Washington Park Marina in Michigan City, Indiana

This is a great stop to get ready for the big city of Chicago.  We have really enjoyed that part of our trip—being a tourist in major metropolitan cities in the best hotel room –the harbor.  A lot of the highlights from the trip so far can be found in Key West, Charleston, Washington DC, Annapolis, and New York City.  We are hopeful that Katie, Leeton and Holden will meet us (making plans with children is as unsure as the weather) and for 5 days we will try to tackle the beast called Chicago.  Washington Park is well located to jump to Dusable Harbor with a relatively easy cruise, has a great (inexpensive) laundry and some good restaurants.  We found fellow Loopers here—Island Office (Denise and Mark), TiKi (Tim, Karen and Mark) and Fryedaze (Betsy and Dave).  All of them are taking this opportunity to go back home/work/visit friends and will be in Chicago later than us.  Sharing docktails with them the first night here, allowed us to get to know these nice people and we will be floating down the Mississippi River with them. 

Welcome to Indiana

 

Tim, Terry, Betsy, Mark, Dave, Mark, and Denise--fellow Loopers

 

 

Neat Veterans Memorial at our dock

 

Getting the V-berth ready for Leeton and Holden

St. Joseph’s/Benton Harbor

Going into St. Joe we waited for a tow with a BIG barge backing out the canal

St. Joseph, Michigan was an artsy little town with a really neat gallery/artist studio called the Box Factory.  There artist are working their craft and we got to talking with 3 curmudgeons and admired their work.  One was a Digital Artist, one a modern artist (reminded me in looks of my friend at Vanderbilt, Michael Aurbach) and an Indian (From Mumbai) that worked with photography and framed for them all.  They were about our age and very interested in our trip as we were their work.  We got to talking to them and ran out of time—they closed the Gallery on us.  But there was a person who worked with pewter, a few pottery artists and a couple of terrible watercolorist that did self-portraits.  We stayed at the Free Wall in the heart of town because the winds were calm and ate on board so we didn’t really take in everything the town had to offer but we liked what we saw.  We left the State of Michigan the next morning and headed for Michigan City, Indiana—we have been in Michigan for a month and we had a weather window. We loved all the places we visited in Michigan and the Lake is and continues to be a challenge—wonderful if the winds and weather are right—otherwise stay in port. 

 

 

Thought our Grandson would love this one

 

Sunny Days at the Free Wall

Saugatuck

We got up early and traveled the 25 miles to Saugatuck.  This is a great little vacation town that reminded us of Fairhope, AL.  Lots of higher end clothing and art shops and there is jazz in the park tonight right on the water.  The fire department showed up and set some practice fires on a platform so they can train to put fires out in the water, this kept Fitz entertained for a couple of hours.   The weather started out lousy so we rejoiced when the sun came out at Happy Hour even though the temp has not climbed over 65 today.  At least the wind promises to start settling down and we should have a couple of good travel days. 

Beautiful homes on the Saugatuck Canal from Lake Michigan

Busy anchorage on Lake Kalamazoo in the Saugatuck Harbor

The Chain Ferry will take you across the Lake/Canal

Fire Department training

Music in the Park

Paddleboat takes people of a tour

Collaborative Dinner (trying not to look at the news of the Wall Street correction)

They did not get the memo in Michigan that it is SUMMER.  It is getting in the 40’s at night here, the wind is gusting to 30mph, and we are just glad we are in a protected port.  I know that we are suffering because I jinxed us with gloating about the weather earlier in the month—I am sorry, sorry, sorry.  So last night we got with our buddies and fixed a fabulous dinner onboard Kat in the Hatt.  Grilled chicken/peaches/corn on the cob were on the menu and we had great fun.  Today our friends are taking off in rented car to Mackinac Island to celebrate Kat’s birthday and Fitz and I are holding down the fort here in Grand Haven.  Later this week the weather is supposed to turn and now that I have apologized to the weather gods maybe we will be able to get underway.

AJ and Amy from Gimmetime

Kat and Richard from Kat in the Hatt (I know the Auburn hat--Loopers take in all kind)

Fitz and I --notice the flag flying in the background

Fun night

Stuck in Port

The wise people that advise traveling Lake Michigan say that you should plan to travel 1 in 3 days because of the weather—mostly the winds and wave height. We were spoiled and didn’t know it. In the north part of the Lake we had what we thought were windy/wavy days but they only slightly altered our travel plan.  Now that we are in the wide portion of the Lake, the winds have kicked up and seasoned veterans are getting seasick.  The ports along the shore are only around 20 miles apart and there is good reason.  North Shore here in Grand Haven has a really good wave break so the good news is that we don’t have the waves but the wind is still blowing us around and (more importantly) there is no going out into the Lake.  So it is a good thing we are not in a hurry and we have an interesting port, great restaurants, stores and friends here.   

Grand Haven Waterfront

 

AJ and Amy on the Wall

 

Ready to go to dinner

 

Butterburgers?????

 

Traffic gathering to watch the water show

 

Donut Peaches? and Great blueberries at the famers market

Grand Haven

52 miles down a sunny but very windy Lake Michigan where we passed many sand dunes and a few fishermen.  We were ready for calm water, friends and happy hour.  Seemingly there are more marinas/boats here than people so on a pretty Friday afternoon it was happening.  This is a very busy beach town (pop. 10,000  and we guess double that when the boat owners show up on the weekends) located outside the larger city of Grand Rapids.  It has been the home for our friends on Kat in the Hatt and Gimmetime (haven’t seen AJ and Amy since Peterborough) for the last few days.  They have great stories of their travel and a CAR--we haven't been in a car in months!  They have checked out the city, found a West Marine, Home Depot and some really good restaurants.  At 10pm every night, rain or shine, Grand Haven waterfront has a fantastic half hour water show set to music –this has been going on for 50 years . It is the largest water show in the world except for the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  The waterfront is the focus of the town and we have the best seat in town with Gimmetime tied to the free wall --but rocky from the high winds.  The winds/waters are calm in our protected marina but tomorrow they promise to kick up and stay there for a while.

Sand Dunes lined the way from Pentwater to Grand Haven

Busy beach going into GH

Street Art

Where the water show will be

Water Show

Pentwater

My Nashville Pal Penny has vacationed with her family in Pentwater for many years.  We have enjoyed many an asparagus, blueberries, and corn that she has brought back from her visits here.  I have looked forward to this stop and plan to eat, drink and be merry.   We are due to have big winds and rain for the next few days so we may get to know this place better than we want.  We left Manistee by 8am because of the weather and even then we came through a storm and some uncomfortable waves—it is not supposed to get any better soon.  This is a good time to tell you about the Great Lakes’ water.  Canada is quite proud of the water in the North Channel and the Georgian Bay.  We would put the water of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Ontario up against it any time.  It is clear and a beautiful shade of blue.  We haven’t had to dodge anything but other boaters.  The favored T-Shirt/sweatshirt up here says Lake Michigan, Unsalted, No Sharks, No Problems---they need to add—No Dolphin (sad for long runs), and Lots of Spiders. Fitz gave the boat a thorough cleaning back in Manistee—I think spiders like a clean boat better.  We are half way down Lake Michigan to Chicago and have 2 weeks to get there—no problem. 
 Pentwater has some of the best little shops we have found--this may be because we can go no where-- gusts of 40mph are out on Lake Michigan--so we make the best of the harbor. 

Pentwater has a great Farmers Market--notice people are in sweatshirts



 

Big Sable Point on the way to Pentwater

 

Busy town of Pentwater

 

Cool homes on the canal

 

 


Pretty church in Pentwater

See the spray and the flags?--that is why we are in harbor

 

Manistee

Manistee had not been on our list but around midnight at anchor in Sleeping Bear we got phantom waves rocking the boat so hard that it woke us up and they did not subside until about 4am—there was no wind or boat traffic so somewhere on Lake Michigan was a storm or something.  Anyway we learned a lesson- you don’t want to anchor right on the Lake.  Most of the marinas or anchorages are at the end of canals and usually connect to an inland lake —I guess Lake Michigan’s unpredictability is the reason.  Manistee got us another 40 miles down the creek and in port by 4 pm so we could take a nap.  We met Loopers Werner and Kathie aboard Its About Time and had docktails then to The Ramsdell Inn and TJ’s Pub for dinner.  This neat little town has an ice cream place called House of Flavors where you can buy a 13 scoop sundae for less than 10 dollars—yum.  But the biggest attraction (at least for Fitz) has been the huge 6 story freighters that come right down the canal and through the bridges and turns to transport cargo to the industrial plants on the lake.  So far there has been 1 a day and draw all the children and men of the community and boats to the Riverwalk to gawk and take pictures.  Us girls like it too but really…. Report from Facebook was that we missed a great party at the Knoxville Reunion—we will see them in 5 years. 

The Buffalo was an awesome sight

Sunny Days docked along the Riverwalk--Nashville should take notes this runs a couple of miles along the canal

If you look real hard you see The Buffalo making the turn at the end of the canal to go into Lake Michigan

The Ramsdale Inn has 8 suites and TJ's Pub in the corner

River Street with Restaurants and neat shops

Stay Nimble, Stay Quick

Woke up to another fine day in Round Lake and the weather looked like we had a 2 day window of good cruising conditions.  Initially we were going to go to Northport—only 20 miles down the pike but the iffy weather for next week convinced us that we should make good use of our cruising time.  So we ended up at Sleeping Bear Point—about 50 miles.  It reminded us of The Bernstein Bear’s Spooky Old Tree that our kids loved and grandkids love.  I think the sand dunes are supposed to look like a sleeping bear—we don’t see it.  It was, however, spooky because there was not another boat anchored in sight.  To add to the scene we heard the local weather and a few miles across the land to the east-- Traverse City-- has thunderstorms with 60 mph winds and hail—that was NOT in my weather forecast.  Anyway we found a good place to anchor and gusts of winds have come up to challenge us but we have held tight.  Lots of homes and people camping here but the only boats (besides us) are under 20ft.  Friday night in a secluded bay—fun—except back in Knoxville, I am missing my high school reunion—too many years to mention.  A lot of friends have gathered and I am sorry we are missing it.  Hopefully Elizabeth, Andy and Facebook will give me a full report on the festivities. 

They lined up to go through the bridge at Charlevoix/Round Lake--we counted 15 for the 10am bridge opening
 

Happy Hour at 6pm- the blueberry, basil, limeade with blueberry vodka is my favorite --Fitz just goes with the Jack

Only other boat at Sleeping Bear--notice the haze in the background

Sleeping Bear?

Lots of people on the beach --this looked like a team of some sort out for a run

Charlevoix (or little Annapolis)

Mushroom Home on the Round Lake

Along with the fabulous garden, the mushroom homes are unique

We are going down the eastern shore first of all because there are a lot of friendly ports about 20-30 miles apart and there is a forgiving sandy bottom if you should get into shallow water.  The winds on Lake Michigan are a tricky thing –if they come from the west they run across the lake and gather the force of the waves as they reach the eastern shore and can make for uncomfortable/pounding beam seas—so we check the winds, waves and rainfall daily to figure out the best times to travel.  After leaving Beaver Island at 8am and anchoring in Round Lake right off the city of Charlevoix before noon we shopped --the winds kick up in the afternoon.  The municipal marina is full of fabulous boats and the town has lots of restaurants and nice shops. Around the edge of Round Bay are big wonderful homes with equally beautiful boat houses. They have what they call Mushroom Homes here that are made of the Petoskey Rocks that are round, speckled and pretty.  This reminded us of Annapolis in that we could just sit on our boat and watch the other boats come and go –it was better than a movie.  

 

Canal leading into the town of Charlevoix and Round Lake

Charlevoix Harbor





Sunny Days at anchor