Sea Shell City

By: Michigan Exposures

When every single day is spent doing the same things out on the water, you fall into a routine. For me that meant wake up, watch the sun rise on the deck while enjoying my coffee, followed by a kayak or paddle board ride. By the time I would return, most of the house would be awake, we would eat breakfast and either go tubing, skiing, or boating all day long. While this was exciting, my aunt decided we should make it a point to have at least one adventure each summer; something no one has done.

It sounded pretty exciting, plus I'm pretty sure we would all survive with one day not spent out on the water. When we asked where she wanted to go on this adventure she said Sea Shell City. I looked at my sister who stared back at me with the same look of confusion and disbelief that was on my face. Immediately I had to know what was the fascination with Sea Shell City? I mean what was it?

My Aunt then went into great detail that when she and my mom would drive up to the lake with my grandparents they would always pass these huge billboards advertising this place called Sea Shell City. It was also said to have a man eating clam, weighing in at 500 lbs. She went on to explain how each time they made the drive she would beg to go to Sea Shell City, but they never got around to going, so this year she was going.

By: Kathryn

I have to admit, I started to get relatively excited about this new adventure. I wondered what Sea Shell City was going to look like, would there by shells everywhere? How big would the city be? What kinds of shells would be there? As all of these questions raced through my mind, we set the date and plans to go to Sea Shell City.

When the day came, we all piled into the car and made the 20 minute drive to Sea Shell City (yes it was only 20 minutes away and I had no idea it existed). As we got closer and closer the excitement became palpable. However, as we came up upon Sea Shell City, we learned it actually wasn't a city at all - instead it was a large trinket store called Sea Shell City. My cousins from the back seat were sitting in disbelief, while I was thinking are you kidding me? I gave up a day on the water for this?

By: Forward Look

All of a sudden, from the front seat my aunt and mom burst out laughing. They thought it was the funniest thing ever that for years they had made such a big deal about going to Sea Shell City, and in the end it wasn't even a city! Once they pulled themselves together, we went in to see what it was like inside. Turns out, most of the things in the store weren't even shells, making this whole adventure even funnier; none of it was what any of us expected.

But, I did learn something valuable that day. There is something positive that can be found in any situation. When we pulled up to the store we could have easily left before entering, disappointed or frustrated that it wasn't what was expected (which I did think about doing), but instead we made the best of the situation and found the humor in it.

After our Sea Shell City adventure, we actually decided that each year we would find a tourist attraction to go and check out, since most of the time we really never left the lake itself. In the years following we visited places like the American and Michigan Chillers headquarters and met the author, visited the Mystery Spot, and went to an authentic Pasty's shop, with each adventure bringing its own humor and memories.