Lake Michigan

We arrived in Makinac City Marina on Friday, August 7th, after a great weather day crossing Lake Huron. We were joined in the Marina by “Dar Sea”, “Meander”, and George and Kathy aboard “Spey”. On Saturday morning, in the rain, all of us took the early ferry to Makinac Island for the day. In spite of the rain, we spent most of the day on this charming, waterfront village with horse drawn carriages, Colonial Homes, and NO motor vehicles. Travel is by horse, bike, or foot. This first picture is the Grand Hotel on Makinac Island that was featured in the movie "Somewhere in Time". After a busy day of touring, we had dinner on the island and took the ferry back to Makinac City Marina. Due to predicted high winds, we chose to depart on Monday for our trip down Lake Michigan. This picture was taken of us overlooking Mackinac Straights from the island.
This picture we took of The Makinac Bridge – which connects Makinac City to St. Ignes and claims to be the longest single span suspension bridge in the US – as we departed early Monday morning headed south. John and Dottie from “Dar Sea” had plans to return home from Muskegon and, as we turned toward Charlevoix, they continued south. We hope to join them again south of Chicago after our trip home. “Meander” and “Still Busy” arrived at Lake Charlevoix in time to walk into the city and take pictures of the cutest “mushroom” and “fairy” houses designed and built by Earl Young in the early 1900’s. The design of these stone -built houses were certainly “whimsical” with wave-like roof lines and both of us fully expected Snow White to be sitting on the front porch. On the dock we had a pot luck dinner with Ron and Marji as we planned for our departure on Tuesday.
The drawbridge leading into Lake Charlevoix opens every half hour and we made the 6:30 AM opening on Tuesday morning. Although the wind was brisk, it was from the north so not a problem for our trip south. We arrived in Leland late morning for lunch as “Meander” journeyed to Manitou Island for an anchorage. Leland, pictured at the right, is known as “Fish Town” because of the ancient ice and fish shanties that now are used as operating fish houses with fresh smoked fish as well as specialty shops. We bought smoked salmon and smoked white fish and continued our journey south to Frankfort for the night. The shoreline from Leland to Frankfort is part of Sleeping Bear National Park and is lined with 400 – 500 feet tall sand dunes and white beaches. Good to see sand again after all the rocks in Georgian Bay! While in Frankfort, we took this picture of a boat in the marina - notice the car on the deck where most boaters keep the dingy. Also notice no bikes on the bow rail - don't need them?
The weather on Wednesday was perfect with slight winds and calm seas as we departed Frankfort for Ludington - a 55 mile trip along more sandy beaches and sand dunes. We passed the Big Sable Light House, a 106 feet aid to navigation that is visible for 20 miles on the water. On Thursday, we took the bikes for the 16 mile round trip back to the Big Sable lighthouse from our marina in Ludington along the beach and state park. Upon our return, with sore legs and behinds, we joined “Meander” and Rick and Betsy from “Rick and Roll” for dinner at P.M. Steamers, a restaurant that was highly recommended.
When making the trip from Mackinac to Chicago, Loopers have the option of traveling down the East Coast or the West Coast of Lake Michigan or a combination of the two. In order to experience both coasts, we decided to cross Lake Michigan from Ludington to the shores of Wisconsin and then head down the Illinois coast to Chicago. All other loopers that we have been in contact with plan to continue down the East Coast of Lake Michigan and cross further south. We will see them in the inland rivers south of Chicago after we return from our trip to Charlotte. On Friday, in 10 knot winds from the south, we departed for the 60 miles crossing to Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Here is a picture of the sunrise as we departed. Although the winds increased as we approached mid lake, the trip was fairly uneventful and we arrived early afternoon at our marina. Good timing – the town of Sheboygan and the Arts Community was putting on the first annual “Sheboygan Shebang” downtown with local performers and acts headlined by an escape artist that freed himself from a straight jacket while suspended from the top of a crane that was borrowed from a local roofing company. Small town USA at its best! This final picture of "The Shebang" is Pia posing with the daredevil himself after the "death defying act"! Didn't get an autograph.

Our good luck (or maybe the luck of the Irish) continued as we had surprisingly calm wind and seas on Saturday for our 60 mile trip to Milwaukee for the weekend. Even better, when we arrived we discovered that the 30th annual “Irish Festival” was in downtown Milwaukee and we spent a great afternoon enjoying the festivities. “Griffin” is an Irish name so Jack really enjoyed the day. A lot of green clothing, a wide variety of Irish beer/ stout/whiskey, Irish music, bagpipes, and “Step” dancing. This is a huge festival and, although we saw no leprechauns, and we truly enjoyed the day.
We will depart on Monday for Chicago – an 85 mile trip – and will be in the Windy City by Tuesday.