So far, we have been blessed with wonderful weather and sea conditions for our voyage down Lake Michigan. We left Mackinaw last Sunday planning to travel around 50 miles but the weather was so good we just kept going for 90 miles and stopped in Leland, which turned out to be a delightful little town. They don't take reservations, but when we called them early in the afternoon, they said they had space then but couldn't guarantee there would be space when we arrived. Fortunately they did have space for us when we arrived around 4pm. Since the wind was forecast to be strong on Monday and since it had been a long day for us, we decided to go ahead and stay there two nights. On Monday, we biked to the Good Harbor winery about 3 miles south of Leland and sampled their wine before buying as many bottles as we could carry back on our bikes. Back to town for lunch and then another wine tasting at a winery in town. The section of Leland along the mouth of the river is known as Fishtown and still consists of the original fishing shacks, which have now been converted into shops and restaurants, of course.
Tuesday morning we set out again with no definite destination in mind, but ended up in Manistee. The lake was a little lumpy early, but smoothed out some as the day progressed. Friends from Punta Gorda with a summer home in Indianapolis drove up on Wednesday to visit and ended up spending two nights with us. Thursday was not a good boat-traveling day, so Barry and Gwen took us land-touring to see the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The tall sand dunes all along the Lake Michigan coast are truly amazing.
After two evenings of Euchre, with the girls beating the guys both nights (don't you know that made Mark happy - not!), we said good-bye to Gwen and Barry and headed southwest again. This time the destination du jour turned out to be Great Lakes Marina in Muskegon. We were both so tired when we got there that we never even left the marina. We did meet a couple from Chicago who know several folks we know at IYC and they invited us to go to the Friday concert in the park with them, but we politely declined and turned in early. Yesterday took us to South Haven - another cute little resort town on Lake Michigan, where it felt like everyone in town was either on the beach or riding up and down the narrow river in their boat. We had a nice dinner at the South Haven Yacht Club. Many of the towns on Lake Michigan apparently have festivals on the weekends which make it very difficult to get slip reservations. Today we are at New Buffalo, poised to head to Chicago, but we cannot get into our preferred marina there until a week from tomorrow, so we haven't come up with a game plan yet.
Tuesday morning we set out again with no definite destination in mind, but ended up in Manistee. The lake was a little lumpy early, but smoothed out some as the day progressed. Friends from Punta Gorda with a summer home in Indianapolis drove up on Wednesday to visit and ended up spending two nights with us. Thursday was not a good boat-traveling day, so Barry and Gwen took us land-touring to see the Sleeping Bear Dunes. The tall sand dunes all along the Lake Michigan coast are truly amazing.
After two evenings of Euchre, with the girls beating the guys both nights (don't you know that made Mark happy - not!), we said good-bye to Gwen and Barry and headed southwest again. This time the destination du jour turned out to be Great Lakes Marina in Muskegon. We were both so tired when we got there that we never even left the marina. We did meet a couple from Chicago who know several folks we know at IYC and they invited us to go to the Friday concert in the park with them, but we politely declined and turned in early. Yesterday took us to South Haven - another cute little resort town on Lake Michigan, where it felt like everyone in town was either on the beach or riding up and down the narrow river in their boat. We had a nice dinner at the South Haven Yacht Club. Many of the towns on Lake Michigan apparently have festivals on the weekends which make it very difficult to get slip reservations. Today we are at New Buffalo, poised to head to Chicago, but we cannot get into our preferred marina there until a week from tomorrow, so we haven't come up with a game plan yet.
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| Sunrise over Mackinaw Straits Bridge |
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| Leland Fishtown a few years ago |
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| Sleeping Bear Dunes |
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