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| Just had to add this to the blog. We did not see this while in Sault Ste. Marie but we wish we had. What a great but tacky rolling advertisement for this man's new business! |
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| Traffic along the St. Mary's River |
After a great visit to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario we needed
to head for Drummond Island, Michigan for a check-in with U.S. Customs and
Border Patrol. On our downbound cruise
along the St. Mary’s River we passed some B-I-G upbound ore carriers. The downbound current gave Lazy W a nice push and we saw our speed
top 10 knots!! Whoa!! Unfortunately, we
lost that advantage once we were back in Lake Huron. The Drummond Border Patrol agents were a
friendly duo and saw no need to board Lazy
W. That was not the case for a later
arriving boat that ‘hosted’ them for several hours. Apparently you cannot purchase your medical
marijuana in Canada and bring it back to the states on your vessel…
Did you know that Michigan is preferred by 4 out of 5 of the Great
Lakes? For those who are geography
challenged – that’s lakes Huron, Michigan, Erie and Superior but not Ontario.
Next stop – Mackinaw City. We got an early start on August 18th,
heading west on Lake Huron with water as smooth as glass. There were several
upbound ore carriers transiting DeTour Passage bound for the Soo Locks. And then we encountered our first fogbank. It
was just a wisp of a fogbank as was the second one further west. Then we entered the next fogbank which went
on and on for a good 20+ miles. I HATE
CRUISING IN FOG!! With Lazy W’s foghorn intermittently
piercing the quiet pea soup, we groped our way towards Mackinac Island hoping
that the fog would lift before our arrival there. And it did just in time for us to clearly see
and thread our way through the ferry traffic.
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| Mackinac Island emerges from the fog |
In the late 1600’s, Mackinaw City
was a thriving French fur trading post.
Later in the 1700’s, it was a British fortress – Fort Mackinac was built
by the British during the American Revolution and later captured by the
Americans. Today the city is a bustling
resort town of 850 year-round residents playing host to over a million visitors
per year. Ferry service moves hordes of
these tourists to Mackinac Island every summer day. The island, once a fur trade depot, is
car-free – the only modes of transportation are horses, bikes and feet. It is home to the world famous Grand Hotel
which figured prominently in the Jane Seymour/Christopher Reeves movie Somewhere
in Time. As enticing as the island
is, we chose not to visit this trip due to time constraints. We had been to the island several times when
we were Michigan residents and again during our first Great Loop adventure
fourteen years ago. From the water, it
appeared that the waterfront had undergone some recent development (condos, oh
no!) and I would like to hold onto my memories of the island from years ago.
Midges, thousands of them,
hitched a ride aboard Lazy W as we
traveled through the fog somewhere east of Mackinac Island. Stuck in spider webs, clinging to window
screens and plastered to every leeward fiberglass surface – Lazy W was one gross, speckled mess by
the time we docked at the Mackinaw City Marina.
Our only consolation was that these midges were the non-biting
kind. And since their life expectancy is
only 3 -5 days, I imagine they will soon be dead and no longer trying to fly up
our noses and into our eyes! (Spiders of every size and shape have been a
constant annoyance since the Erie Canal!
They seem to work furiously overnight draping the boat with their lacy
works of art. Knocking the webs down is
a daily morning chore. UGH! Just when you think you have eradicated most of
them, they’re b-a-a-ck.)
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| Mighty Mac |
The five-mile long Mackinac
Bridge, Mighty Mac, spans the Straits of Mackinac linking Mackinaw City on
Michigan’s Lower Peninsula with St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula. It is the third longest suspension bridge in
the world. Prior to its opening in 1957
car ferries were used for crossing the straits. The opening day of deer hunting season always
lead to massive traffic jams as hunters headed for the Upper Peninsula. In 1954 vehicles waited in backups of seven
miles along one access road and fifteen miles along another. These were serious hunters! Entrepreneurial locals went car to car
peddling pasties, cakes, pies, tobacco and shots of booze to the idling
hunters. Today local entrepreneurs
peddle t-shirts, fudge, pasties and local wines to the swarms of tourists that
descend upon Mackinaw City every summer.
And what is a pastie? According to one local restaurant it is “the
balanced meal in a crust.” This meat pie
originated in Cornwall, England as a meal prepared for the miners by their
wives. Looking somewhat like a burrito,
it is a crust filled with diced potatoes, rutabagas, carrots, onions and
seasoned meat, eaten in-hand or topped with gravy. It had been years since our last pastie so we
headed to the Mackinaw Pastie and Cookie Company store on Huron Street where
they “serve the finest pasties to the nicest people since 1964.” We were not disappointed! And the wine tasting at the Michigan Wine
Trail in Mackinaw Crossings Mall was not bad either.
Morning showers washed a good
deal of the midges off Lazy W. The forecast for August 19th had improved
enough overnight to make us confident that we could make the 56 mile run to
Charlevoix. By 7:15 we were cruising
under Mighty Mac and through the calm Straits of Mackinac. Once we rounded Waugoshance Point and entered
the open waters of Lake Michigan our ride got lumpy. We warily checked out the sky to our west and
noticed storm clouds a-brewing – nothing too scary, just something to
watch. All was well until we were within
four miles (or just 30 minutes on our slow boat) of Charlevoix – so close, but
yet so far! Our radar screen lit up with
the approaching storm, the rain came down in buckets and the winds battered the
canvas. A quick check of the weather
radar indicated that the disturbance was heading right across the lake to
Charlevoix. We turned tail and headed
north to wait out the fast moving storm – a wise decision by the captain.
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| Arrival at Charlevoix |
By the time we turned back south
and entered the channel into Charlevoix, the sun was shining and the wind was
calm. We timed our entrance to make the
3PM opening of the drawbridge over the Pine River and settled into our slip at
the municipal marina on Round Lake where B dock was filled with looper boats.
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| We were surprised to see the Emerald Isle ferry come into view as we prepared to enter Round Lake!! She took up more than her fair share of the channel as we crossed paths beneath the swing bridge. |
Charlevoix is one of our favorite
stops on Lake Michigan. Just steps away
from the marina the streets are filled with boutiques, art galleries, pubs,
breweries and restaurants. The
waterfront was a busy place – families strolling the docks to ogle the boats,
kids playing in the interactive splash fountain, shoppers perusing the goods at
the Summer Sidewalk Sales event.
There is much to like about
Charlevoix. Every spring for the last 35
years, the local community launches Operation Petunia. Over one thousand volunteers line five miles
of roadway with 70,000 red, white, pink and purple petunias! Downtown is beautiful all decked out in
flowers. But the beauty doesn’t stop
there thanks to a builder named Earl Young.
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| Earl Young built the Half Mushroom House on Park Avenue for his daughter |
It is said that Earl Young never
met a stone or boulder he didn’t love.
Beginning in 1918 Earl began transforming the housing landscape in
Charlevoix by ‘planting’ over twenty unique mushroom houses. Incorporating the size, shape, color and
texture of the stones into the design, he built 26 whimsical houses with wavy
rooflines and icing-capped chimneys ranging in size from one bedroom cottages
to large sprawling homes. You can almost imagine gnomes or hobbits
emerging from their stone archways to frolic on the lawn!
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| Outside one of the mushroom houses |
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| The Abide house on Park Avenue. Notice the icing-topped chimney. Now for sale at $367,000. |
In the 1950’s Earl even converted
an old grist mill into the Weathervane Restaurant - its dining room fireplace was
designed around a nine ton boulder that reminded him of the mitten shape of
Michigan. After a delightful guided
walking tour of the mushroom homes on Park Avenue, we dodged the sprinkle of
raindrops to check out the Weathervane for lunch. A windy downpour kept us there for another
round of drinks at the bar where a friendly local regaled us with stories of
life on the Leelanau Peninsula.
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| Weathervane Restaurant |
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| The fireplace at Weathervane Restaurant - the nine ton boulder at the top reminded Earl Young of the mitten shape of Michigan. It took some imagination to see it! |
Windy weather kept us in
Charlevoix another day but that was okay with us. We were pleasantly surprised to find that
there was an inside tour of one of the mushroom houses on Sunday
afternoon. The Sunset Villa (a.k.a
Thatch Mushroom House) showcases 5,000 square feet of Earl Young’s extraordinary
imagination. Its roof is crafted of
thatch hand-reaped in Europe, shipped to the U.S., and installed by a master
thatcher during one of Charlevoix’s coldest winters. Lovingly restored and
maintained by a South African businessman (who hatched the idea of the thatch roof), the six-bedroom house is available
for rent whenever the owners are not in town.
The average nightly fee - $1,400.
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| Sunset Villa |
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| Close up view of the thatch roof on Sunset Villa. The thatch reeds resemble drinking straws. |
Fourteen years ago on our Great
Loop adventure we met Tony and Joyce on their Ocean Alexander Sleeping Bear. We have been in touch periodically, attending
mini looper reunions in Florida at another looper’s home. They just happened to be at their home in Charlevoix
this weekend and we were glad to host them for happy hour on Lazy W before dinner at Villager Pub on Sunday.
Early Monday morning it seemed
that every looper boat was on the move south – faster boats heading to
Frankfort, slower boats heading to Leland, and Lazy W heading to Northport at the northern tip of the Leelanau
Peninsula on Grand Traverse Bay. Why
Northport? We missed the Dog Parade, the
Northport Wine Festival and the Cars in the Park events but the Captain didn’t
want to miss the ‘bargain’ diesel fuel price ($2.49/gallon) at the Northport
Municipal Marina. So while other boats
continued south along Lake Michigan we hung a left at Grand Traverse Bay, pulled
up to the fuel dock and discovered that in the five short days since last
posted the price of fuel had risen 18₵/gallon.
The Captain still felt it was a bargain price and we took on 260
gallons!! Ka-ching, Ka-ching…
Northport, originally known as
Waukazoo, is a quiet little town with a big marina, Mitten Brewery, Tucker’s
Sports Bar, Barb’s Bakery (world famous cinnamon twists and a Mario Batali fave), Tom’ s Food Market, a
post office, a hardware store, a few little eateries and shops selling t-shirts
and lake house souvenirs, and the Earth, Wind and Fryer food truck. Rumor has it that actor Tim Allen and chef
Mario Batali are famous summer residents but I didn’t meet them during our
three days here. Three days? Yup, three days because that big lake was
churning up waves over four feet high! ):
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| Northport, Michigan |
A brilliant sunrise over Grand
Traverse Bay greeted us on August 25th. It looked like a gorgeous day for cruising –
at least it was on Grand Traverse Bay.
It was quite a different scenario out on Lake Michigan. Westerly winds and waves buffeted our
starboard side and Lazy W wallowed
and rocked and rolled the rest of the way to Frankfort. The shoreline dunes of Sleeping Bear National
Lakeshore Park were spectacular and the lake looked so benign with waves of
less than two feet. How could it have
beaten us up so?? To say that we were
glad to see the breakwater of Frankfort harbor would be a gross understatement. Eight hours after leaving the calm waters of
Northport we docked at our slip on Betsie Lake’s Frankfort Municipal
Marina. (And diesel here was $2.46/gallon!) Ahhhh.
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| Dunes along the way to Frankfort |
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| Stormcloud Brewing Company |
The following day was
beautiful! Comfy temperatures in the 70's made for perfect bike riding weather so we pedaled fifteen miles round trip to Crystal Lake along the wide, flat, paved Betsie Valley Trail. Afterwards we rewarded ourselves with a stop
at Stormcloud Brewing Company on Frankfort’s Main Street. With a menu featuring plenty of locally
brewed Belgian-inspired ales, wine from Left Foot Charley of Traverse City,
flatbread pizzas and ale-soaked brat bites, Stormcloud satisfied both the
Captain and the Admiral. Nearby, the
Focus Art Gallery showcased photographs of winter views of icy Lake Michigan. If it weren’t for winter, we would love to
live in this state again…
And then the rain came on
Saturday! We hunkered down for the day
and took a stab at finalizing another leg of our Australia travel itinerary. Uluru here we come!
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| A gorgeous day at the entrance to Manistee Harbor |
The rain ended, the winds calmed
and now it was time to continue south to Manistee. The Municipal Marina on the narrow Manistee
River is right on the edge of the historic district. The lumber industry of the 1800’s rewarded
Manistee with a bumper crop of millionaire lumber barons - this community once
had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States. They built their mansions of wood,
naturally. On the same day as the Great
Chicago Fire, October 8, 1871, a raging fire consumed the town of Manistee,
destroying the mansions of the lumber barons.
They were subsequently rebuilt of bricks and many of these houses are
now listed on National Register of Historic Places.
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| Docked at Manistee Municipal Marina |
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| Manistee North Pierhead Light and Catwalk |
The River Walk trail hugs the
shore of the Manistee River from the historic downtown to the shore of Lake
Michigan. Guarding the entrance to the harbor
is the North Pierhead Light and Catwalk, also listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. To make access to
the light easier for the light keeper in stormy weather, a wooden catwalk was constructed
in the 1870’s from the shoreline to the end of the pier, a distance of 156
feet. This allowed the keeper to scamper
across several feet above the crashing waves and I guess this made the hearty
guy/gal feel safer. In 1927, a cast iron
walkway replaced the wooden one. The city
of Manistee, caretaker of the light, gave the lighthouse a fresh coat of paint
in April. Both it and the catwalk looked
to be in great condition.
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| Pere Marquette cruises along the Manistee River just off the stern of Lazy W |
The Manistee River is very narrow
so it is always a surprise to see a big ship making its way back to Lake
Michigan after delivering its cargo to the industrial complexes along Lake
Manistee.
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| Big Sable Light on the way to Ludington |
Since the Lake Michigan forecast
was so favorable for travel south to Ludington, we only stayed in Manistee one
day. These fair weather boaters were not
about to pass up southeast winds and waves of less than one foot! It was a beautiful three hour cruise to
Ludington.
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| Entrance to Ludington Harbor |
Like so many other northwestern
Michigan towns, Ludington came of age during the lumber boom of the mid 1800’s.
Elegant schooners moored in the harbor ready to transport lumber, freight,
produce and livestock to and from ports all along the Lake Michigan
coastline. Steel hulled ships known as
carferries carrying railroad boxcars and iron ore soon replaced these
schooners. At one time Ludington was the
home port of thirteen carferries. Today
the S.S. Badger, the largest carferry
to ever sail Lake Michigan, still sails daily from Ludington to Manitowoc,
Wisconsin from mid-May to mid-October. Just this year, the Department of the Interior bestowed upon the Badger the designation of National Historic Landmark.
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| S.S.Badger maneuvering to the ferry dock in Ludington |
The S.S. Badger, 410 feet long, is the only coal-fired steamship in
operation in the United States today.
Launched in 1953, she was built primarily to haul railroad cars across
the rough water of Lake Michigan. She
also boasted superior passenger accommodations. By 1990, the railroad freight business had dwindled
and Badger made her last lake
crossing. She was saved from the scrap
metal heap by an enterprising businessman who decided to reinvent her for transporting
leisure passengers and their vehicles.
It is fascinating to watch the Badger’s arrival in Ludington. A hearty whistle blow announces her arrival. Belching a steady cloud of black smoke, she steams slowly into the harbor. As she nears the dock she drops one of her
7,000 pound anchors and slowly pivots around to seamlessly back into her slip. She makes docking look so easy. We remember that fourteen years ago there was a bagpiper playing Amazing Grace on her back deck during an evening departure.
This summer we have tried to do
our part supporting all the local ice cream shops along our water route, and
there have been plenty of opportunities to do just that! Conveniently located here in Ludington is the
House of Flavors. Little did we know
that this ice cream shop/diner is linked to the production facility across the
parking lot where they produce 25,000,000 gallons of ice cream annually! However, you most likely will not come across
the House of Flavors brand name in your local supermarket freezer as most of
the dessert products are produced for other retailers and restaurants across
the U.S. and Puerto Rico who put their own name on it.
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| Jamesport Brewing Co. of Ludington |
Another town, another brewery to check out!
There are some new additions to
Waterfront Park since our last visit here. Nine bronze sculptures showcase the people and
the history of Ludington.
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| Fruits of Farming |
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| Spirit of Ludington |
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| Follow the Leader |
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| Ludington's Lumbering Era |
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| The Carferries |
Gusty wind and waves over three
feet kept us in Ludington for four days.
By September 2nd, the weather on Lake Michigan had improved enough for us to move south. Our last cruise of the season was
a 50 mile run from Ludington to Muskegon’s Great Lakes Marina. The morning temperature was 44⁰ in Ludington –
time to break out the jeans and sweatshirts for this cruise! Lake Michigan was the calmest we had seen all
season so this last run was a very enjoyable, but chilly, one.
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| Arriving in Muskegon |
Downtown
Muskegon has undergone a wonderful transformation from the blah industrialized
place we remember from fourteen years ago to a rather vibrant small town. In the 1880’s, there were 47 lumber mills operating
on the shore of Muskegon Lake and in 1887 the bustling town was known as the ‘Lumber
Queen of the World’ when 665,000,000 board feet were cut in that one year. When
the lumber boom faded most of the lumber barons packed up and moved to the
Pacific Northwest. Charles Hackley
remained, determined to keep Muskegon alive by encouraging other businesses to
locate here. He became the town’s biggest philanthropist and his name adorns
many a building and park downtown. All
along Western Avenue, older buildings are being repurposed as breweries,
restaurants, boutiques and apartments.
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| This mural celebrating Muskegon's proud history is on the wall of the building housing Unruly Brewing Company. |
While the remnants of Tropical
Storm Hermine were soaking Hampton Roads, Virginia, we were soaking up the
sunshine and eating pierogis and kielbasa at the first annual Muskegon Polish
Festival in Hackley Park. The New Brass
Express and the Dyna Brass Polka Band managed to put a polka beat on every
tune, even Engelbert Humperdinck‘s After
the Lovin’! Na Zdrowie!
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| The Turning Point |
This sculpture in downtown
Muskegon, The Turning Point, commemorates
the birth of the sport of snowboarding.
In 1965 Sherm Poppen lashed together two child-size skis, the first
snurfer, so that his young daughters could snow surf down the sand dunes behind
their house. So began the popular winter
sport he dubbed snurfing. In 1968, the first World Snurfing Competition was
held in Muskegon State Park. The snurfer
eventually morphed into today’s snowboard, and snowboarding became a Winter Olympic
sport in 1998. In 1995, Mr. Poppen was inducted into the Snowboarding Hall of
Fame in Banff, Alberta, Canada. And it
all started here in Muskegon.
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| The Lake Express, a high speed catamaran car ferry, arrives in Muskegon and approaches her dock just down the way from Lazy W. The ferry crosses Lake Michigan to Milwaukee in 2.5 hours. |
Just across the street from the
Great Lakes Marina is the Harbor Cinema.
The price of admission includes free popcorn which we munched while
watching Tom Hanks in Sully. Running alongside the marina is a great bike
path that begins at Pere Marquette Park on Lake Michigan and ends somewhere
beyond downtown Muskegon. We pedaled
this trail many times on our way to the Farmers Market (fresh -picked tomatoes to die for), grocery stores, the
Muskegon Museum of Art (Studio Brew: The Colors of Beer was a fun exhibit to
peruse), wine tastings and breweries (Pigeon Hill Brewing Company and Unruly
Brewing Company). The Muskegon
Lumberjacks of the USHL play hockey at Muskegon’s L.C. Walker Arena and the
preseason game against Team USA on Saturday is free! You know where we will be Saturday evening…
We need to turn our attention to prepping Lazy W for storage in Muskegon where she will be spending the cold
Michigan winter in heated comfort at Great Lakes Marina. There are plenty of tasks to tackle before we
say goodbye to her - eradicating the innumerable spiders that have been aboard both
Lazy W and Cassiopeia for months, scrubbing the spider poop off cushions and
fiberglass, wiping down all the isinglass surrounding the upper helm, touching
up all the teak work that was chafed while transiting all 70+ locks of the Erie
and Oswego Canals and the Trent Severn Waterway, clearing out all the
foodstuffs from the galley lockers, cleaning all the lockers out, arranging for fiberglass repair of her bow, changing the oil. And then there are all the other tasks that the
Captain wants to tackle in the engine room.
Not to mention the planning and packing for the upcoming trip to
Australia. Yes, we need a vacation from
all the stress of boating (hahaha) and so we head to Australia on September 21st.
