Farewell to Michigan

There are sooo many nice towns in western Michigan!

In Montague, we found this…

The plaque read, “World’s Largest Working Weathervane”…however, if you Google it, you will see a few competitors🤷🏼‍♀️

Do those of you who live in the south know the purpose of this pole?  I’ll give you one hint…SNOW!

Entering Holland for an extended stay.  My brother lives in Grand Rapids with his family, my Dad was already visiting them, and my daughter and fam are flying in to meet us..yippeee, a mini family reunion!

Holland has huge beaches!

Enjoying the simple thing in life…my Dad is teaching us how to whistle with cupped hands.

This was the hardest I’ve laughed in a very long time!

So sad to say goodbye☹️

After leaving the boat in a marina for a week, we are back onboard and anchored in Holland waiting for the wind to calm down on Lake Michigan.  Luckily, we are treated to a sailboat race, and it appears the race coordinators made our boat a mark in this week’s race…

Wow! That’s what I call front row seats!

Goodbye to Holland

And…

Hello St. Joseph!  Notice the elevated walkway from land to, and between, the lighthouse structures.  I don’t want to be the person to check on the lighthouses when weather conditions require their use.

We originally planned to stay one night here, before heading to Chicago, but due to a lock closure on the Illinois River we decided to stay here until traffic was moving again…and what a great place to be stuck!

The adorable murals,

amazing farmer’s market,

and phenomenal sunsets might make St. Joseph one of our favorite towns in Michigan!

Additionally, the free wall with a lovely park setting is the perfect place to enjoy an evening of rum tasting with our new friends Tara and Allan, on Follow Your Arrow.

On the downside…as you can see from this picture, Lake Michigan is a straight shot through that narrow opening, which means if the wind is just right the waves from Lake Michigan can come directly in…and they did!  At 2:30 a.m., on our third night on the wall, the wind shifted from the northwest, and swells were slamming our boat into the wall.  ALL HANDS ON DECK!  We tried, unsuccessfully, to reposition fenders and lines, and finally agreed to follow Follow Your Arrow to an anchorage.  Both boats left the wall and anchored in a perfectly calm location right around the corner.  I think it took me all of three seconds to fall back to sleep😴 

We are currently relaxing in Barkley and Kentucky Lakes in western Kentucky…far away from the hurricane activity!

Did Someone Say Wine Trail?

From Mackinaw City, we headed for Grand Traverse Bay.  My brother suggested a visit to the Old Mission Peninsula wine trail…well, that sounds like a lovely idea!

We anchored at Bowers Harbor (near #7), and used the Whaler to transport our ebikes to shore.  While I understand how this might sound…irresponsible, right?  Let me assure you that we had a plan, which included sharing sample flights, peddling a lot (using the electric motor as little as possible), drinking extra water between stops, and making extended stops (for lunch and produce stands) between wineries.  Our goal was to sample wines for the purpose of making purchases to restock our ‘wine cellar’ as we let our selection get low before entering Canada to avoid paying extra duty taxes.  

Not bragging, but the plan was perfect!

It was a beautiful day for a ride, and our panniers were ready to carry the load!

Cheers!

One tasting room was in an old schoolhouse, and the wines had fun names like Detention, and Pop Quiz😁

Another, looked like a mansion on a mountain, and let me tell you…my ebike did not have enough ‘e’.  This hill could have probably used a triple E…EEEbike!  On the plus side, there was definitely no alcohol left in my system after peddling up this hill🥵

But the view was worth it!

A very productive day, indeed!  And those panniers earned their keep!

Next stop, Sutton Bay…

Small but adorable!

With fantastic art!

Thinking we should ‘get back to nature’ after doing so much town hopping, our next stop was North Manitou Island…

We anchored off the island, and took the Whaler to he public dock with the pan of hiking to the lake.

The forested part of the island was beautiful, but we thought it was a little funny when we saw this sign, “Entering Wilderness”🤷🏼‍♀️  We agreed that this island didn’t match our definition of wilderness, but quickly found out that the ‘wilderness’ designation dictates the use, care, and maintenance of the area.  We passed a ranger with an ax swinging away at a downed tree blocking the path.  When we joked that he should get his chainsaw, he informed us that chainsaws are not allowed in the wilderness area without special permits…ohhh.

They might want to apply for a permit, because it seems a strong storm recently blew through and downed a lot of BIG trees!

After our hike we returned to the boat with the intention of moving to the other side of the island to anchor for the night, as strong winds were forecasted to come out of the NE.  When we got back to the dock we noticed someone had moved the Whaler, that seemed strange, but everything was fine.  When Keith checked his cell phone (which was left on Right Hand) he saw a text that said something to the effect of ‘…return to you boat immediately…you have overstayed your allowed time’. What the heck, we were gone a total of three hours🤷🏼‍♀️ The text message meant they actually got our registration numbers off the Whaler and contacted Maryland DNR to get a phone number…crazy!

On to Frankfort…

Another very nice town, much larger than the last

Do you see the blue heron?

Frankfort has an extensive walk/bike trail that goes everywhere.  We stopped to pick blackberries for $3/bag.  There was a jar with money, and a jar with bags along the trail…I love the honor system!

Right next to the dinghy dock, we discovered this school of baby catfish.  So cool…each one was only about an inch long!

We had great weather for our excursions into Lake Michigan.

Loved our visit to Manistee!  This town has a long canal that cuts through the middle of town.

It feels like we stepped back in time.

And surprise…large ships go through the canal😳


As always, I am behind in posting, and this time I’m not going to promise to catch up…if it happens, we can all be shocked😉

We have spent the past week in the river system, going from the Illinois to the Upper Mississippi, and today onto the Ohio River.  We are currently anchored in Paducah, KY

Michigander?

Update: Do you remember the lift lock that gave me the heebie-jeebies?  Super happy we weren’t in it last week😬

A malfunction caused the pan to tilt, and water to cascade out of the back.  Scary stuff for people on the tour boat!  The lock is now down for the ‘foreseeable’ future.

Back to Michigan…

Did you know people from Michigan are called Michiganders🤷🏼‍♀️

Our introduction to Michigan has been spectacular!

Everyone told us that Mackinac Island was a ‘must see’…but we didn’t want to dock the boat there, because the wind predictions had us concerned about the swell in the harbor.  We decided to continue to Mackinaw City, and take the ferry back to the island for a day trip.  Once we arrived we were happy to see our decision was a good one. The boats in the harbor were bobbing like corks…it would have been a very uncomfortable night.

There are no bridges to Mackinac Island. You can only arrive by boat or plane.

There are no cars on Mackinac Island.  Transportation options include horse drawn carriages, bicycles, or feet.  We had planned to bring our ebikes, but discovered ebikes were not allowed on the island…so we toured by foot.

Mackinac Island was charming! It is a vacation destination for many with hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, small storefronts, and fudge shops galore.

Definitely a different feel from anywhere we have been.

We happened to visit on a rainy day, so it was a relief to find an inside attraction during the downpour.

Welcome to the Butterfly House!

It was very cool to be surrounded by butterflies.

Have you ever seen a chrysalis up close?  I have seen them for monarchs, but I have never seen them for other species.  It is amazing how well some are camouflaged.

Very cool experience!

Once the rain calmed down we set out find the arch rock.

No worries of getting lost on these trails.

The homes, hotels, and B&Bs had beautiful flowerbeds, which happened to be in full bloom.

And we eventually found the arch.  We walked back to town on the lakefront road you see below.  

Not sure if the rain helped or hindered, but the horses make the streets quite odiferous!

Every ferry brings more visitors with more suitcases! This was a delightful stop!

From Mackinaw City, we started down the west coast of Michigan with a loose plan of town hopping…with stops ultimately determined by recommendation from others, provisioning needs, protection from wind, or simply by whim…next stop, Harbor Springs.  

Several months ago, soon after entering the Trent Severn Waterway, we were in a lock with a boat from Canada who asked where we were heading.  I told him we were planning to go through all 45 locks, cruise Georgian Bay & North Channel, cross to Michigan, down the west coast, and into the river system to head south for winter.  His response was that he had taken the same route, and he had one ‘must stop’ recommendation.  He said, “you must stop in Harbor Springs, and visit Tom’s Mom’s Cookies!” 😳

Seriously?  At that time we were over 500 miles away, with thousands of potential ‘must see’ sights, and this is his ONE recommendation??  Sounded crazy at the time, but you’ll never guess where our next stop just happened to be…

Harbor Springs was a very nice town,

With beautiful homes,

Delicious cookies…(but I don’t think I would send anyone 500 miles for them)

And a lot of young people interested in sailing school/sailing club!

From there we visited Charlevoix.  This is where we discovered the convenience of cruising the west coast of Michigan.  I never realized there were so many interior bays and lakes along the coast. The towns are well protected with large breakwater structures that lead to canals, which deliver you to protected harbors.  Since Lake Michigan is such a large body of water (250 miles long x 60 miles wide) it acts much more like an ocean than a lake.  Therefore, these safe hideaways are VERY important!

We walked out to the lighthouse, and a local told us he has pictures of waves crashing over the top of the lighthouse😬!

The highest waves every recorded in Lake Michigan were 23 ft, in 2011.

These people take their boat houses very seriously!

There is a beautiful park along the shoreline of the harbor.

We anchored in Loeb Bay, where ‘Lake Life’ is clearly enjoyed!

Loving Michigan thus far!!