Petoskey in 30 Minutes or Less

Petoskey in 30 minutes or less, is that possible? Yesterday, my college friend was passing through Petoskey with his family and they stopped by to say hi on their way back to Texas.  He asked me what they absolutely had to do in the thirty minutes they had in town.  As he was already in Grandpa Shorter’s, I sent him over to look at the Petoskey Stones.  Then I told him he needed to get coffee at Roast and Toast (he later texted me with high praise for their Milky Way mocha and chicken salad sandwich) and walk down by the water.  He liked Petoskey and agreed whole-heartedly with my idea to road trip to Petoskey during the school year.

His question got me thinking on what unique, can’t-miss Petoskey experiences could be crammed into a half-hour, so I asked around.  People’s answers varied a bit from person to person, depending on their personal preferences and their appetite for ice cream.  Most people said they’d get ice cream or fudge from Kilwin’s or Murdick’s or a drink at Roast and Toast.  Almost everyone said they’d get a Petoskey Stone, whether that meant searching at the beach or buying a polished one from a store.  And, unanimously, people said they would go down to Bay Front Park to walk along the water or out on the break wall, especially at sunset.

If I had to construct a perfect tourist half hour, I would get some Petoskey Mud at Kilwin’s, eat it down at Bay Front Park, then head back up and pick up a Petoskey Stone at Grandpa Shorter’s before getting a Baked Alaska from Roast and Toast for the road.  Ideally, tourists visiting Petoskey would have more than a half hour to explore all of the unique downtown shops, walk along the waterfront and out on the break wall, and watch the sunset before they had to leave and return to the outside world.

If you only had 30 minutes in Petoskey what would you see and do??