Saturday, July 26, 2008

Fun in South Haven, Michigan

Two days after my laptop was stolen, we left for a vacation at our family's cottage in Michigan. I'll share some pics from there later, but I thought I'd share a day when we went to the little lakeshore town of South Haven. It's a charming little town with all kinds of wonderful little shops and historic places to visit.

Most of my pictures from that day are from a garden shop called Sweet Summer Gardens just to the south of South Haven on M140. The lady who owns this shop has the sweetest garden surrounded by picket fence. Don't you just love the little fanciful greenhouse? They are building another one out of salvaged materials but I don't think it will be done until next summer. If you click any of the pictures you can see them in more detail...I left them fairly large because there is so much to see.

They display and sell the work of several area artisans in their garden as well as selling plants. I loved this tin man.

And this one too! Wonderful garden junk! I think this one one is 175.oo.
Another view of the garden. Some of the paths were bark lined with bricks and some were all brick.

The gent who lives here makes wonderful chimes and whimseys from bottles and jars found on the property. Somehow he makes many of them look like beach glass....maybe with a rock tumbler?
Now how is this for a cute, cute fence? It surrounded a sweet little cottage in a South Haven neighborhood. Each post is topped by a dutch shoe.....and Holland MI is not far from here.
Here's one of the many charming shops in the downtown area. It's a lovely downtown with plantings that are very inspiring. There are a wide variety of shops and a wonderful upscale doggie boutique called Decadent Dogs. If you want to spoil your dog, that's the place. You could spend a fortune there or just buy your pooch a treat that looks good enough for us to eat! I didn't try to take Hawkeye into the shops, but I was pleased to see that many of the shops had a dog bowl with fresh water right outside their entrance.

If you are looking strictly for beaches I would recommend St. Joseph instead of South Haven. The beach in S. Haven is not bad, but not as beautiful or as big as Silver Beach in St. Joe.

I'm happy to be back up and running online again. I guess I got quickly spoiled having a computer I could tote anyplace I want.

3 comments:

Ms.Daisy said...

~So glad to see you are up and running again! You were missed!
I love those quaint little shops where you can find whimsical and charming things you wouldn't find anywhere else. (Not that I can afford any of them! :-)
Anyway, nice to see you back!

~Jean

Jan~Feather Your Nest Antiques said...

Been to South Haven many, many times! My Aunt and Uncle live there. It is a very quaint town and the shops are great. There's a cute little antiques mall there that I just love! Did you eat at Clementine's?

Why S? said...

It looks like you had a lovely trip. Sorry about your laptop. I hope the thief is stopped soon.