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A
contingent of McCarty and McCarty-adjacent women met for a
long weekend on the shores of Lake Michigan last month in
the tiny hamlet of Cross Village. The
weekend holiday included many beach walks, the Tunnel of
Trees, a corn maze and Polish food, as well as dancing
with strangers.
Most
of the group arrived on Friday, and the next day, a trio
consisting of Margaret (a McCarty), Karen (her friend) and
Laura (co-grandparent of Olivia and Gray) shopped at the
Farmers Market in nearby Harbor Springs, scoring a dozen
ears of fresh corn.
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| Sights
from around the Farmers Market |
On
the way back to the house, they stopped at Pond Hill Farm,
a farm turned pumpkin town. It’s as if all the pumpkins
north of Lansing assembled there for a pre-Halloween
party. Visitors were welcomed with food, alcohol, music, a
corn maze and a variety of games, including shooting small
pumpkins out of an air cannon at distant targets.
Margaret
and her team decided to traverse the corn maze, but
somehow got separated. Trying to find her way, Margaret
lost her two “corn”-patriots despite a vigorous round
of Marco Polo. However, she did stop at the requisite four
skeletons in the maze, thus winning a prize. (Margaret
will be forever proud of that small packet of Smartees.)
She finally found her two missing-and-presumed-lost
companions near the band where they were dancing to the
music with three women from Grand Rapids.
Any
stay at Cross Village always includes traversing
Michigan’s “Tunnel of Trees”, the roadway between
Cross Village and Harbor Springs. About halfway between
the two towns is Good Hart, which has a population of
about five residents. However, its main attraction, Good
Hart General Store, is widely known for its popularity
among motorcyclists and pot pies, though it is also a
trove of souvenirs, and if you buy a postcard, you can get
a stamp at the small post office window there.
If
the general store is too hectic - with the motorcycles and
the tourists and the locals - the store next door is more
subdued, with up north art and a tea room in the back.
Legs
Inn is another requisite stop for anyone staying in Cross
Village. Though there is usually a long line of hungry
clientele at the door, the McCarty contingent was shown
right in and led to a table in the outdoor seating area.
During the meal there was an interesting discussion on
Albania with two Albanias - cousins who were working as
servers at Legs Inn this summer.
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The
group also included lunches at the Petoskey Brewing
Co.’s Cross Village bar, across the street from Legs.
Though the company opened only last year, the building is
already for sale. The problem, it seems, is staffing.
Despite the number of big, fancy homes along the shore,
there’s not a lot of places for the working class to
stay. One waitress said she had to drive an hour to get to
work.
The
McCarty group came up with the idea of hiring retirees to
run the place, which is open from late spring to early
fall. What kind of retiree isn’t looking for a place to
stay up north during the summer? Of course, the cranky
oldsters would have to sleep in the storeroom for the
season. And they would complain about the wages, i.e.
zero.
After
exhausting their choice of the only two restaurants in
Cross Village, the McCarty group had one dinner “at
home” on the lake when Margaret cooked up cashew chicken
and sweet corn to go with the chocolate cake she brought
to celebrate her (favorite) sister Marianne’s birthday.
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Sunday
morning was time for a “walk on the beach”. A small
pack of beachcombers - Margaret, Nancy (her cousin), Karen
and Laura - set out along the shore just below the house,
looking for rocks. Meanwhile,
Marianne and Judy (her friend) headed out for a two hour
walk along the beach at Wilderness State Park, where they
saw lots of rocks - but collected none - and a small
little turtle whose shell measured only about three inches
long - the tail was another three.
They
also saw gathering storm clouds, but made it back to the
car just as the first drops of rain fell. Since it was
already past lunchtime, they stopped at the brewery for
lunch and serendipitously met the rest of their party
there. Though
that last afternoon brought a few rainy hours, the reward
was the fantastic sunset at the end.
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