We went to the Shelburne Museum before my classes started at the Vermont Quilt Festival. The museum sits on a large swath of land in Shelburne, VT. There are historical houses, barns, buildings, a steamboat, and a locomotive on site that have been restored and furnished. There are a variety of exhibits. The docents were exceptionally helpful and knowledgable. The Shelburne is definitely worth a visit if you come this way.

It was a beautiful day – breezy and cool. The plants were bright green, the flowers lovely. Here is some of what we saw…

The round, red barn at the entrance had a motorcycle exhibit on display.

It was interesting to go into these houses. The walls were mostly solid wood planks. 2×4 construction came along much later.

There were several lovely antique quilts on exhibit. I didn’t photograph them because we couldn’t figure out how to turn off the flash on my camera. Oh my. I did use my little camera to take a photo of this block. I know I’ve seen it before but I don’t think I’ve ever really looked at it. The shapes are appliqued, not pieced.

This Paul Revere on his horse weathervane made me smile.

There is a horseshoe-shaped building devoted to circus things. One entire side has a carved replica of a circus parade mady by Roy Arnold. He spent 25 years carving and painting it – and he had helpers! It’s pretty amazing. I think the wheels would look great as pieced blocks.

The American side of the falls is different. From this side you get the view over-the-top. Surprisingly, the river leading to the falls doesn’t look that dangerous. There are rapids and there is a lot of mist in the distance (clouds of it in fact) and there is the noise from the falls – but if you didn’t know what was coming you might just paddle on… and over you’d go.

A closer shot of the top of the American falls…

Here’s the top of Horseshoe Falls…

I love these things. They look like happy men from Mars.

We drove from Michigan through Ontario, Canada, to Niagra Falls. It really is spectacular from the Canadian side. You can see the falls falling. There are two falls. American Falls…

…and Horseshoe Falls. There is mist coming off both of them and when the light hits it just right, you can see rainbows. It’s very cool. And noisy. And damp depending on which way the mist is blowing.

You can’t park near the falls. The walk from the parking lot to the falls takes you through some serious tourist-y stuff. The Frankenstein Burger King was pretty impressive.

King Kong was attached the the sideways Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. I was happier to find fudge and a nut-covered carmel apple.

We got to our hotel and they asked if we would be willing to upgrade to a jacuzzi suite. Well, why not, right? There’s a huge jacuzzi in one corner of the room and we might actually use it! Actually, no, we didn’t. It just seemed a little icky.

What is this flower? It might be some sort of lily.
These white flowers were big – 8″ across or so. The petals seemed sheer. Is this a peony? It does not grow in my part of the world.
I think this is a lady slipper…
Even the dandelions are pretty here.

Isn’t this an amazing roof? I’ve never seen another one like it.
These pansies are pretty, but the colored pots are what make these special.

Very ornate wrought iron looked wonderful in front of a Victorian house in Charlevoix…
The Charlevoix Public Library is a renovated elementary school. The children’s area was one of the best I’ve ever seen – and it was obvious that the kids thought so too. One thing I noticed in particular was this old refrigerator door mounted on the wall with word magnets. The kids were encouraged to make new poems. Great idea for an old fridge.
All in all, I have to say that the parts of Michigan we visited were absolutely beautiful, the people were great and the food was magnificent!

Charlevoix, MI, is a lovely resort town. We did a walking tour of the “mushroom houses” designed by architect Earl Young. These houses are happy! The owner of this house was outside and we got to visiting. He and his family are from Austin, TX. He invited us in to see the house – what a treat! The house is tiny and quirky – perfect for a summer home.

The mile long drive into Charlevoix is lined with petunias on both sides of the street.
This young woman was outside a restaurant, luring in diners. I would seriously love to have those striped tights. But not the dress.

This mosaic was outside of a restaurant. Very cool.We had dinner with friends, Jackie and Jerry, at their house on Torch Lake. It was so much fun! Jackie helped me find petoskey stones on the lake shore (mostly she found them for me). Petoskeys are the state stone of Michigan. Steve and Jerry went sailing. Where the color of the water changes, the lake bottom drops from about 5′ to 200′. Torch Lake at its deepest is 300′. It’s so very clear and blue – it makes our lakes at home look like mud pits.