Exploring Benzie County! - Day 4

Hey there!

Alright...Well it's Thursday, and also day 4 of my recap of my family's trip experience to Benzie County!

It's also another day for you to register for the Benzie County giveaway (see link above). Remember, you get 1 Point-Free entry daily and that's it. If you aren't a JQ Family Rewards member yet, sign up and get your entry today and tomorrow. It still gives you a good shot at winning, since JQ Family Rewards members with points can't get extra entries! Pretty fair playing field if you ask me!

Anyway...Yesterday my family and I left you with thoughts of Cherries! That's because a short hop, skip, and a jump away from "A. Papano's Pizza" is..."The Cherry Hut".

Now...I need to tell you, before we even entered Benzie County, I was already thinking of "The Cherry Hut". Why? Because just outside of Manistee is a tiny little sign on the right side of the road for "The Cherry Hut". It caught my attention, and I needed to know what it was. Little did I know, my wife knew exactly what this place was.

So we entered and every thing was just peachy...I mean...Cherry. Really, it was. Cherry Jam, Preserves, Salsa, Candy, etc. It's also a restaurant by the way. However, since we just enjoyed a pizza lunch, we we're hungry for a meal, but desert...Another story!

Our "Passport to Fun" included "1 Free Cherry Pie Slice"! Score! So we enjoyed what had to have been the best tasting slice of Cherry Pie I've ever had. Before leaving, my wife bought, and this sounds bad but, she bought a jar of Cherry something. I'm not sure what it was, but apparently you put it on toast/bread. So it's either Jam, Jelly, or Preserves. I never knew there was a difference.

Recommendation for "The Cherry Hut"...Stop by...Good place. Besides, the sign's a smiley face, what could be more inviting than that?

Ever seen a beautiful nature print and wonder where it came from? Chances are, it could be a Gwen Frostic. She's a pretty famous artist, even though I never heard of her, for which I did apologize. She's no longer living, but her art is...The printing presses still run, and we were headed to where they were at.

Upon arrival, we couldn't help but admire the individuality of the 'home', now a workshop/store. If you take rustic, and take it one step further, you get this place. It was super neat. To be honest, I wasn't all that thrilled, I'm not a big 'arts-n-crafts' guy, but I knew my wife Annie would enjoy. In the end though...I thought it was neat.

The place has TONS and TONS of paper products with Gwen's nature prints on it. Oh...and how do those prints make it on to the paper...These things:

(Sorry for the slightly blurry picture, I was holding my daughter while my wife shopped.)

By the way...We people weren't the only ones enjoying Gwen's place...This little guy was running around the INSIDE of the building for a while before finally making his way out to snack on some interesting tree fruit. We named him "Alvin" for all intense purposes.

If you are just joining me on my family's wild adventure to Benzie County, go back a start reading from "Day 1", but then understand we did all this in 1 day so far! We needed a rest, so off for a drive to find a place to rest...That's...for tomorrow!

Jeremy