Last Days of Lake Michigan

Increasingly, I have to stop and pay attention, and experience the beauty and wonder of this trip.  It is too easy for another sunset to slip by, another day of perfect weather, another incredible waterscape of smooth waters, blended shades of blue waters and skies, a shoreline of sand dunes and woods – then another charming town full of character and characters.   Another set of great boat guests – who help to keep us appreciative because they tend to see all of these things with fresh eyes. 

So, in a nutshell, the previous paragraph was our past two weeks, if not our past two+ months.

For more detail...

8/13.   Deb and Mike Hughes joined us in Pentwater.  We had a great dinner on board, a trip into town to experience the Antlers bar and a few little stores, and the usual cards and Bananagrams. 

8/14.   A long, but perfect trip down the shore to Grand Haven.  I say perfect, although the other three seemed to take exception to the 43 degree temperatures at sunrise – just before we left.  I love a cool fall morning in August and the sun warmed the day up nicely over the course of the trip.

We arrived in Grand Haven – a large town by the standards of our recent travels.  Lots of galleries, museums, restaurants, parks.   The beach which we reached by bike, was named by Travel and Leisure as one of the Top Secret Beautiful Beaches of the World – one of the few in the U.S.  But wait, there’s more.  Every night in the summer, there is a large fountain/lights/music show directly across the river from our boat bow.  I made the mistake of telling the others this was going down, because it would have been great fun to have just been sitting out there chatting and having the theme from 2001 start up over giant speakers.  This is the second largest musical/lights/fountain in the U.S. after the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

8/15.   I did a bike ride to a grocery store – loaded up my backpack and a couple of bags for the handle bars.  Found a place to get my hair cut inside the super supermarket – so took advantage of that rare opportunity. 

I continued my so-so bocce ball season with a tournament loss to Mike.  I’m sure he would agree the competition was fierce – all the games close – and we were both playing unusually well.  Great space for unusual ball locations.  We had a great dinner in town at the Kimball House (thanks, guys) and chatted with lots of passerbys walking along the park next to our boat – an active area. 

And, Debi and Debee (I think they both chose these spellings in high school)....celebrated their 40 year anniversary, as best friends - indeed, a reason to celebrate!

8/16.   Moving on down the road to Holland – historical site of some considerable teenage hijinx on part.  We are staying at a private yacht club – one of the few that allows transient guests.  It’s a very nice facility – indoor/outdoor swimming pool, good restaurant, etc.  And we really lucked out - there was a dock party tonight – several tables of food, a keg of beer, wine, etc.  But don’t be late for the 6:00 party – almost all of that was consumed by 7:00.  Had some very nice chats with the club members.  As you can see in the picture, some people will do anything to get into Boat's Notes

Summer in Michigan (and Canada) is so short that every day and night in every town offers something special.  Sometimes we luck out by arriving on the right night, like tonight, but just as often we hear about what we just missed the night before.  Can’t do it all – can we?

After three great nights of games, laughs, memories, family stories (they actually won that contest), Mike and Deb moved on to complete their Michigan vacation with daughter Chelsea and in-laws up north, not far from our stay in Leland a couple of weeks ago.

8/17.   We biked down to the beach – a couple of miles.  We climbed the 239 steps to the top of Mt. Pisgah, which gave us views of both Lake Macatawa (where the marina and boat were) and Lake Michigan.  A walk on the beach, spotting of an otter on the breakwater, an open house at a lakefront condo, and a stop at an old-fashioned ice cream store took us to the evening.   At that point, our friends Mike and Linda Cheney arrived – just in time for dinner on the boat and a night of game playing (I knew I could count on Linda for game energy).

8/18.   Holland was the first of our Michigan stops that did not have its major marina action downtown – instead we were quite aways across the lake from it.  But we hopped in the Cheney car to tour downtown and have a great breakfast at the Biscuit.   The afternoon brought us to the beach for walking, people-watching, reading, and napping.  We got back to the boat in time to meet Terry and Lee Cunningham.  Lee, Linda, and I were all great friends in college – more enduring relationships.  Mike and Linda left after their short visit – the rest of us had another boat dinner and more games. 

8/19.   Time to continue south – this time to the lovely, artsy community of Saugatuck.  The downtown marina was on the river after a nice scenic winding trip in from the lake.  We toured the town’s galleries and stores – played a lot of bocce ball (I won the series from Lee, who had to use his belt to measure a close call), and eventually had a great dinner in town.

8/20.   On to South Haven – where Lee and Terry have a vacation condo.  It’s also a very nice town in its own right – and a marina to match.  We got things sort of settled and then abandoned Sea Fever to spend the night at their condo.   A swim in their pool with a beautiful view from a bluff over Lake Michigan was followed by a great salmon dinner.  We finished just in time to head into town for a unique concert at a unique venue.   Lee and Terry have become members at this performance venue – a renovated large space in an old building.  The lights, sound, stage and talent level (a singer-songwriter followed by a rather orchestral folk-rock band) were all quite high, but the attendance was quite low (the four of us constituting about 20% of the audience).  Not sure why – there’s not that much else to do in South Haven.  We enjoyed it before heading back to their condo for some really bad (on my part) cards and our first night sleeping off the boat in six weeks.  Big spaces can be comfortable (even though we do have a queen-size bed on SF).

Being with them reminded us that we never wrote about attending their oldest daughter's wedding in May - on a high hill at a winery, overlooking the Hudson River valley - was just south of where we started this journey from the Hudson.  It was a very beautiful and unique setting - just like Megan!

8/21.   A big day for us – as we stepped away from the boat and got on planes.  Lee drove us to Grand Rapids so that I could fly to Denver for some trial consultation and Debi flew home for about 36 hours to tend to EMSTAR and Sugar Mag business, as well as have a short visit with Josie, Emily and Charlie. 

8/23.   Marty picked us up at the airport and drove us to Williamston where we met Charlene for dinner in town.  While we love our boat life – these diversions are really a nice change of pace. 

8/24.   A walk into town to see the sights - including a park with multiple tornado ravaged trees turned into beautiful art by competing chain-saw artists.... followed by a game of golf on the course they live on (Marty and I) and some swimming in their lovely backyard pool – a great relief on one of our warmer days of the summer.  But these good things had to be followed by more good things – we headed back to the boat.

Marty drove us the couple of hours from their home back to South Haven – then spent the night with us.  Sunset and bocce on the beach was followed by a trip to the Boat Bar – a boat in the river converted into a bar/restaurant.  Lots of energy there and very busy - Debi wormed us into a shared table with three guys, with whom we had enjoyable conversation. Went back to SF and were all so tired that we could only muster one game of cards.

8/25.   Marty bid adieu and we headed south to St. Joseph.  We had our first boat failure in awhile – the chart plotter gave out on us.  This is basically our installed GPS with a big screen up at the helm, with all of our navigational software.  We improvised with the help of old fashioned paper charts and a first generation hand held navigational GPS.  It was a straight shot along the coast, so nothing complicated was needed - but it did confirm the wisdom in Debi's rule that she will not leave the dock without the proper paper charts on board. 

In St. Joseph, we enjoyed the company of several other “Loopers” for happy hour (several of whom we had met in South Haven).  Lots of discussion about routes, marinas, weather, navigation.  Nice to know other people have the same challenges we do and that we seem to be holding our own in making our way through this journey. 

8/26.   The first day in two weeks we haven’t had someone on board with us for at least part of the day.  And the first day in a month that this has been true AND we haven’t been moving the boat.  Nice to sit still and have time to get caught up on stuff (like this blog).  AND, it’s Debi’s birthday – unfortunately, she spent most of the day working on an EMSTAR proposal, which was not on her schedule...after she freed herself from this entrapment, we rode bikes into town – did the usual exploration through the nice residential areas – found a bar with 72 beers on tap (and Debi ordered a bottle of Corona) – and had a very nice dinner on a patio overlooking L. Michigan as the sun began to set. 

8/27.   New Buffalo, settled by a captain from Buffalo, NY.  Our last L. Michigan port other than Chicago.  Had some waves coming down, but nothing to worry about.  When it looked like we might have trouble connecting to the marina's power, we considered leaving for Chicago – it was nice enough to do that if we had to.  Instead, we insisted on our solution instead of the marina's, so we stayed and ended up docked next to Summer Recess (yes, two retired teachers) – fellow Loopers we have seen in several ports – they are on our schedule, more or less.  Sounds like more “docktails” with them tonight.

Finally turning on the A/C.   It’s been a cool summer up until now – I’ve loved it.  But now that the days are getting shorter and the season is coming to a close, we’re getting at least one last furnace blast.

On to Chicago!!
Jim and Debi


P.S.  Does anyone know where
         and why this picture was
         taken?