Mon Sept 4: Happy Labor Day from Charlevoix!

It's turned hot again - we've been spoiled and now we are, once more, sweating through our undies.  Drat... I was counting on fall in the north.

We had a lovely slow start - Rick said my favorite three words ‘sleep in, dear’!

Rick made me an egg hedgehog. A egg-hog 🙄🤷‍♀️

Then it was off for a tour of the Earl Young Mushroom Houses, something found only here! He was a self-taught architect & stone mason who became obsessed with using the rocks found in the Charlevoix area to build a neighborhood of rock houses. Sometimes it took him up to 10 years to collect all the rocks needed for ONE house. Then he would draw a picture in the dirt of his idea, and he and his builders would just get to work-willy nilly! He is famous for gigantic rocks and swooping cedar-shake roofs. Our pix can’t do them justice; either look at them online or ask me for the code for a free virtual tour.  

Just to set the whimsical tone!

A 9-ton rock caps the fireplace.  

Now THAT is fireplace!

He always added a rock planter so it would look like the flowers were growing out of the rock.  This undulating rock wall is copied all over town.

 

Most of his houses have a ‘snow capped’ chimney with cement ‘dripping’ down.

This is called the Half-House. Earl was a bit impractical in some areas-he had no interest in kitchen/cooking and so the kitchens are too small and most of his houses are now used as vacation rentals.  They are in high demand.

This is called the Thatched House, and is not miniature like so many others.  Earl Young’s goal was to show that a small home could be just as “majestic” as a large castle.  His use of large stones even in small houses made the structures look grand (although we can imagine that the inside of the homes must be small with the huge stones sticking out into the living space).

Earl Young’s unusual structures were known as “Gnome Homes”, “Hobbit Houses” and most especially “Mushroom Houses”.  Over 57 years he built around 31 structures in total and he had a big impact on the town of Charlevoix, making it into one of the top tourist destinations along Lake Michigan (much to the disappointment to full time residents we are sure!)

It was a lot of fun to see the houses and a bit of the area via an electric open sided vehicle! Walking back through town we took a few random pics. 

Giant chess.

As in many of these northern towns the residents really take advantage of the sun with wonderful flower gardens

We ended the day with a massive Looper gathering at the marina patio.  There are 7 looper boats on our dock alone, and there are 4 docks. We even met someone ONE DAY into their loop!!

This boat is one of 3 that travel together. Can you guess what he used to do?!

We have enjoyed Charlevoix, but are ready to move on.  Goodnight!