Friday August 12: Chicago!

 The lake gods continued to be with us as we moved from South Haven on to Michigan City - and the sand dunes continue to line the shoreline!

It continues to amaze me how much of this lake shore is sand. So very different than Lake Erie - at least around Cleveland.

The waves were again pretty much nonexistent. So much so that Steve decided to continue his sanding of the railing project.

Essentially it took an hour to sand 4 sections of the railing. There are 28 sections so I'm taking that to be about 6 more hours of sanding. And then of course 3 coats of cetol to be put on by brush.

Good thing we have lots of time - although it seems to take a long time to get work done on this boat. It's way more fun doing other things than working on cosmetic stuff .....

Tuesday was a long travel day so by the time we arrived to Michigan City, it was time to relax. We were staying an extra day for some down time since we had traveled 175 miles in the last three days.

Getting close to being on the rivers and getting more nervous that we were going to still get hung up on this lake!!

Rode to a nice little restaurant for breakfast on Wednesday. Apparently we are in a time warp though. I happened to look at a clock and I saw it said 8:10. And we were finished with breakfast! How did that happen? We knew we changed into Central Time but couldn't figure out what time it actually was! So our solution was to just have boat time - we could make it whatever time we wanted :-)

It was another nice day Wednesday. This is a view of the river that continues past the marina and runs next to Michigan City.

Great stop and Steve managed to find the bus that took him to Walmart and back so he did some stocking up. It's been a while -  not that anyone is in danger of going hungry on this boat :-)

Paul and Jill that we met at Beaver Island (and saw again in Charlevoix) drove over to meet us for dinner. They live in the area and had also offered to take Steve to the store. Nice couple - but Findley didn't get to come :-(  Maybe next time ....

The marina is serious about their flowers and plants. Really well done and taken care of - plus a fountain and pond.

Very nice facilities!




It was calm again when we left Thursday about 7 or so. Still on Eastern Time I guess as Steve didn't even have to wake me up!

The winds were going to pick up a bit - only 38 miles to Chicago!!






All by ourselves except for one sailboat and one very large freighter!

It was very overcast and cloudy but it wasn't too long before the skyline of Chicago made it's appearance!

It's ALWAYS fun to see the skyline of a large city as we approach from the water. Sort of just appears out of the mist .....

Today has not been a nice day with thunderstorms rolling through early this morning.

It's cleared up since then but is still very overcast and is to be this way the rest of the day.


The ferris wheel on Navy pier was visible. Not sure who would want to ride it in the rain though ......

Chicago truly is full of fun things. Sadly it's not going to be a great place this time for us but we've been here many times in the past.

A particularly memorable trip was when we met our daughter Rebecca here and went on the architectural boat tour downtown. Really good if you ever get a chance ....

Chicago Lock

We went through the Chicago Lock on that tour. Little did we suspect that we would some day be taking our own boat through this lock!

We had planned on riding to Chinatown for a REAL Chinese lunch but with the rain, that didn't happen.

Mmmm .... I'm sure they have cabs around here. Maybe it's not too late!

We'll leave tomorrow to go through the Chicago Lock and through downtown Chicago! Should be great!! This will connect us to the Des Plaines River and then the Illinois River.

The mast must come down to get under the fixed bridges in Chicago. Hopefully it will not be raining in the morning :-)

By the way? First rain we've had in .... can't even remember when. Ok by us that it rained today!

Monday August 8: Grand Haven - South Haven

Back to Ludington:  What a pleasant surprise of a city! Another example of a beautiful waterfront. The main street in town was a short bike ride away. And it was just after lunchtime so out to lunch sounded like a good idea.

Especially since there was a second House of Flavors (the first was in Manistee) so off we went.

I'd had a taste for a coney dog - you know the kind - chili on a hot dog. Like from the dairy in Perrysville.

So in my mind was a picture. Funny how reality just never seems to mesh with my mental image of what I was ordering! It was ok but definitely not what I was thinking. But I'm not discouraged - I'll find one somewhere :-)

The waterfront had many bronze works of art relating to the sea. This is a grandfather teaching his grandson how to fish.

At right is a sculpture titled the "Spirit of Ludington. We also saw one that was done by an artist from Cleveland so that was fun.

A park in the center of town has one of the most unique fountains we've seen in a while.

The 'rain' dripped off of the umbrella - much to the delight of the child standing under the edge of the umbrella!

Very well done!

A self guided tour of the timber baron homes was available. The nice thing was you just called the number on your cell phone, input the location and the history of the house was played!

Unfortunately these were all private homes (or B & B's) and weren't open to the public for viewing.

Most were right on the main street of town. Overall a great stop!

Probably the most unusual thing we saw was the arrival of the passenger/car ferry, SS Badger.

In order to turn around and back into the pier, the captain must drop the anchor and use it as a pivot point!

Never saw that done before! The Badger is also unusual in that it is a registered historical site in two states: Michigan and Wisconsin.

For more info on the Badger, click here.



The next stop on our way south on the lake was Grand Haven - a 67 mile day so we were up early and pleased to see a very calm Lake Michigan. You never know which Lake Michigan you're going to find once out on the lake!

And the farther south we went, the calmer the water became. The 8 hour travel went quickly - with an arrival time of around 3 pm.

I guess we should have know since it was Sunday and a gorgeous sunny day but we couldn't believe the number of boats in the channel leading to Grand Haven! It was just crazy - maybe even more than being around Ft. Lauderdale!!

Again a very nice waterfront - complete with a viewing stand used for various activities - including the Musical Fountain which plays nightly throughout the summer.

The fountain was across the river and easily seen and heard from the flybridge.

We ran into 5 other Looper boats also docked here in Grand Haven but we were the only ones headed on. South Haven was the next stop - about 45 miles or so. The plan was to move on to Michigan City the next day so we started out after breakfast in and arrived to South Haven a bit after noon. That gave us time to check this place out as it was not a stop for us last time around.

Lots of folks enjoying the sun and water. It was quite warm - mid to high 80's. Being on the water, it was quite pleasant!

At first we thought this was a pirate ship but it wasn't. Seems like every port in Florida has one!

It was actually a replica sloop that is used by the Maritime Museum to provide an opportunity for rides out onto the lake.


And of course no visit is complete without a trip to the currently working lighthouse!



Along with interesting plaques along the bike/walk path.

The areas are so well kept.


Time to move on again.

One last longer leg of 58 miles tomorrow to Michigan City, Indiana. Stay for an extra day then off to Chicago for Thursday and Friday nights!

Saturday August 6: Ludington

Movement south on Lake Michigan continues. We were stuck in Manistee an extra day due to the wind an waves. I knew I was jinxing ourselves!!

Not that we didn't try to move on yesterday. Forecast was for lighter waves than what we found to be out there. Traveled a total of 2.3 miles as we quickly decided that we didn't need to travel broadside for at least 2 hours in waves like that!

It would have been fine if we were going directly into the waves or going with them but not to be so. Broadside it was.

Back to the dock at Manistee!

The day before we had rented a car to drive north to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore. The scenic drive around the park was nice.

This is an overlook view on the drive. Many lakes in Michigan were formed when the rivers feeding into Lake Michigan silted over and eventually closed the link to the lake. Thus the small inland lakes were formed.

Of course the biggest draw is the sand dunes themselves. The name of the park came from a Native American legend that a mother bear and her two cubs were driven to the western shore of Lake Michigan by a forest fire. To survive, the bears set out to swim to the eastern shore. The mother made it to shore but the cubs were behind her. She climbed the dune and laid down to watch for the cubs. Sadly they didn't make it but the North and South Manitou Islands rose where the two cubs perished.

And so the park became the Sleeping Bear Dune National Seashore!

Viewing platform 450 feet above the lake

This is a platform that is 450 feet above the lake level. It overlooks the dune that goes down to the shore.


Look closely - these are the crazy people that went down the dune to the water and then back up!

If you go down and can't make it back up, you have to pay to be rescued!! Sometimes it just costs $$ to be stupid :-)


As Steve walked up to a higher level, I took the opportunity to relax in the shade :-)





Steve also did the popular dune climb. He's about half way up - see under the red arrow!










The parking lot is in the center of the picture left. Quite the climb for sure!!

















We spent the rest of yesterday checking out the trolley ride around the historical parts of Manistee - quite interesting. Lumber was the thing here and this small town had the highest percentage of millionaires per population of any place in the US in the late 1800's.

Then we figured out how this happened on one of the plaques on the Riverwalk!

Never knew that the US government  declared war on a city!!

Bottom line: timber was all cut down by the early 1900's and that was the end of the lumber barons.

The cutest little ducks hung around where we were docked. It was fun watching them :-)


So we left this morning at 6;30. The  waves were higher than expected but not as bad as yesterday so off we went. Still mostly broadside for the first two hours but Steve had put the steadying sail up so that was quite helpful!

A trawler like ours was coming toward us to give you  an idea of what the lake was like.

Fortunately by this time the waves were directly behind us so much smoother sailing!



More about Ludington tomorrow ........ lots of time to do the blog on the 67 miles to Grand Haven!!

Wednesday August 3: Manistee

We are continuing to move south on Lake Michigan. The waters continue to be on their best behavior!

It makes me a little nervous given that we left Mackinaw City almost a week ago and have traveled any day we want. This is very unlike 6 years ago when we were stuck for at least a day everywhere we stopped (10 days in Northport) until we finally just traveled a bit over a hundred miles in one day just to get south on the lake! Our new motto became 'go when you can'!

Anyway, we moved from Petosky to Charlevoix to Leland and are now at Manistee.

Great town with a wonderful breakfast place - more on that later ...



One of the first things to do each morning is to check the weather, wind and wave predictions for the area of the lake to which we are headed. Sadly the one thing we didn't do was turn and look at the sky behind us!

Looking forward, rain on the horizon - no storms forecast so no problem.

Looking behind us at Petosky again a bit later in the morning showed the rain coming and it was catching up! Steve hurriedly put the flybridge plastic in.

The rain eventually caught up but rained itself out rather quickly. Charlevoix was only a two hour cruise so by the time we arrived the rain had left the area and it was a very pleasant day.

This is a very nice marina and the main tourist street is right where the marina is.

Great for people watching and for having lunch at a Thai place. It's nice to be back where it's pretty easy to find a good place to eat.

This is where we were sitting on the flybridge 6 years when we heard someone calling 'Steve'.

Turns out it was Peter (and Cheryl). We had met them originally in Spanish and ran into them again here. They continue to be friends today!!


And then it happened again this year! We were in the front cabin watching "The Help" - great movie if you haven't ever seen it - and we hear someone calling 'Steve'. We half expected Peter to show up but it was Paul and Jill. We had met them at Beaver Island several nights ago and made plans to be in touch when we reached Michigan City (almost at the southern end of the lake) which is near their home.

Turned out we ended up in their home marina tonight!

So they stopped in to say 'hi' and brought Findley with them. Very cute and friendly dog. We'll see them in a week or so.





Leave time Monday was early for the 4 1/2 hour cruise to Leland. This is one place we skipped last time and was a definitely-want-to-see this time around.










The center of the tourist area is called Fishtown. The original location (and still is) of the docks where the fishermen came and went. Still the place to buy fresh fish, souvenirs and of course ice cream! It was quite warm so the walk around town was short.

Steve took a longer walk around the area and found the beaches. Very nice beaches, crystal clear water (only 70 degrees though!).

The place was packed with tourists walking the area and walking the dock. It's kind of fun because during the day it's impossible to see that anyone is sitting in our boat (except through the open door) so you can hear all of the comments about the boat (like, 'look, mom they have a TV on their boat').

 Again a nice marina.

And again a nice sunset.

Yesterday was a long 8 hour day as we wanted to skip some of the towns from last time - except we did come into Manistee. Most of the day was spent motoring past the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

The dunes are AMAZING. So difficult to convey the size though. Once we were in and tied up, the remainder of the day was spent relaxing.....

Today was breakfast out though. Steve is  such a good sport :-)

Tomorrow we'll rent a car and drive up to Sleeping Bear to see what there is to see from land!!