Travelling north

Another weekend in a rental car exploring the Michigan wilderness. Drove to the monied north to inspect the, ahem, wineries. I don't think the Clare Valley should be worried about competition from the rieslings produced here just yet. It seems dry is a dirty word for US wine consumers. The winemakers - a decision I'm sure is driven by the market - even add sugar to some of the reds!

It's a pretty big concern up here though, with some gorgeous tasting rooms and large crowds of tasters driving around the wine trail. They're producing whites and reds, with the rieslings getting the nods from the foodie set and sommeliers in Detroit and Chicago. My pick was the Gewurztraminer from Peninsula Cellars, but sadly was beyond the budget of this unemployed uni student. Their Select Riesling may have been the goods, but we couldn't try it.
For a bit of fun you can also drink various brews made from local cherries and apples, sometimes spiced for a bit of mulled wine effect.

I have to say the wine trail of the Old Mission Peninsula makes for a gorgeous day out in the car - it's a spindly piece of land jutting into Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay. At any time you can see water on either side, through the cherry orchards and vines. With farmer's produce stands every few hundred metres or so, laden with raspberries, white raspberries, apples, cherries and other stone fruits in jewel-like colours.
The country up here is former lumber country - it was deforested pretty swiftly and the demands for timber after the Great Chicago Fire finished the job - so here and there are some spectacular lumber baron mansions like the one pictured,

now a gorgeous B&B where we spent one blissful night. Situated in a tiny blink-and-you'd-miss-it town of Bellaire on a chain of lakes, at first sight it seems little more that an outpost for fisherman and boaties. Imagine our surprise when we had the meal of our trip so far at a Sydney-class restaurant, Lulu's: a baby spinach leaf salad with port-soaked cherries, goat's cheese and walnuts... house-smoked beef brisket and cheddar whipped potatoes with caramelized onions... pork with a fennel and cheese crust.
As part of our travels on Saturday we dropped in on the Grand Traverse Pie Company in Traverse City to sample their fare. If the definition of happiness is walking into a kitchen to survey (and inhale the aroma of) a row of freshly-baked pies, sweet and savoury, then this is a jolly place for you. They cook up the luscious fruits which grow so plentifully in this part of the world: cherries, berries, apples, peaches and the like, with their juices bubbling out of the crusts. Said crusts could possibly benefit from being a bit crisper but it's a sweet treat nonetheless. I bet they'd taste even better when it's cold outside!

Last word: if you can help it, try not to be in the breakfast room of a major hotel chain off the Interstate on the morning of September 11 when they have Fox News on the wide-screen TV.