We headed back to the boat via the west side of Michigan--a
more interesting and shorter drive. We stopped in Holland, MI for
lunch. We didn't plan on stopping here with the boat since the marinas
are so far from downtown. It's a beautiful downtown with lots of up-scale
shops and restaurants. We got to the boat early afternoon and rested for
a bit until we had to do the rental car shuffle which got us back in time to
eat dinner at the Brewhouse. The waves were high the next morning
so we stayed around Ludington for the day. Since we had a local rental
car until 4, we ran errands and down to check out Pentwater since we didn't
think we would be stopping there in the boat. I visited a couple of
galleries and, of course, we had ice cream.
The stern of The Badger shows that it is the extension of Route 10 across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. The Badger drops his anchor and swings on it to dock. It's the last of the coal fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes and 410ft. long.
We took the advice of the canvas repair men and went to the Grand Hotel for dinner. We really only ordered half of the nacho appetizer and I was full. We had a nice conversation with the young "bartender" who really looked like everyone's soccer playing daughter about her school and college athletics. We then went for more food and drink down the street.
In the morning, we headed out early for our trip to Grand Haven. We tied up at the Municipal Marina. We came into a slip next to Something Special, another blue hull Mainship 40 that we had met in Mackinack City. We knew we had passed another sister ship on the way down and assumed that they would be coming in after us....and they did. Bob and Lyn on American Pie tied up and made three Mainship 40 blue hulled boat lined up near each other.
We gathered for docktails on the grassy area and talked boating. We then took the local tourist shuttle around the area which showed all the various areas of the city. Afterward we watched the musical fountain performance across the water.
Something Special left really early for the cross over to Racine, Wisconsin. We left leisurely for the short run to Saugatuck and had a slip at the Singapore Yacht Club right in the heart of all the action....literally, we could hear the music from the Coral Gables Hotel next door until quite late. We walked around the very nice town and all of its small boutique shops, had lunch and walked some more. We visited the Saugatuck Fine Arts Center and saw a very intimate exhibit about a local art teacher and her effect on her students. Afterward, we relaxed and went for a nice dinner at The Butler and when we got back to the boat alarms were going off. Ken shut off all of the power and found out that one of the batteries was really heated up and giving off an odor. Replacing dead flashlight batteries in the dark has always been on my list of fun things to do. When things settled down, I, in self preservation mode, slept up in the fly bridge in a sleeping bag. This would serve two purposes--I would live if it was carbon monoxide and I would know how it felt to sleep up top if I ever suggested it to anyone else. I tried to talk Ken into doing the same but to no avail as he seemed positive that the fumes were out and it wasn't harmful to sleep inside------not I.
The dock master made calls for someone to come look at our batteries in the morning and, again, we lucked out with a good electrician who came early and fixed the battery situation--well, he made us livable with two of the three batteries until we can get new ones. While all of this work was going on, I was hoofing it around town and walked by the home and studio of Cynthia McKean who has a sculpture garden on her property and has an "open house" scheduled for next weekend, of course, when I am not here. I then went to the Farmers Market at the art center grounds and found a few items to purchase. Back to the boat in time to say "thank you" to the fix-it person and off we headed to South Haven.
South Haven was a very short trip. The water was fine except the inlet going into the harbor. All of the marinas that we have stopped in have long man-made inlets that do offer protection to the marinas but the waters coming off of the lake at the inlets can be powerful depending on wind and water direction.
South Haven was another nice stop. There were several other Looper boats there so we gathered for docktails out on the dock with the other crews. We met Julie and Tom from Sum Escape who were on their very first day on the Loop. They were "committed loopers" which means they sold their house and moved aboard their very nice Grand Banks Europa. Richard and Katherine from Kat in the Hat and John on Gimmetime were part of the group moving down the coast of Michigan about the same speed as we were.
Later we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and walked around town again. In the morning, we headed to the Farmers Market in the rain, had breakfast and then headed out for the 60+ miles to get to our final destination for this leg. The waves were tolerable at 2-3 feet coming from the southeast for most of the run. Taking short turns back and forth at the helm made for an easier trip. A couple of the kitchen cupboard latches have broken during travel on this lake even though the waves have not been that rough. On occasion, items have been know to "shift" greatly while underway. We went south on the Birch Ditch and stopped at Marina Shores. We refueled before heading to our slip and were helped in by our new temporary boat neighbors. We got a very friendly reception from the locals and joined them in their Venetian Nights potluck dinner and boat parade.
The next two days we took the train that was just a short walk from the marina into downtown Chicago. We took the Architectual Boat Tour the first day. This will be the route we take if we decide to go through downtown on our way to the Illinois River. We took a downtown tour the next day--so many things to see it would take a week to hit a good portion of the museums and much longer to see the over 4,000 pieces of public art.
We picked up a rental car and headed for home the next morning.
The stern of The Badger shows that it is the extension of Route 10 across Lake Michigan to Wisconsin. The Badger drops his anchor and swings on it to dock. It's the last of the coal fired passenger vessel operating on the Great Lakes and 410ft. long.
We took the advice of the canvas repair men and went to the Grand Hotel for dinner. We really only ordered half of the nacho appetizer and I was full. We had a nice conversation with the young "bartender" who really looked like everyone's soccer playing daughter about her school and college athletics. We then went for more food and drink down the street.
In the morning, we headed out early for our trip to Grand Haven. We tied up at the Municipal Marina. We came into a slip next to Something Special, another blue hull Mainship 40 that we had met in Mackinack City. We knew we had passed another sister ship on the way down and assumed that they would be coming in after us....and they did. Bob and Lyn on American Pie tied up and made three Mainship 40 blue hulled boat lined up near each other.
We gathered for docktails on the grassy area and talked boating. We then took the local tourist shuttle around the area which showed all the various areas of the city. Afterward we watched the musical fountain performance across the water.
Something Special left really early for the cross over to Racine, Wisconsin. We left leisurely for the short run to Saugatuck and had a slip at the Singapore Yacht Club right in the heart of all the action....literally, we could hear the music from the Coral Gables Hotel next door until quite late. We walked around the very nice town and all of its small boutique shops, had lunch and walked some more. We visited the Saugatuck Fine Arts Center and saw a very intimate exhibit about a local art teacher and her effect on her students. Afterward, we relaxed and went for a nice dinner at The Butler and when we got back to the boat alarms were going off. Ken shut off all of the power and found out that one of the batteries was really heated up and giving off an odor. Replacing dead flashlight batteries in the dark has always been on my list of fun things to do. When things settled down, I, in self preservation mode, slept up in the fly bridge in a sleeping bag. This would serve two purposes--I would live if it was carbon monoxide and I would know how it felt to sleep up top if I ever suggested it to anyone else. I tried to talk Ken into doing the same but to no avail as he seemed positive that the fumes were out and it wasn't harmful to sleep inside------not I.
The dock master made calls for someone to come look at our batteries in the morning and, again, we lucked out with a good electrician who came early and fixed the battery situation--well, he made us livable with two of the three batteries until we can get new ones. While all of this work was going on, I was hoofing it around town and walked by the home and studio of Cynthia McKean who has a sculpture garden on her property and has an "open house" scheduled for next weekend, of course, when I am not here. I then went to the Farmers Market at the art center grounds and found a few items to purchase. Back to the boat in time to say "thank you" to the fix-it person and off we headed to South Haven.
South Haven was a very short trip. The water was fine except the inlet going into the harbor. All of the marinas that we have stopped in have long man-made inlets that do offer protection to the marinas but the waters coming off of the lake at the inlets can be powerful depending on wind and water direction.
South Haven was another nice stop. There were several other Looper boats there so we gathered for docktails out on the dock with the other crews. We met Julie and Tom from Sum Escape who were on their very first day on the Loop. They were "committed loopers" which means they sold their house and moved aboard their very nice Grand Banks Europa. Richard and Katherine from Kat in the Hat and John on Gimmetime were part of the group moving down the coast of Michigan about the same speed as we were.
Later we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and walked around town again. In the morning, we headed to the Farmers Market in the rain, had breakfast and then headed out for the 60+ miles to get to our final destination for this leg. The waves were tolerable at 2-3 feet coming from the southeast for most of the run. Taking short turns back and forth at the helm made for an easier trip. A couple of the kitchen cupboard latches have broken during travel on this lake even though the waves have not been that rough. On occasion, items have been know to "shift" greatly while underway. We went south on the Birch Ditch and stopped at Marina Shores. We refueled before heading to our slip and were helped in by our new temporary boat neighbors. We got a very friendly reception from the locals and joined them in their Venetian Nights potluck dinner and boat parade.
The next two days we took the train that was just a short walk from the marina into downtown Chicago. We took the Architectual Boat Tour the first day. This will be the route we take if we decide to go through downtown on our way to the Illinois River. We took a downtown tour the next day--so many things to see it would take a week to hit a good portion of the museums and much longer to see the over 4,000 pieces of public art.
We picked up a rental car and headed for home the next morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment