Petoskey, Michigan

It has been nearly 30 years since I spent any significant time in Michigan.  During my second year of law school, I worked as an intern at the Federal Correctional Institute in Milan, Michigan.  The medium security prison was and is located 15 miles south of Ann Arbor.  On may way back to North Dakota, I drove north, across the Mackinac Bridge and followed Highway 2 ("The Hiawatha Trail") all the way to Grand Forks.

Last week I returned to northern Michigan, this time to present a seminar on Becoming a Better Witness.  My hosts were members of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa (Oh-daw'-wah) Indians.  They are headquartered in Harbor Springs, Michigan but the seminar was a few miles away in Petoskey.

Petoskey, named for Chief Pe-to-se-ga of the Bear River Band, was settled in 1852 by a Presbyterian missionary.  Next door is Bay View, a summer resort town established in 1875.

  This is but one of more than 150 Victorian houses lining the Little Traverse Bay in the town of Bay View, Michigan.

  Several small towns dot the coastline between Traverse City, where my turboprop (a loud, lumbering bruit) landed, and Petoskey, some 70 miles northeast.(Okay, maybe it wasn't this slow)

  Harbor Springs sits on the north side of Little Traverse Bay while Petoskey is on the opposite shore.

  A sandy beach in Traverse City

  Driving north of Harbor Springs, in search of Bliss (the city, not the state of mind), I came across an old barn.

  The town of Indian River is the site of the world's largest crucifix.

  A statue of St. Francis, paying homage, is one of several on the grounds behind a Catholic church.

  Seminar attendees, most of them anyway, pose at the end of the session.  I thoroughly enjoyed working with them.  They were a bright, imaginative, and just plain fun group of people.  I'd love to return there some day.

  On my way back to the airport, I spied this puzzling site.  The original shoetree?

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