It was our pleasure to have good friends Joe and Reba from Nashville (Gallatin) make the trek to Mackinaw City to join us for a few days on Kara Mia.  Despite a rainy start, it didn’t dampen our spirits.

    

    

Reba brought Kara Mia a gift of “Cara Mia” wine – who knew?  A great surprise!

    

We quickly got into the tourist mode to see what FUDGE CITY  had to offer.  We found “Tin Man” at the mall and the The US Coast Guard Museum was nearby.  Before returning to the boat for the evening, we found a Shoneys style buffet, THE PANCAKE CHEF, with $4.00 wine for dinner.

    

    

Next day we boarded a ferry shuttle to Mackinac Island.  There was something similar to a cattle-car feel to the 15 minute ride!

    

With priorities in line, we started our tour with a snack and Bloody Marys at the Pink Pony.

    

Being void of motorized vehicles, the only modes of transportation are walking, biking or horse-drawn carriage rides.

    

    

    

We shopped, sampled and surveyed the island and found the architecture and landscaping impressive.

    

    

        

After a healthy tour around the island, we chose the waterfront “Carriage House Veranda” at Hotel Iroquois for lunch.  Its garden setting is designed with brilliant color and foliage overlooking a private beach and the harbor.

        

And Karen and Reba found refuge from the afternoon heat……

    

We were not able to dock at the marina due to Chicago Yacht Club’s annual 333 mile sailboat race to Mackinac – all of the slips were booked.  Because of weather delays the sailboats were all behind schedule and the marina was empty.

    

Since we did not bring a jacket to dine at the upscale GRAND HOTEL, it was time to bid adieu to the island and re-board the ferry for the short trip back to mainland.

    

We had sandwiches on the boat, toasted our “Cara Mia” wine and were treated with a beautiful sunset over the harbor.

    

RANDOM STUFF:

The FBI…….

and Auburn’s WAR EAGLE……

    

    

    

This post is much like Beaver Island, “ECLECTIC and RANDOM”.

Today’s travels took us on a 40 mile trip from Mackinaw City to Beaver Island.  The water was a bit choppy but tolerable.  Beaver Island is Lake Michigan’s largest island and the tiny town of St. James, with a population of 657, is its entry point.  There are only two ways to get to Beaver Island – by air or by boat.  On “weather permitting” days, the Beaver Island Boat Company provides ferry  transportation to the island.  Reservations are on a first come – first serve basis and it has been know to get there and have to wait several days for a return trip from the island.  We were glad to have Kara Mia for our escape – if needed…..

    

    

Irish immigrants settled much of Beaver Island during its early history, and for that reason it’s sometimes called “America’s Emerald Isle”.  This same heritage applied to the ferry which is why the ship sported green accents and a large shamrock on the smokestack.

    

    

In the mid 1800’s James Strang founded a Mormon settlement here and crowned himself King.  His reign however was short-lived.  His followers assassinated him.

    

There are no words for the town’s Toy Store.  No signs, no parking lot, just a weeded trail to the main cabin – full of new, used and antique toys.  There were a number of shoppers and it was too cluttered to take pictures!

    

We never knew what we would run into in town!

    

       

After several hours of walking the town, we felt like soaking our feet in the cold Michigan waters.  It was only later that we saw large water snakes near our boat!  YIKES!

One of our most pleasant experiences was dinner at “Circle M” Restaurant.  It was the old Catholic priest’s home and through the open screened windows we looked out over the cemetery.

    

….and….breakfast the next morning on the front porch of “Dalwhinnie” was a delight.

    

After breakfast we rented a jalopy from the marina and toured the island.  90% of the roads were dirt/chert down beautiful covered lanes that circled the island.  First we found the airport a couple of miles away from town.  It has a well-maintained asphalt runway but a dirt road entrance.  Many Beaver Island residents fly their own personal aircraft.

    

James, a local resident, thought we might be lost and gave us not only directions, but some fun local history.

Two major highlights of the island we were told we could not miss were “The Big Rock”  and “Big Birch”.  Here they are!

    

But – more entertaining – we found this:

The “UNDER WHERE” tree, the “FOUND SOLES” tree, and the “STILL DEVELOPING” tree.

            

On the western shore of Beaver Island are beautiful beaches with clear aqua waters and The Beaver Head Light House.  Karen and Reba decided (since it was unlocked and unattended) to climb to the top of the light house – NEVER AGAIN!

    

    

    

RANDOM:

        

On the morning of our departure, Joe found “Jim” roaming the docks.  Seems that when Jim went to shower, thinking he was still in his cabin, his boat left without him.  Jim joined us for coffee while the sun rose and we hailed his boat to see if they were missing a crew member.  We waited as his boat turned around to retrieve him – they had already been underway 30 minutes.  On a side note – Jim was part of the sailboat crew that took third place in the sailboat race from Chicago to Mackinac Island (in an earlier posting).  Maybe not Jim, but the rest of us had quite the chuckle out of his misfortune.

    

BEAVER ISLAND WAS QUAINT – BUT BIZARRE!

Pulling out of Beaver Island this morning was perfect!  Low winds and calm waters made for a great cruise across the Lake to the mainland.

    

Having stopped in Charlevoix in 2016 (bringing Kara Mia home the first time) we were anticipating once again the beauty of this special Michigan port.  The harbor is among the most beautiful and protected in all the Great Lakes and is known as a playground for the rich and famous.  The entryway into Round Lake is lined with impressive homes and even more impressive landscaping.  Entering Round Lake, the water is as pretty as any in the Florida Keys.

    

    

    

The gateway is an iconic double-leaf bascule bridge in downtown Charlevoix that was constructed in the late 1940’s.  It will open on the hour and half hour for larger watercraft.  Boats of every size and price range were entering and leaving.

    

    

We passed through Round Lake and into Lake Charlevoix to arrive at Irish Boat Shop, our marina for the next few days.  The following morning we awoke to ominous clouds that dominated the day but produced little threat.

    

   

We toured the village, finding expansive homes, exotic cars and were pleasantly surprised by a Venetian festival going on in town.  We ran through the Farmer’s Market, picking up some fresh greens, cherries and blueberries, and then walked through the fair and several boutiques.

    

    

        

We stopped for brunch at a waterside restaurant near the bascule bridge.  Watching the drawbridge go up and down is a highlight for visitors and us!  We enjoyed boat and people watching as well.

    

    

It was mermaids in Norfolk, sailboats in Orillia and in Charlevoix it’s “Bike Art”.

    

    

Taking an afternoon walk, we visited the unique “Fairy Houses” and the “Mushroom Houses”, which resemble storybook fantasies of whimsical, irregular stone with wave-like roof-lines.  They were built in the early 1900’s by local architect and realtor Earl Young and are considered works of art.  They vary in sizes from tiny to huge.  Young’s homes are known world wide and can be seen in only one place:  Charlevoix!

The mushroom houses are located where, in the 1930’s, Young dragged an 80,000 pound boulder out in front of Boulder Park.  Forty years later, he up-ended it where it sits today, proclaiming the beginning of Boulder Park.  You can access this area adjacent to the lake shore, with a breathtaking view of Lake Michigan.

   

Unique, unusual, quirky, elf cottages, hobbit houses, fairy houses, gnome houses, fairy tale houses – are all terms that are used to describe the mushroom houses created by builder Earl Young.  In his early years, Young’s houses were of arts and crafts style, a bit like Frank Lloyd Wight.  Later the shapes became more rounded with a blend of hobbit and fairy tales.  Like Wright, Young designed each home to blend into its surroundings.  This is what makes each so unique!

    

Karen and Reba took an afternoon dinghy cruise to the beach.

    

    

Next day we were joined by Bru and Sandy on “Coconuts” for dinner.  We were treated by a valet cart pickup from Gray Gables Restaurant.

    

It was a chilly but fun ride from the marina to our well appointed table at Gray Gables – with a cool up-scale, yet comfortable, atmosphere.  Dinner was perfect!

    

    

The Venetian Festival was capped off with a fireworks display.  Ron and Joe unfortunately didn’t get to see it – they crashed early!

        

We pulled out of Charlevoix the next morning and it was “Off to Traverse City”!

    

RANDOM STUFF:

Yes, this man is actually sleeping in a lounge chair placed on his bike carrier.  I supposed the wife and kids left on the bikes?  And the cow is grazing in a flower garden at Boulder Park!

    

…..and….after our walking tour of Charlevoix, our Fit Bits registered over 15,000 steps today!  Yea!

The Traverse City area is the largest producer of tart cherries in the United States.  Near the time of harvest, the city hosts the annual week-long National Cherry Festival that attracts around 500,000 visitors.  We missed the cherry festival by a few weeks…but our trip to – and stay at – Traverse City was fun!  We had choppy water from Charlevoix to Traverse City with 2-3 foot swells.

    

After our arrival in Traverse City Joe earned his “First Mate” stripes helping to dock and secure the boat.

    

The busy downtown included water gardens and a canal that was active with canoeing and paddle boarders.  After our walk around town we had dinner on the boat.  Karen made shrimp jambalaya in the crock pot and a side salad.

    

    

Reba gave Santa some love – he had been ignored lately since we have had company.  We enjoyed another beautiful sunset with friends.

    

After daybreak we had breakfast burritos before venturing out into the city.

    

Our favorite stopping place was the Cherry Republic!  It had nothing to do with the free samples – but – it was kind of like being at Costco after church on a Sunday morning.  We sampled cherry jellies, cherry flavored nuts, cherry salsa, chocolate covered cherry flavored “everything”, even the cherry wine…..ALL WAS GREAT!  Karen picked up some cherry coffee beans.  We enjoy fresh ground coffee while sitting on the back of Kara Mia on our quiet mornings on the water.

    

Our last dinner in Traverse City was at The Mackinaw Brew and Pub where we reminisced about our time spent together and discussed Joe and Reba’s travel options for the next morning.

    

RANDOM STUFF:

You fill in the blanks…..

    

….but I do feel a Jimmy Buffett song coming on!

The waters today were calm and as clear as glass and the weather was perfect!  This was an unusual phenomenon for us on Lake Michigan so we thoroughly enjoyed our two hour boat ride back to The Irish Boat Shop in Charlevoix.  Since we had scheduled a few minor repair items to be done there, it was back through the blue waters of the Charlevoix channel, back through the crystal clear waters of Round Lake, back by the gorgeous homes and landscaping that dotted the shoreline, and back into Charlevoix Lake.

    

    

We learned that the colorful units along the Lake Charlevoix shore and beach are actually storage/dressing units assigned to individual members of the country club.  Charlevoix is a rather upscale community and the residents don’t have to carry their stuff to the beach, but rather use these personal beach units for storing their chairs and umbrellas.  They also have private floating garages to protect their boats.

    

    

We docked (for free – yea) on the maintenance wall at Irish Boat Shop.  Although it was all steel and concrete on the shop side, we had a nice water-front view on the other.

RANDOM STUFF:

Covert operations in Lake Michigan- who knew?

Repairs are scheduled for early in the morning – then we will boogie to Frankfort, 75 miles down the lake…..

As we left Charlevoix, we heard reports of fog out on Lake Michigan.  We were happy to see it lifting as we left the channel.  The waters were flat.  Our goal for the day was the historic Leland Fishing Village, but it was not to be.  It was our first marina that had no room in the Inn.  They were booked for weeks!

    

As we continued on down the coast we came upon Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Park.  It boasts massive sand dunes up to 480 feet high, white beaches and a backdrop of forest – the view from the lake is incredible.  Viewers of ABC’s Good Morning America voted Sleeping Bear Dunes as one of the top ten “most beautiful places in America”.  Point Betsie Lighthouse was constructed in 1858 and marks the southern entrance to the Manitou Passage.  The tower stands 39 feet tall, towers 52 feet above the water line and can be seen from up to 22 miles away.  Why do you put a lighthouse on a lake?  Because this is a pretty treacherous area for boating due to fast forming winds and weather events.  This is a favorite area for divers as there are over 50 shipwrecks to explore.

   

    

The North Breakwater Lighthouse marks the entrance to the harbor of the historic town of Frankfort.  This historic town is one of the many quaint tourist stops along Michigan’s western shore.

    

We pulled into Jacobson Marina Resort where we were greeted by Craig and Elizabeth from “Contentment”.  We first met Craig and Elizabeth at the Belhaven, Alligator and Coinjock Marinas in North Carolina.  They are now AGLCA Harbor Hosts for Frankfort and met us with a neat goodie bag of wine, famous Michigan cherry jam, one of Elizabeth’s hand-crafted flour sack towels and tons of tourist information of the area.  They also gave us a gift card to a little local bakery and gift shop, “The Beach Nut”, where we got a sandwich and fresh cherry coffee beans!  Thanks Craig and Elizabeth!

    

Around town we visited some local shops, Crystal Lake Art Center (a former Coast Guard station), the Garden Movie Theater and the Frankfort Inn and we had an Asian dinner at “Fusion”.

    

        

    

A weather delay kept us at the marina an extra day.  But, with a swimming pool and excellent facilities, it was not a problem.  Even the marina staff would grill your special order dinner and bring it to your boat!

        

Frankfort has over 23 miles of bike trails – which we didn’t make.  But we did enjoy a walk to the beach and the beautiful sunset.

    

    

Due to an approaching weather front, the beach soon was abandoned.

        

It would be a 65 mile travel day from Frankfort to Pentwater.  We got an early start to try to get ahead of pending storms.  As you can see, they caught up with us.  It is not recommended to try to outrun storms in a boat!

        

The contrast in colors of the clouds – the beautiful waters – and everything in between – was amazing.  You can see the choppy waters bouncing the fishing boat around, and it was just 7:00 in the morning.  Swells today were 2-3 feet at 4 second intervals.

    

As we moved down the coast, the weather began to improve.  We passed Big Sable Point Lighthouse on our port side.  Big Sable was the first station constructed on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to aid in navigation.

    

On this voyage we passed Ludington, Michigan, a neat stop while bringing Kara Mia home two years prior.  There is where we had our first “looper docktails” and watched The Badger.  The SS Badger is the largest cross-lake passenger and vehicle ferry on the Great Lakes.  It is a four-hour 60 mile cruise that takes passengers, autos, RVs, tour buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and commercial trucks across Lake Michigan from Ludington to Wisconsin.  The SS Badger has been in operation since 1953 and is the largest coal-fired passenger ship still operating in the United States.

   

NEBO is a tracking app that we log on each day.  It allows others to see our location and direction of travel.  We like to see the whereabouts of other loopers as well.  The black circles show Kara Mia!

    

Although we did get rained on, we ultimately found better weather when we entered the channel at Pentwater, another beautiful little resort town in Michigan.

    

    

We really would like to know what these people do when winter comes!  We docked at Snug Harbor Marina and nearby was another Carver 43SS just like ours.  We have only seen three of these ever.  Less than a block away was the first of six blocks that make up the town of Pentwater and lead to the beach.

    

The streets, shops, artwork and churches resemble those we have seen at many of our stops.  The artwork here is a rather colorful bike rack in the shape of fish.

        

We stopped in The Antler for a bite to eat – – – – – Among their specialties are angus burgers, buffalo burgers, and elk burgers.  Notice their door handle is a large antler!

    

It was a pleasant surprise to find this cozy little fresh market, “Cenzo’s”, the only grocery store in Pentwater.  Cenzo’s, with an upscale flavor, is located right downtown, near the marina.  It is a family run, gourmet grocery store that carries local produce, wine, artisanal meats, breads and cheeses, small craft beers, and unbelievable sandwiches.  They even have a piano for customers so inclined to play.

        

November 11, 1940 was a bad day in Pentwater.  Seventy mile per hour winds whipped the lake into 25 foot waves.  Two freighters and a tug went down that day between Little and North Sable Points where the lake has a long fetch to the west, south and north.  Seventeen men were rescued from one of the freighters, all the others lost their lives.

RANDOM STUFF:

While cruising down the lake we were startled by a loud alarm.  We pulled the throttles down, bringing her from 30 to neutral.  It took us a few seconds to learn that it wasn’t our engines, but rather our cell phones announcing an AMBER ALERT.  This was a first for us!

Pulled out of Snug Harbor Marina on Pentwater Lake…….

    

On our way to Grand Haven we passed Silver Lake.  Silver Lake and Lake Michigan are separated by 2,000 acres of the “The Silver Lake Sand Dunes”.  One of the lake’s most popular features is the 450 acre off-road vehicle area, where visitors – in all terrain vehicles – can glide up sand dunes reaching over 100 feet high and plunge down the other side, while passing striking views of sparkling Lake Michigan.

    

Grand Haven is designated as “Coast Guard City, USA”, and we arrived just in time for its annual celebration weekend.  Over the weekend 350,000 extra people arrive (many by boat) into this little town of less than 11,000 to celebrate and honor the courageous work of the service members of the Coast Guard.

    

   

The 5 foot railroad bridge at the entrance to our marina opens once per hour, on the “half hour” – and Monday through Friday does not open at the noon half-hour (12:30).  Guess what time we arrived?  We had to hang out in the river for an hour to wait for the next opening.  It was challenging treading water with the hundreds of extra boats here for the celebration – and not hit one!  We were successful and finally the bridge opened for us and our next marina was just around the bend.

    

After docking at Grand Isle Marina, our friend Dan joined us.  We met Dan in the Carolinas and crossed paths numerous times since.  He had recently crossed his wake here in his home of Grand Haven.  Dan brought us a congrats bottle of wine to welcome us and celebrate us crossing our wake as well.  Dan is also the new Harbor Host for the Grand Haven area.

    

The marina was hosting a Friday Music Fest, complete with grilled burgers and hot dogs.  We enjoyed the band and people watching, but Karen could not talk Ron into a dance…….

    

    

We retired to our boat at sunset where hundreds of boats lined the docks.

    

Saturday was NATIONAL COAST GUARD DAY.  The Coast Guard operates under the Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, however, their responsibilities are transferred to the US Navy when deemed necessary.  The US Coast Guard’s official motto in Latin reads Semper Paratus, or “Always Ready”.  The Coast Guard was founded in 1790.

We rode our bikes to town for the Farmer’s Market but were interrupted by the parade, festivals, arts and crafts fairs, numerous varieties of food trucks – and the carnival!

    

The parade…..

        

Dignitaries from Washington DC were here to be honored.  Below is one of the Commanding Officers and a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sargent.

        

The parade ended with a vintage Chris Craft cruiser……

The festival……and food trucks…..

    

The carnival….

    

After all of the festivities we stopped at “Tip a Few” , a favorite hang-out (says Dan), for enchiladas and guacamole…..and a margarita!

The bike back in the heat (and after that large Mexican food lunch) was exhausting!  Karen even took her first nap since leaving Nashville last year!

As the sun was setting, we took an evening dinghy ride to explore Grand Isle and the Grand River.

    

        

Saturday’s celebrations ended with a magnificent fireworks display that we could enjoy from the cockpit of Kara Mia.

Our third day here brought 30+ mph sustained winds….so…..we decided no water travels today.  We took advantage of the down time and biked to Walgreen’s, Home Depot, Dollar Tree and Staples to catch up on some needed supplies.

We had leftovers for dinner on the boat (jambalaya and scape garlic bread) and hopefully we will be able to travel tomorrow in between more predicted high winds.

This first picture is from our boat at sunrise, the second, same view at sunset.

    

It was our fourth day here and we had planned on being at the fuel dock by 7:50 to be first in line for fuel and a pump-out – and to make it to the first bridge opening to get out of Grand Haven – but instead, we woke up to pouring rain and high winds.  Change of plans.  The festivals and celebrations are over and it would be an eerily quiet day where we had the entire dock to ourselves.  Just us, the bugs, the birds, and a few fish breaking the water.  We did a little maintenance work on Kara Mia while waiting on a weather window.

The weather cleared, but not in time for us to get under way, so it would be another day before our departure.

Our fifth and final day started out rainy but a quick hour later the winds calmed and we were ready to leave!

    

A beautiful white swan gliding over the water……    

And finally we were on our way!  We got through the five foot bridge and to the entrance of the fairway where construction was blocking our escape (there are four concrete trucks on this barge) but once the Coast Guard boat arrived they let us both through and we were once again under way.  We saw where a pleasure boat ranks in priority.

        

RANDOM STUFF:  A project to be explained later……

There are safe harbor marinas up and down the Michigan and Wisconsin coasts of Lake Michigan.  They are about 30 miles apart, so you are never far away from a protected port when sudden storms blow up on the big bad lake.  Each port has a channel funneling a river to the lake.  The channels are lined with beaches and boardwalks, and both upscale and eclectic homes abound.  South Haven is one of these and is on The Black River.

    

    

    

    

Many of the marinas we frequent are owned by Michigan’s State Park system and they are all very well staffed and operated – South Haven is one!

        

South Haven was a pleasant laid back community with a resort feel.  Being further south on the Lake, they seem to have more year round activity and a New England feel.  The coming weekend was to be their Blueberry Festival.  In 2012 Yachting Magazine recognized it as one of the “Top Ten Ports in America”.  A walk around this tiny town found us visiting unique shops, the local bakery and a jewelry store.

    

    

    

A necklace in the jewelry store window caught our eye!  It was one of blue saffire stones that transition through a wave from dark blue to clear.  To us this was significant as it was representative to us “crossing our wake” (completing America’s Great Loop) and would be the perfect keepsake and reminder of our trip.  And it looked good on Karen!

    

To celebrate, we went to dinner at “The Idler Riverboat” where we shared a Cajun seafood boil and watched it rain.

    

    

RANDOM STUFF:

    

Tomorrow we cross the big blue to Chicago………

A beautiful day to cross The Big Blue – Lake Michigan….and arrive in Chicago.

    

    

Hammond Marina and The Horseshoe Casino awaited us just as before when bringing Kara Mia home the first time.

    

    

    

Hammond is a large marina with acres of boats…..

    

….a beach and ship store, deli and restaurant…..

        

Traditionally, grills or any fire hazards are not allowed on docks, however, on land private grills are a popular item at Hammond – as evidenced by the numerous grills of every kinds that lined the boardwalk.

    

    

RANDOM:  Santa collected some friends along the way……