GRAND HAVEN to HOLLAND / Monday, August 22 to Wednesday, August 24 (Days 214-216)

Admiral's Log:     8:20 am, Mon. 8/22/16
                          Air Temp:   60     Water Temp:   71
                         Winds:   2 mph
                         Speed:   10 knots

We returned the rental car and headed to Holland so we could get anchored before the winds picked up. We dropped anchor at 11 and had a lazy day of reading and relaxing. We passed several cool houses and grilled steaks for dinner.

Hollan Pier Light, called "Big Red".

We just loved the huge Weeping Willow Trees

Check out the windmill feature on this house.

This guy has what look like channel markers for his chimney's.

Tuesday, we had planned on taking the dingy to town, but the winds were whipping pretty good so we pulled anchor at noon and headed to a marina. We knew it was going to be windy the next couple of days so we planned on staying at a marina in Holland anyway. We had heard gusts of 35 mph and wave heights up to 9 feet!

We tried to rent a car but none were available, so we had to take a taxi to town but had to wait 3 hours, they were so busy and there are only 2 taxi services. Oh well, we have no schedule so we had lunch on the boat and waited until the driver called.

We had the taxi take us to town and we walked to Windmill Gardens. This is the only working windmill in the country. It was brought to the city of Holland from the country of Holland in 1964. The miller is the only woman in the world to be certified in this type of milling. It was a very interesting tour. They still make flour and grits here and are sold in their store and to the local restaurants. I wish we could see the gardens in the spring when all the tulips are in bloom. There is a very strong Dutch influence in many of these western Michigan towns.

The tour guides dress in costume. The blue flag hung out side means the mill is open.

Watching the blades turn.

Then grinding stones.

The only woman Dutch Certified Miller in the world.

 Mike found his size!  

We walked back to town and had pizza at Franconi's. I was really good, but very limited menu. It only came in 12 inch and very thin crust (but that's what we like).

When we got back to the boat we heard someone yell Rowe Boat! It was John on Silver Fox! We met him on the Erie Canal back in June. We had locked through with him one full day. He was not on the loop. He was bringing his father in law's boat up here from Del Ray, Florida. He lives in Grand Rapids but keeps his boat at this marina and has a condo across the street. Another small world moment.

 He told us the Van Andles' and DeVos' (more Dutch influence), of Amway fame had huge houses on Lake Wacatawa. We also learned that Tiara boats are built near here, no wonder we kept seeing so many!

One of the Amway Family homes.

The Tiara "training center"

Wednesday, John's wife, Marsha, brought her car over for me to use! She was so nice and had highlighted things on a local map she thought I would like to see and do. I went to a great Farmer's Market and the grocery store.  

Very nice Farmer's Market!

Bought these at the market, we don't get Sunflowers in Florida, go figure.

Once I got back from the grocery, we caught up on laundry and cleaning. Had drinks at the marina restaurant with John and Marsha. We hope they will look us up when they go down this winter to visit family on the east coast. Katy and Daniel arrived around midnight for a long weekend. 

LUDINGTON to GRAND HAVEN / Thursday, August 18 to Sunday, August 21 (Days 210-213)

Admiral's Log:     7:15 am, 8/18/16
                         Air Temp:   60     Water Temp:   72
                        Winds:  calm
                        Speed:   9 knots

We got an early start because the winds and seas were suppose to increase. So we had to change our original destination from anchoring in White Lake to a Marina in Grand Haven, where we were getting our props changed out. We hate to miss some of these places but it is just part of the journey. Safety first. We saw 30+ fishing boats all around us.  

Little Sable Point Lighthouse

White Lake Lighthouse  (hard to see tucked up in the trees)

Muskegon Pier Light

Other part of Muskegon Pier Light

Grand Haven Pier Light

Grand Haven Pier Lighthouse

We said good bye to Over Ice for a few days. They had to find a marina to leave their boat so they could fly home to attend the funeral of a good friend.

 We arrived at North Shore Marina at 2pm. We dug out the spare props then
we caught up with some of the old Looper friends; Morningstar, Phase II and Chica and had dinner at the Grand; an old movie theater turned into a restaurant. 

Friday, the boat was hauled out to replace the props. As Mel on Morningstar put it, we shaved off some rocks in the Georgian Bay. The left side (port) looked pretty rough. It was curled and nicked. The right one (starboard) was in pretty good shape, but we have to replace both. Hopefully these new props will make it home in one piece. Remember...it's a boat!

It is not suppose to be curled on the end!

A better picture of the curl!

We then rented a car and took a road trip to Chicago. It was a 3 hour drive. We checked into the Wit, a Double Tree hotel. It was in a great location, near  shopping and restaurants. 

We ate at a really good Indian Nepalese restaurant. 

Weird statues in this park walking back from dinner.

Saturday, we took advantage of the hotel amenities and both had relaxing massages. Then we had a delicious lunch at the Frontera Grill a Rick Bayliss Mexican restaurant. We got in our 10,000 steps looking for Olukai flip flops for Mike. Can't believe we never found any! We heard the Air Show going on overhead. But it was too crazy crowded to even try and get to the water to see it. We had seen it the last time we were here a couple of years ago, and pretty much saw the same thing when we were in Annapolis in May.

Frontera Grill, great Mexican food by Rick Bayliss

We went back to the room and took a nap then we had an Italian dinner at Merlo on Maple, near Rush Street.  We had been there a few years ago but could not remember the name. We finally figured it out, and it was as good as we remembered. A little pricey, but great service, atmosphere and delicious food in a re-modled brownstone.

Sunday, Bill Fisher, a friend from Tampa, surprised us when he let us know he happened to be in Chicago too, so we met for breakfast at our hotel. Bill and Kate cruised with us in July. They are planning on doing the Loop in a few years.

Mike and I got back to our Marina around 2 and made a quick stop at West Marine (Tiffany's) and checked out the cute town of Grand Haven. We had BLTs for dinner and I worked on the Blog.

MANISTEE to LUDINGTON / Tuesday, August 16 to Wednesday, August 17 (Days 209-210)

Admiral's Log:     9:00 am, Tues. 8/16/16
                         Air Temp:   70     Water Temp:   71
                        Winds:   2 mph
                        Speed:   8.9 knots

We said goodbye to Sweet T and took off for another sunny calm day.

Interesting landscape along the lake

 We saw over 30 fishing boats not far from us in 200+ feet of water, mostly catching salmon. Several of us had commented on all the rods these guys have on their boats! Overkill to us fisherman from the South. Mike and Robert of Over Ice were commenting on this over the radio when one of the fisherman jumped in and explained they throw over 15# sinkers and have several rods rigged with different things. So they can switch them without having to re-rig. He said it's a fun day with your buddies and a cooler full of beer. Over Ice seconded that idea, haha. It made sense but these boats are pretty small and some of them have like 30 rods on them! Just different kind of fishing than we are used to I guess. 

Tons of rods!

Ludington is little larger town. Very nice marina and of course you can walk to town. We had a really good lunch then I went to the Hallmark store and stocked up on cards for the rest of the year.

Benches, flowers and playgrounds add to the quaintness of these cute marinas.

Ludington is also home to the SS Badger. It is a 620 passenger and car ferry that travels 60 miles across Lake Michigan to Manitowoc Wisconsin in 4 hours. The Badger was built in 1953, is 410 feet long and is the only coal fired steamship in use today.

After lunch we took the dingy and met Over Ice and Phase II at a beach on the lake. I did not go swimming, but waded in the water which was quite warm.  

Enjoying a little beach time.

We had docktails on our boat with Over Ice, Phase II and Sea Trek. We had not seen him since Trent Port. We also visited with Seascape who we saw in Bobcaygen briefly. He is still working so they do 2 weeks on the boat then 2 weeks home. Seems kind of a pain to me, they really don't get to see much, but guess it works for them.

The guys discussing boating issues...as usual.  It's a boat!

We cooked an Indian dish for dinner and watched some of the Olympics; not quite as good now that gymnastics and swimming are finished, in my humble opinion. 

Wednesday, the winds had picked up a little so decide to stay put another day, plus this was a cute town we wanted to check out a little more. We took the local transit bus to Walmart. What a deal 2$ each way total! Then we had lunch at the House of Flavors, a local chain. Reminded us of Steak and Shake. Then we just read and I worked on the blog.

At 6:30 we watched the Badger dock, it was really amazing. 

We had pizza delivered for dinner, then walked to House of Flavors for some ice cream and watched more Olympics.

PORTAGE LAKE Anchor to MANISTEE / Monday, August 15 (Day 208)

Admiral's Log:     10:40 am, Mon. 8/15/16
                         Air Temp:   74     Water Temp:   75
                        Winds:   calm
                        Speed:  7.5 knots

We knew this would be a quick run, so there was no hurry to start early. 
Manistee is another cute little water town. It only has about 10 slips for larger boats. Most boaters live here or are fishing boats. 

Most of these little towns on the Michigan side of the lake are between 20 and 30 miles apart and are labeled "safe harbors". The Great Lakes are huge and can get pretty rough (remember the Edmund Fitzgerald?) in no time; especially if the winds are out of the West. So boaters can duck into one of these harbors when the weather turns. That's why the harbor channels are easily marked with some sort of lighthouse.

Manistee Breakwater Light

Robert of Over Ice took this pic.

We ended up docked beside Sweet T. They had rented a car and drove back up to Traverse City to pick up their daughter and grandson to cruise for a few days.

I was able to get my laundry done here. Not cheap, but nice facilities. Over Ice came over for a drink before they headed to dinner.

Cool pub in town.

We walked to dinner at Blue Fish. The restaurant was cute with nice views of the water, but the food...not so much.

Another beautiful sunset on Lake Michigan

FRANKFORT to PORTAGE LAKE Anchor / Sunday, August 14 (Day 207)

Admiral's Log:     9:55 am, Sun. 8/14/16
                         Air Temp:   72     Water Temp:   72
                        Winds:   calm
                        Speed:  8.5 knots

We had planned on staying another day so I could do laundry and check out the town a little more. But the laundry was closed, so we figured we'd just get a move on while the seas were calm. Lake Michigan can turn quickly, so best to travel when you can because who knows you may be socked in someplace for a few days.

We had a nice breeze and pleasant temps. We got to Portage Lake around 12:30. There were no other boats anchored here, which was nice. There were a few pontoon boats and jet ski's that buzzed by. I think they wanted to see where this big boat was from. Don't think they get a lot of visitors. 

The water was not as clear as most of the other other places we've been too. We did a little fishing. Mike caught a baby bass and I caught a decent crappy. But not enough for dinner. 

My big catch 

There were over 20 swans just swimming back and forth across this lake all day, so pretty.

This is an Eagle catching a fish... (hard to see)

...and flying off with it.

We pretty much took it easy, read, napped watched the Olympics and had leftovers for dinner.

S. MANITOU ISLAND Anchor to FRANKFORT / Saturday, August 13 to Sunday, August 14 (Days 206-207)

Admiral's Log:     8:40 am, Sat. 8/13/16
                         Air Temp:   69     Water Temp:   70
                        Winds:  6 mph
                        Speed:   8.3 mph

It was a rainy and overcast start. We saw the Sleeping Bear Dunes from the water this time. Also saw a ship wreck from 1960 called the Francisco Morazon, a Liberian Freighter. 

We also saw some of the oldest and largest white cedar trees in the world.

Dunes from the water 

Betsie Point Lighthouse

Frankfort Breakwater Light

We docked at the Municipal Marina in Frankfort at 12:30, just in time to hit the Farmer's Market. I loaded up on corn, and several local fruits of cherries, blueberries and peaches. Mike even found some brats and decent steaks for the freezer.

Fellow Loopers, Zephyr finished their loop (called "crossing your wake") in Charlevoix Thursday. We had not seen them since the Chesapeake, we were so glad they drove 2 hours from Charlevoix to see us. Denise took me to the grocery, then we had drinks and visited for a while before dinner. We asked them how it felt to being finished. They both said it was bitter sweet. I imagine that's the way we will feel. 

Paul and Denise of Zephyr, they are now "Gold Loopers"
(when you complete the Loop, you get a gold flag to fly)

Dinner at Dingy's with Zephyr, Sweet T, Morningstar, Chica and Rowe Boat.