RVery Best Nest

Come join Joe, Mallery & I, as we travel around the USA in our RVery Best Nest. God's Favor has been chasing us down, and we are enjoying all of His blessing's, that He has created for all to enjoy!






Sunday, August 24, 2014

Bay View Community In Petoskey, MI Part 2



I will continue to show you just a few more homes in the Bay View community. This one is from the back side, and has 3 stories and  a great view of Little Traverse Bay.
There is a small chapel in the neighborhood. Whether they have services here still, I am unsure.
There is also a Post Office and two Realors offices for the home sales in Bay View.
The community has a very large shuffle board court.
Here are the first buildings that were built on the grounds.
This building is now the Historic Museum, but I think it was the railroad station when first built. ( But that is a guess).
This is Hitchcock Hall. I think they hold classes in this building. We heard instrumental music going on in one of these buildings as we walked around.
This house is called the Alpine Lodge.
Most of the cottage homes have names on them. This one is the "Grandview".
We talked to 3 adorable little girls who told us this place was for sale because their grandmother lived down south now and it was too far for the family to travel to.
Front view of the previous picture. Today we went by this house because we went to the church service that is held in the auditorium, and I saw a large banner across the porch saying: "Good Bye Sweet Cottage we leave you with great memories" or something to that effect.
I liked the different shaped dormers on this one.
This one had an unusual upstairs balcony cove.


This cottage had very bright old windows,
painted in red to show the window design off.
We got a view of the front entrance of the Terrace Inn on this street.
The community has a very nice central park.


I got a side view of this house to show how large some of these cottages are. From the front view they look much smaller.
Not all of them are large but at least 50% of them are.
A close up of the previous picture to show more of it's detail.


This one had a lot of detail at the roof peak.
This one was hidden mostly by large shrubbery, but what I could see, looked very interesting.
There were many more houses that we didn't have time to see. Maybe another day we will take another walk to see some more, but I won't bore you with another post. To me you just don't get to see neighborhoods like this anymore that have such charm.

Every night we see more and more boats on the bay fishing. We saw a neighbor come back home one morning with a 17 pound King that was 2 1/2 feet long and a foot long Coho, both of which are salmon varieties.
We continue to enjoy our sunset views nightly.


As I was taking pictures this evening of the sunset, a neighbor came by with her granddaughter. The little girl wanted me to take her picture. Makes me miss my little Nana kids!
Here is a jet ski going past the setting sun. The bay gets very calm at sunset.
This is a picture I took on my phone today while we were in the John M Hall Auditorium for church service. We have been visited  and attending different churches in this area all summer looking for a summer church home. This auditorium has quite the pipe organ set up, and the organist went to town on it today.
The auditorium is very large with balcony seating.

The Bay View Association is committed to bring the four pillars of religion, recreation, education, and arts to a broad spectrum of the public.
The sermon was very good and I enjoyed the "Pass It On" song we sang, because it reminds me of my mom and daughter. My mom's church always sang this song and my mom always teared up during it. It reminds me of my daughter Alisha, because she named her photography business after it,
Spark Studio Photography
  She loves the words of the song too. Here is the first verse of the song, "It only takes a spark to get a fire going
And soon all those around, can warm up in glowing.
That’s how it is with God’s love
Once you’ve experienced it, you spread His love to everyone
You want to pass it on".  If you have never heard it, it is a beautiful song. Here is a link if you would like to hear the whole song:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCjR4dlY33k&index=2&list=RDtadZ8nCLBsI

Monday, August 18, 2014

Bay View Community in Petoskey, MI


We have driven past the Bay View neighborhood many times on the bike trail and in the car, but never stopped. This day we drove over and parked the car and pushed Mallery around in her stroller around the neighborhood. The Bay View Association Of The United Methodist Church is a National Historic Landmark community that was founded in 1875.
In the community there are 450 cottages and 30 public buildings.
In October 2012, Bay View was awarded with a great honor of being selected as one of America’s “Prettiest Painted Places” by the Paint Quality Institute and is a 'must see' destination. 
There are several families who have been a part of Bay View for six generations. Bay View residents have a great interest in the preservation and restoration of their cottages, most of which are famous for their Victorian "gingerbread" decorations.

This is one of the hotels in the neighborhood.
I couldn't get it all in the picture so I had to take 3 in all, but only posted two of them.
This community started as a religious camp meeting place in 1875 for a week in tents, and from there, it grew each year with new cottages and public buildings.
This area was chosen for the camp meeting due to the pleasant summer climate and the beauty of this area, as well as a railroad and steam boats that came to this area.
Enjoy the stroll through the neighborhood with us, as we did!

A close up to show all the unique detail of this cottage.


Most are bigger than most average homes of today.


The Bay View season is from May though October.





In the middle of the community is the John M. Hall Auditorium 

Every summer, Bay View offers world class presentations of music, theater, internationally renowned lectures and educational seminars, all of which are open to the public at the auditorium.


This home sat on a hill and had a bench seat half way up the stairs.
There was a sign on the home that said "Heaven Hill" 1880.



This is a close up of the porch of the house in the previous picture.
Hydrangea's grow really well up here with the cooler summers.




All the home owners seemed to love their flags.












This is the most beautiful neighborhood I have ever seen, but I love older homes!
I think this is one of the public buildings. The community has all kinds of classes from knitting, cards, musical instruments lessons, culinary, arts, gardening, and much more.
I love this home with it's deep front porch.
A little closer view.


Not a single home looks the same as you see in most neighborhoods today.
Most of the cottages sit in a neighborhood across the street from Little Traverse Bay.
There are a few that are on the lake shore or a few houses away. This one is a Bed & Breakfast.






Such details and character in the cottages.
Now this one is the Queen of all the cottages as far as I am concerned.
This home sits on Hwy 31. We first saw it last year as we drove into Petoskey from the north.


The flowers were in full bloom for this picture.


I posted a lot of close ups, so you can see all the detail in this one house.
What a beauty!

Built in 1886.
A view of the south side of the house.

Check out the dragon on the roof!

A foot bridge was built so the home owners could access the lake without crossing the busy Highway 31.
The community has a tennis court and we see kids taking lessons all the time when we drive by here.
This home sits on Hwy 31 and has a great view of the bay.
A view on the hill where all the kids park their bikes and take the foot path for tennis, swimming, sailing, or recreation classes.
Any visitor or Petoskey resident from the age of 3 to 15  can take any of the classes that are offered. Sorry this blog ws so long, but it was hard to cut any of the homes out. They are all so unique. To be continued: