This week I've been on vacation...my first week off for the year and a much needed break from my daily routine. While I would have loved to spend the last week enjoying the peace and quiet of the UP and some quality time on the Lake Superior shores, it just made more sense for us to stay home. I had plenty of things to do around the house, but also knew I'd be able to find time for some fun adventures closer to home as well.
After a nice drive through the farmlands of Montcalm and Gratiot Counties, our next stop of the day was in Ithaca. While I have driven past Ithaca on the highway hundreds of times, I don't recall ever driving into town. I'm very glad that changed with this trip.
After Piper was adopted on Saturday and the girls had spent several hours home without me, I knew I had to get them out for an adventure on Sunday. After a slow start to the morning, I did a little research and determined our course for the day. It was time to get out and make some progress toward visiting the most beautiful spot in each Michigan county. I was determined to see some new places without traveling too far, so I pulled out the Michigan map and the list of most beautiful places in each county and decided to head North toward Gratiot county, I also noticed that the location we needed to visit in Montcalm county wasn't much farther away and our plans for the day were set.
I headed west out of town to reach M-66 through Ionia and eventually reached the country roads and farmlands of Montcalm county. It was a nice day for a drive and I enjoyed our travels. We finally reached Stanton and after a short drive outside of town, we reached Clifford Lake. The only public access to the lake is a small boat launch area and that is where we stopped.
The girls were happy to be out of the Jeep and able to explore a bit, but other than the short walk from my parking spot to the dock, there wasn't much else to do here. There were fisherman along the banks of the lake on either side of the dock and several families loading or unloading their boats for the day. As I looked out at the lake lined with private docks and homes, it reminded me of so many other small inland lakes all over the State. After a short stay, we got in the car to drive around the lake to see if we could find another place to stop for a better view.
I made a quick stop to turn around in the parking lot of a small local restaurant located on the lake. Because it had a nice view, I took a quick picture there before heading off to continue driving around the area. While driving around, my thoughts turned to why this particular spot was chosen for this list. I saw several other boat launch signs for small lakes throughout the area on my drive here and I'm not sure what makes this lake more scenic than those. The thing about this list is that it is very subjective, what is beauty in the eyes of one person may not be to someone else. But for me, the whole point behind the list is just to encourage people to get out and to visit new places, to find beauty all around them, and appreciate the journey. And that is just what I plan to do.
For me, the beauty of this tree in a field not far from the lake shore was far prettier than the views of the lake and I'm glad I was there to see it's beauty. So as I continue my journey to the other counties that I have yet to visit, I plan to keep in mind that there is beauty in everything in nature, you just have to be open minded and willing to look beyond first impressions.
As I headed away from the lake and out of the town of Stanton, I stopped to take a few pictures of some other things that caught my eye.
Ithaca is a cute little town and so the girls and I parked and took a walk around to see more.
The fire department building caught my eye and I had to get a few pictures of it. It is a beautiful old building and a historic site as well. I really loved the weathervane at the peak too.
Of course I also had to stop and get a picture of the girls with this bell. I don't know the history behind it, but Peaches was happy to jump right up there for a picture.
Since it was a hot day, we couldn't spend much time exploring before heading back to the Gratiot County Courthouse building, which is listed as the most beautiful spot in Gratiot County.
This building was built at the turn of the century(1902) and has some really beautiful details. The stone work on the building reminded me a lot of the Michigan State Capitol Building, although some of it is in disrepair. I hope they can find a way to restore it and keep the beautiful old building for generations to come.
Since I love old buildings like this, I was happy to visit and we spent some time exploring the grounds around the building and enjoying the architecture. The girls even posed for a nice picture for me.
As I walked around the building, I was thankful that this list includes not only beaches and beautiful nature areas, but also historic buildings, farms, rural and urban areas. The variety is something that will keep it fun and interesting as we continue our travels throughout the State.
In addition to visiting each site on the list, I have a goal to find a geocache at or near each location as well so that by the end of our journey, I will have not only traveled to each county, but also have a found a geocache in each one too. It's just a little added challenge to keep things fun and interesting.
We had had a busy afternoon of fun and seeing new things, but it was time to head home. I was glad that we had visited some new places and was looking forward to more fun as we continued our vacation week.
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