CHARLEVOIX to TRAVERSE CITY / Monday, August 8 to Tuesday, August 9 (Days 201-202)

Admiral's Log:     8:30 am, Mon. 8/8/16
                           Air Temp:   60     Water Temp:   71
                          Winds:   3 mph
                         Speed:   8.5 mph

As we left Charlevoix I took a photo of the restaurant we ate at that was also designed by the "mushroom house" guy. It was a gorgeous day leaving the channel into Lake Michigan. 

The Weathervane Restaurant

These cabanas are owned by the Belvedere Club 

Mushroom house for sale for only $3.5 million! But the flowers were gorgeous!

Leaving Charlevoix Channel into Lake Michigan

We got to Traverse City a little after one. Another cute, but larger town. Love how most of the Lake Michigan cities or towns are really close to the water. We can pretty much walk to whatever we need. Most the marinas we've been to are quite the social gathering. There are playgrounds, beaches and snack bars. 

Cool Schooner as we approached Traverse City

The Traverse City Marina had a cute playground and sandy beach.

We both got much needed haircuts! Later, we cleaned up and walked to dinner at Poppycock's, we both had pasta dishes that were pretty good.

Tuesday, we rented a car so we could run a couple of errands and see "Sleeping Bear Dunes" National Lakeshore Park.  The park covers 35 miles of the eastern shore. These dunes rise over 450 feet above the lake. They were formed by glaciers over 2,000 years ago. 

Drove past this sign, pretty cool!

Made a quick run to Walmart then headed to the dunes. It was about an hour drive. We had a picnic lunch in the park and walked to one of the dunes. The sand is brown but very soft, it is pretty hard to walk in. There is also a "dune climb" which we did not do. The kids we saw were loving it. Looked to me like they would take one step up and slide back about five. It had to take a while to get to the top!

The water color is just like the Bahamas, crystal clear but even better, not salty!

Dune Climb, this photo does not show well, but this is a pretty good hike.

The legend of the "Sleeping Bear Dunes" comes from Indian folklore. A momma bear and her two cubs were trying to escape a wildfire in Wisconsin, and attempted to swim across the lake to Michigan. Unfortunately the cubs drowned.
The big dune is the momma and her two cubs are two islands in the lake; North and South Manitou Islands.

View of Lake Michigan from atop a dune.