Grafton Harbor – “The Key West of the Midwest”

We liked Grafton Harbor because of its vibe.  This is at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers.  It really does have a tropical feel from the restaurant (The Oyster Bar), to the ship store, to the pool and facilities.  It even has its own winery and tasting bar.

    

    

    

Docking was a little intense, squeezing a 14′ beam into a 15′ wide slip in the wind!

    

After the infamous carp incident in the cockpit, it was necessary to wash the boat & rugs.

And the bachelorette party two slips over was our entertainment for the afternoon…….

Helicopter and float plane traffic, as well as commercial barge traffic, increased and made for a busy river.  Keep in mind, we are less than 20 miles from St. Louis.

    

After anchoring out last night with Coconuts and getting very little sleep, we had an early dinner at The Oyster Bar, followed by a wine tasting in the ship store.  Afterwards, we retired to Kara Mia for our frozen Brandy Alexander desserts.  We had trouble keeping Bru awake – but the ice cream helped.

    

Karen made breakfast tacos the next morning…..

Excitement around the marina was when a back-hoe fell off of its trailer while crossing on the Grafton Ferry.  It made the local news!

    

As we moved into the river systems we noticed a dramatic increase in insect population.  Bugs and spiders were prolific at each stop.  They reached their all-time high with the mayflies in Grafton.

        

Leaving Grafton Harbor….