Lake Michigan, Saugatuck and Chicago !

We spent almost an entire month exploring Lake Michigan along the eastern shore (The Michigan shoreline) and we wished we had the entire summer.  We started at Mackinac Island, then jumped to Beaver Island, then to Harbor Springs and Charlevoix, where we stayed for almost a week.  The water is crystal clear, but cold, and the swimming is spectacular.  We could not let a day go by without a swim, at least a brief one, in the beautiful waters of Lake Michigan or Lake Charlevoix.

It was at Charlevoix where Vince and Dave came to visit with Geoff while Patty was away visiting with her cousins in Minneapolis, we stayed at the city marina in Charlevoix (the first time on the trip where we stayed more than two consecutive nights at the same marina) and thoroughly enjoyed the quaint town. If you like fudge and ice cream, this is the town for you.

When we left Charlevoix, we headed to what could be the best stop of the trip at South Manitou Island.  The island has no dock or marina, so the only way to visit required anchoring in a spot that is magnificent, a beautiful crescent sand beach, clear clean water, birds wheeling overhead, and we shared with just a few other like minded boaters.  Heaven.  The swimming here was extra special.

 

Lighthouse on North Manitou Island

View from the top of the lighthouse

 When we left South Manitou, we headed south along the coast, visiting in turn Frankfort (where we saw the results of a fishing tournament- more Chinook salmon being cleaned than we could count), Arcadia (wonderful anchorage all to ourselves and a short row and walk to a deserted Lake Michigan swim), Portage Lake (anchored alone on a quiet cottage filled lake), and Manistee (where we had a wonderful night at anchor, then another evening tied to the seawall right in town, where we had a a superb fish fry- perch and walleye- at the adjoining Elks Club.

Dave and Carol joined us in Manistee for the Labor Day weekend, after leaving Manistee we stopped at Ludington for the night (home of the BADGER, the coal-fired car ferry that makes several trips a day across the Lake to Manitowac WI) and then on to Pentwater.

Dave, Carol, Patty and Geoff in Manistee

Pentwater is a very cute Michigan beach town and we spent two nights there after Dave and Carol left us, we visited with Winnie's long time friend Leslie..............

Leslie hamming it up for the camera in Pentwater

The next stop down the coast was White Lake, where we visited the towns of Montague and Whitehall, and their claim to fame...The world's largest weather-vane:

We then spent two nights at Muskegon and had a salmon BBQ with our friends Warren and Marty, sailors we met way up in The North Channel of Lake Huron, and Geoff had time to tour the nearby WWII submarine museum all by himself, which had an actual fleet submarine open for inspection.  Then one night in Port Sheldon (a great little anchorage- which we shared with one other boat- that boasts nothing more than it is off the beaten path.  The small lake is the source of cooling water for the nearby coal-fired electrical generation plant, so although there is incessant background noise from the plant, the lake is constantly refreshed with a daily flow of over one million gallons of cool, clear Lake Michigan water.  Very pretty and wonderful swimming.)

Next stop SAUGATUCK..............

We stayed a week in Saugatuck and had a wonderful time.  We visited the church where we married 29 years ago:

 

 On to the reception:

And then a few of our old haunts:

We spent time with Cousin Tom Dawson and his lovely wife Merrily over in Fennville. Tommy spent many years with the Chicago Fire Dept as a firefighter, but his Italian heritage gave him the background as a fantastic cook (duties he performed in the firehouse for most of his firefighting career), so they treated us to some fantastic meals, plus a real bed on dry land!  They also arranged a visit with Uncle Bob Dawson from Chicago, the person that introduced Geoff to boating on Lake Michigan as a youngster. 

It was sad to leave Saugatuck, but the next leg of the journey was calling, we turned our bow towards Chicago.....well, not exactly straight to Chicago.  Lake Michigan was starting to respond to the Fall weather and the Southeast winds had the Lake bumpier than we liked, so we stayed close to the shore and hopped down to St Joe/ Benton Harbor the first night, then Michigan City IN the second night, which then gave us an uneventful ride of 40 miles across the lower end of the Lake, in a strong Southern breeze, to Chicago.

Geoff gave Patty a tour of the Chicago skyline and Burnham, Monroe, and DuSable harbors before anchoring off the Ohio St beach for the night.  We had front row seats to a spectacular lightning storm as the bolts of lightning and the thunder that followed each strike, rolled across the lakefront for hours.