Traverse City to Boston

Our final day in Traverse City began with breakfast at one of the local restaurants. This place had a Harley theme which would amuse Martin. The selection was huge and we both stubbonly proved our Aussie heritage by not ordering the local specialty of biscuits ( large  scones) and gravy. The gravy is an anaemic shade of pale made of flour, water and bacon grease. Both Mike and now Kathryn  assured us it was delicious but we both stuck with eggs.
We  then drove about 45 minutes to the top of the Peninsula near TC. This area is the site of one of the many lighthouses around the coast of Lake Michigan. Today it is a museum and State Park. We explored the shoreline of the lake while Adelaide and Willow had a splash in the water. It was too cold and too shallow just there to tempt the adults even though we had brought our bathers, just in case. We then visited the museum which was interesting because the lighthouse building had housed two families at it's peak and contained a comprehensive collection of memorabilia and description.  The strairs up to the lighthouse proper were  tricky and it was apparent that the inhabitants were a size or two smaller than todays popularion but we all made it. The view out over the lake made it worthwhile.
Our timing was perfect because the rain which had been threatening set in. Our drive home meandered through some nearby locations but it was too wet to explore so we headed home for a late lunch and a nap.  That evening Jerry and Kaye came over for dinner and the meal  was a feast by the time Kaye had added her contributions to Andy and Kathryn's array of food. I have scored a couple of new salad recipes to try out when we get home.
The trip to Boston began early the next morning as we knew we had two days of driving.  The countryside of Michigan is beautiful to drive through at this time of year with green forests and lush farmland. Crops of corn and beets are just ripening and are in huge acerages along the road. Their vinyards are different in that they do not trellis their wine grapes at all and the leafy vegetation grows straight up from the ground.
This was a long day as Bob wanted to break the back of the driving even though he was suffering from a cold. We stopped for the night in the small town of Victor in Rochester County after driving across a short section of Canada and coming back into the USA alongside Niagara Falls. We had visited the Falls on a previous trip so didn't stop but saw the countryside along the northern side and discovered it is a huge wine growing area. When we did stop we were so tired we opted for a pizza eaten in our room.
Yesterday we drove on into Boston and arrived at about 3pm finding our hostel in the downtown area without difficulty thanks to the GPS. Parking was an entirely different matter. The hostel gave us the address of a parking garage which gives discount to their customers. This amounts to $17 per day . Unfortunately Bob missed the entry and had an encounter with a nearby public car park which is $35 per day. Even extracting the car by driving through would have been $11 for the first hour. We regrouped and decided that it was better to pay the extortionate fee and move to the cheaper option immediately than risk incurring the 24 hour fee. We had a leisurely walk around the area finding some magnificent church buildings and some high end fashion shops which I did not bother to venture in to. In a slightly different direction we were in the Theatre district with plenty of restaurants and had a delicious Indian meal for dinner. Today we are planning on a walking tour, exploring the Boston Common area with Isaac and meeting up with Sally and Lucy for dinner.