so crummy today. The air temperature was 45 degrees this morning with spurts of sunshine and downpours. The wind whipped wildly, too, so it was downright chilly. As we drove toward the lighthouse, I realized it was a 1.5 mile hike to get there from Hurricane River trailhead. Andi pulled over to converse with Laura and Shaun. I wanted to see the lighthouse, but I really didn’t want to walk in the rain. Laura hinted that it was too early in the morning for them to be interested in walking either, so we decided to skip Au Sable Lighthouse this trip to Pictured Rocks. We’ll leave something for the bucket list next time.

Instead, the six of us drove into the town of Grand Marias about 10 miles away. Laura said she was expecting a bigger town, but there wasn’t much to see or do there; just a couple shops, a restaurant, and a post office. Nothing was open Sunday morning at 10am so we walked up and down both sides of Main Street, and visited the one store that was open for business.

This picture perfectly captures what the weather was like today — half sunny and half stormy. One minute, the sun would shine, and it actually felt nice outside. The next minute, dark clouds would roll in, the wind would howl, and a burst of rain would fall. And, repeat.

We decided to head toward the Mackinac Bridge and the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. From Grand Marias, we drove south to Highway 2 and then followed the Lake Michigan coastline toward the Mackinac Bridge.

Along the way, Andi pulled into the parking lot of Hiawatha Pasties in Naubinway, MI for a quick lunch. Laura and Shaun had never eaten pasties before, so we couldn’t leave the U.P. Michigan without giving them the experience.

A pastie (pronounced pass-tee) is a traditional meat and vegetable hand pie famous in this part of Michigan. The outside crust is made with a thin pastry dough, and the inside is stuffed with ground meat, potatoes, onions, and rutabaga. Essentially, it’s a hand-held version of chicken pot pie.

The pasties we ate from Hiawatha Pasties were probably the best I’d ever eaten; the crust was thin and crispy, and they were warm right out of the oven. Andi and I like our pasties dipped in brown gravy (that’s what makes it taste truly like a Michigan pastie to me); Tory ate hers with ketchup.

From the town of Naubinway, we continued driving east along Highway 2 until we reached the Mackinac Bridge. This bridge is a modern marvel; it spans 5 miles across the Straits of Mackinac, connecting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the lower part of the state. Fun fact! It can sway up to 35 feet in either direction to accomodate for wind gusts! I thought that was pretty neat, but my kids were less than impressed by my knowledge. “Kids! We’re crossing the bridge! Look out the window!” I hollered to the back of the RV, but neither Tory or Aden seemed to care.

We each paid the toll to cross the bridge ($10 for our motorhome and $6 for Laura and Shaun’s truck/camper pull-behind), and drove over the bridge without issue. It was pretty windy outside today, but that didn’t cause us any trouble as we crossed. It is a LONG bridge that felt like it kept going and going.

I wanted to take a picture, so I asked Andi to pull over at Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse Park on the Mackinaw City side of the bridge. Unfortunately, there was a low 10-ft bridge on the driving route which prevented us from getting there in the RV. Instead, we parked near Fort Michilimackinac and stood on the shoreline to capture a sweeping view of the bridge in the background.

Andi wanted to get a move on to secure camping for the night, so we continued on our way toward Petoskey, MI. We were finally here! Exploring lower Michigan has been on our RV travel list for years.

In Petoskey, we drove directly to Magnus Park to secure camping for night. We were in luck because there were exactly two spots available and they happened to be right next to each other — perfect! The gatehouse attendant told us to park and get settled, and then come back to pay for our sites so that’s what we did.

We desperately needed a RV reset, so we stopped by the dump station to empty our tanks and refill with fresh water. Aden is such a good helper; he hopped outside right away to assist Andi with dumping, filling, and taking out the trash.

Another burst of rain moved into the campground around 3:00pm, so the six of us hunkered down in our respective campers for the next hour or so & caught up on life. Our internet signal worked great in this open-to-the-sky campsite, so the kids played games on their iPhones, I blogged, and Andi went to take a shower in the campground shower house.

Around 5:00pm, the six of drove to downtown Petoskey in Shaun’s pickup truck to check out the town. Unfortunately, almost everything was closed on a Sunday evening, but it was still fun to window-shop. Petoskey is an adorable resort town with lots of shops, restaurants, and attractions. We wandered along a paved path leading through an area park. Ernest Hemingway spent time here as young man, and there were placards displayed around town pointing to ways Northern Michigan shaped his life and writing career.

For dinner, we decided on Palette Bistro which felt like a hidden gem. The front of the restaurant was somewhat unassuming, but the inside offered gorgeous views of Little Traverse Bay and excellent service. We enjoyed the company of our group as we waited for our meals to be served. In the end, our food was just OK — Andi ordered the duck which he wasn’t too crazy about; I had Moroccan chicken and patty-pan squash which had a lot of warm spice flavors, and Aden ordered short ribs (but in his mind thought he was getting actual ribs on the bone). Still, we enjoyed our dinners and left the restaurant with stuffed bellies.

I think we plan on sticking around Petoskey for one more day. There’s a lot to see & do here, plus tomorrow is a school and work day. Looking forward to seeing more of this area of Michigan.