Michigan is famous not only for it’s Tim Allen commercials but also for their many, many, amazing breweries. One city that we were hoping to stop, Traverse City, has around 8 breweries that are easily accessible for those who don’t have a car as a mode of transportation. During our first wander around Sutton’s Bay, we came upon a bike shop that rents bikes and advertises the TART trail, a 17 mile trail that connects Sutton’s Bay to Traverse City. Bike riding 17 miles to breweries, no problem. Biking the 17 miles back, that’s another story. Fortunately the BATA, The Bay Area Transportation Authority offers a bike-n-ride program where you can easily ride the 17 miles into Traverse City (or out to Sutton's Bay) and then enjoy a nice bus ride back with your bike. Perfect!
Our initial plan was to do our Bike n Brew tour on Friday, however some storms and high winds blew in Thursday evening and were supposed to stay in the area until Friday afternoon and we didn't want to stress out Mr. T by leaving him by himself on a boat anchored in the bay. So, we pushed it back to Saturday. Both a good and a bad decision; good for Tuco, bad for biking in Traverse City... TONS of people EVERYWHERE. A random funny thing is that we have only been to Traverse City twice and both times were in the middle of the Cherry Festival, the area's biggest yearly festival and where everyone says to stay away from the area during this time. The town's population goes from 15,000 people to some say 1.5 million people! We did try to get to the area before the Cherry Festival began but because of weather and our late start of our trip, we were stuck there for the 4th of July weekend. So we made the best of it!
Saturday morning we went to the most amazing bakery, Chimoski Bakery, on our way to Sutton's Bay Bikes and grabbed a couple of maple and cherry sugar donuts and coffee to start our trip of right! We were started out on the TART trail around 11am and instantly we were surrounded by the beautiful Michigan landscape! The ride was beautiful. We passed numerous vineyards, cherry orchards and hop fields. There were nicely kept rest stops all along the path that provided water stations and bathrooms. It was a wonderful ride into town. As soon as we arrived at the lakefront though we were not so welcomed by thousands of people who set up camp to see the air show. 
After weaving in and out of the crowd, we turned down a side street to find a gym where we could quickly shower before starting our brew part of our bike-n-brew tour. We figured the YMCA would be our best bet even though is was a little over two miles outside of the city. After getting lost and riding under the blazing sun for what seemed like forever, we got to our showers and they were glorious!
By the time we got back into downtown Traverse City, we were very hungry (because remember, we only had a couple of donuts before starting our journey), over our bikes and only had about an hour and a half before the last bus back to Sutton's Bay was scheduled to leave. So, we decided to head to the one brewery, North Point, that was not only the closest to the bus station but it also served food. Their patio was packed but we didn't care since we basically live outside 24/7 we almost always opt for a cool inside seat at the bar.
The bus home was perfect. The buses are old school buses that have been converted to carry people and 11 bikes in the back. It was very easy loading them onto the racks on the front of the bus and off we went on our ride up the Traverse Bay coast back to the boat! Not before stopping at the local ice cream shops for a cone of vanilla soft serve dipped in cherry dip. It was heavenly!
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