Petoskey, Michigan and Hemingway

 


I have wanted to visited Petoskey, Michigan ever since I first read the Nick Adams stories when I was pregnant with Cal.  Although not a huge fan of Hemingway's writing style in his later works, I loved the short stories of adventure from his youth while hiking through northern Michigan to his family vacation home on Walloon Lake.  In addition to reading his stories of that time period I also read multiple biographies about Hemingway focusing mainly on his life leading up to World War I and his first marriage.

Over the past twenty years I had mentioned to Doug several times that I would really like to tour Hemingway's Michigan.  I had researched the area especially around Petoskey as it seemed to have the most places to visit.  We had evened booked several vacations to the area, but had to cancel due to Heinisch children commitments or Doug's work schedule.  As of last week we weren't even sure that we would be able to make it today because of a conflict, but in the end we finally took our trip and I was so incredibly glad.

We started our day at the Little Traverse Historical Museum which had an exhibit on the author's time at Walloon Lake as well as a walking map of the Petoskey area.  On our tour we found the boarding house that Ernest stayed in after he was injured in World War I, the barbershop that he frequented often, and the bar that he played billiards in and had a beer or two.  My favorite site was the Stafford Perry hotel as Hemingway lodged there on one of his trips North.  It was the only hotel still in operation from that time period and I was so happy that we had booked a room there for the night.  The cost was a little more than the 75 cents that he paid in 1916, but so worth the expense.  We had a gorgeous room with a balcony overlooking Lake Michigan.  We were able to have a drink on our patio while watching the sunset at the end of our day.

When I originally planned our trip to Petoskey, I focused mostly on the Hemingway sites.  Petoskey not only had all of the history I had been looking for, but so much more.  Doug and I were pleased with all that there was to do in the quaint little town.  After the museum this morning we had lunch at Petoskey Brewing Company which was also in existence at the turn of the century.  We drove to the bay and enjoyed a beautiful walk on the beach.  Our hotel was only a couple of blocks from the downtown area which was filled with restaurants, wine tasting, shopping and a lovely park.  This trip not only helped me to put a checkmark on my bucket list of places that I wanted to visit, but it also was the perfect way to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.