Out and About Weekend Trip to Manistee Michigan

 On Sunday we took a little road trip to Manistee.  It's about 67 miles away but a nice roll through the countryside.

There were pops of color over there, much more than our area.  I only had my iPhone and I captured some shots out my car window as moseyed along.

 I thought this was a cute display.  

We are approaching a scenic turn off in Arcadia.

It has commanding views of Lake Michigan and the countryside.  I did a post on our visit here in 2011 that you are welcome to view "here"

Note: This picture is from October 2012

I've always wondered about the church's steeple that you can see from here, so this time we drove into the town of Arcadia and found it.

 Trinity Lutheran

 Turns out to be historically significant

Completed in 1888

Pretty street with a canopy of trees.

We were surprised to see so much color since it's only the end of September.

 As we drove by the Fire Department the doors were wide open and made for a nice picture.  The cupola above is so cute.

See the bell, dog, hat and the 24/7 

Cute!

  As we approached Manistee I could see a black cloud of smoke which turned out to be exhaust from this large ship.  We decided to follow it and jumped to three locations to capture some pictures. This is a river that connects between Lake Michigan and Manistee Lake.  

 As you can see it's called the Manitowoc

I did some research and found out it's a ship built back in the early 70's- it's been managed by a few different companies and was recently renamed the Manitowoc  (It needs a paint job!)  It hauls coal and stone.

 A friendly couple pulled in next to us in their 

1950 Bel Air.  He said to me "hey we're both driving black cars" and I replied "yes but yours is a lot classier!"  Definitely show room perfect!

 The ship is heading for the open waters of Lake Michigan

This ship is a bit shorter (630 ft.) than the Edmund Fitzgerald (728 ft.).  I couldn't help but think about the Edmund Fitzgerald as I watched this ship heading out to the big lake.

We headed back into the downtown area to do some shopping.  I should have done a better job of taking pictures of the buildings.  It's a Victorian town with a lot of architectural details that have been preserved.

The Ramsdell Inn building is a real gem.

I had Dan stand there to give a reference to the height of this corner detail.

This store has all sorts of things for kitchens and dining.  I thought this was an interesting display.

I found a nice April Cornell tablecloth.

An empty store's storefront window had this display I thought it was cute.  It's a hollowed out piece of a tree that they draped a sign across it (which I thought was creative) and trimmed it with faux flowers and pumpkins.

 In another store some rag rugs from India- I like the color choices.  My mom used to get rag rugs from a source in the UP of Michigan.  They weren't so designer'ish though- more of a hodge podge of whites, pinks, blues etc.

 I stepped into an Antique Store and found lots of nice things.  My  mother has always loved dolls and has a collection at home. She has a reproduction piece that looks a lot like this one, but this is a real antique.  I'd loved to have bought it for her, but I had to pass it up.

This little gem caught my attention.  I'm pretty sure that this is salt glazed pottery.  After I got home I did some research on it and it may be an old McCoy or Hall piece.  The person who had it in the store on consignment said it's from 1880.  I bought it because I loved the blue roses and the waffle like exterior.  It's about 8 inches across- I think it may have been a butter crock.  It's probably supposed to have a lid.

  On our way home more bits of fall beauty.  In the next couple of weeks it's going to become quite colorful around here!

I'm joining 

The Tablescaper for

Oh The Places I've Been