Holland Sights

Here is the Holland Harbor Lighthouse known as "Big Red" . When it was decommissioned, it was given to the Holland Lighthouse Preservation group who continues to maintain it.

This is one of the sculptures found around Holland made and donated by a local scrap metal dealer. This stands next to the Macatawa Yacht Club where we docked for 4 days while we wait for good weather to cross to Racine, WI. and while we visit with Cotter and Joann Tharin and Clark and Shirley Weersing. They are our winter neighbors at Burnt Store Marina. It was great to see them and they certainly outdid themselves in showing us around their town ! Great hosts !

A must see in Holland is this windmill called DeZwan which is the only authentic Dutch windmill in the US. The Dutch name all their windmills. After much negotiation, the Dutch government agreed to release one of these (they were becoming fewer and fewer in the Netherlands) so it was dissassembled there, shipped to the US, and reassembled here on Windmill Island in Holland,MI. This was in about 1964. One of the stipulations was that this continue to be a working mill, so it still is used to grind the grain as it was intended. Guides were dressed in the costume of each peculiar province of Holland. At the present, there are 2 girls in training to become millers for this type of mill and some of their training has to be done in Holland to become a certified miller.
Shirley and I are standing in front of an Amsterdam street organ which was given to the city of Holland in gratitude for the assistance given them by the US during the World War. It plays like a player piano but with the drums, cymbals and organ sound.


The grounds at Windmill Island are beautifully landscaped with flowers everywhere. There is also a greenhouse, carousel, a miniature Dutch village. Unfortunately, we missed the Klompen dancing (wooden shoes).


The downtown area of Holland has been renovated in the Dutch style and again, flowers everywhere are replacing the beds which bloom with tulips in the spring. It is home to Hope College so there are many cultural events available, a great farmer's market, plus this nice harbor. It's not hard to see why the Tharins and Weersings stay here for retirement !

Ludington-Holland

Leaving Ludington on Sunday, the 26th, we followed this ferry out of the harbor---it goes across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee I think. It was a beautiful day with calm seas. Destination was White Lake where we planned to anchor.

As we went south, there were more and more sailboats and cruisers rather than fishing boats. As you can see from this harbor entrance, everyone was out enjoying the nice day...and the harbor was even busier so we elected not to anchor there. Instead we went a little farther to Muskegon. This too was busy, but it was later in the day and soon they'd be going in to dock.
This lighthouse was at the entrance to White Lake which I thought was very pretty.

Day 26 and 267 Ludington

Leaving Manitee, we were in dense fog with visibility of about 1/4 mile...we wouldn't have made it without radar or GPS as there were at least 100 fishing boats out from shore all the way to Ludington. We felt like we were threading our way through a
maze. Luckily, it was only 28 miles and the lake was pretty calm. It would've been nicer if could see though.... They take fishing seriously here in Ludington too...This fish cleaning station was beautiful; we'd never seen one like it-it is part of the park around the marina.
The Ludington Marina is another municipal run facility. This one is the best one yet with beautiful grounds, nice showers, etc and a community room and deck for boaters...you can see the deck in the background.

This is a view of the park in the harbor...sail sculpture and picnic tables and a gazebo shelter.








Here is one of the sculptures in the park..a commemoration to the lumber industry of the past.



This is another sculpture of children playing with the sail sculpture and harbor entrance in the background. There is a beautiful playground area with many picnic tables, grills and a fully enclosed shelter. We've enjoyed staying here and downtown is only 2 blocks away.

Manistee

Do you think the water is down a little? ! I'd like to see the owner get in and out of this boat !


Manistee is a big fishing town...we were greeted by no less than 25-30 fishing boats at the entrance to the river and had to thread our way through. This gives you an idea of the fisherman there with the docks all along the river into the Manistee Lake. In addition, near the entrance, there is a 16 lane boat launch ramp with a huge parking lot that was full when we walked there, so most of them probably don't even get down the river. Saw catches of salmon and lake trout.

There was a great boardwalk all along the river to Lake Michigan from the Manistee Lake--about 1 1/2 miles. Very pretty with occasional flower plantings and then plaques with the history of the area. In addition to the fishing and lumbering industry, salt was discovered here in the late 1800's and there still are salt mines working today...Morton Salt is one. Most of the buildings and homes near the downtown area are beautifully restored and maintained. We enjoyed this place.

We were really blown away when we saw this 600 ft. laker coming down the Manistee River in front of where we were docked. The river is only about 100 feet wide....! It was delivering coal--it was close enough so that Bob could loudly talk to the crew on deck !


Finally got the picture of the swan in Frankfort !

Frankfort

This swan was there to greet us in Frankfort.

Leaving Charlevoix, we headed for Leland but with the weather and waves being pretty good, we changed our desination to Frankfort. We had been told that this was a pretty nice town. It was, but it didn't take more than a couple hours to walk it-population 1200. This was the entrance to Frankfort.

There were sand dunes on the way, and thought this picture of the stairway from the lake to the top of the dunes-it's the dark zig-zag in the center of the picture. Kitter, this stairway beats yours by far !

As we were leaving Petosky, this voyageur canoe was heading into the bay, and this sand castle was being built on the shore.

Here are pictures of the entrance to Charlevoix Harbor and some of the houses, condos in the harbor ! The ferry coming out is going over to Beaver Island and you can see the bridge up in the background.

Charlevoix

Day 22, Monday, August 20---Here we are in Charlevoix MI where we arrived on Friday the 18th. We are waiting on a package and are also stuck here because of the weather. Small craft warnings on the big lake. But, it's okay though. It's a nice harbor and close to the shops and grocery store. We had our hair cuts this morning too. Can't upload any pictures again because there isn't a strong enough signal. But this is the place that the rich from Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis come.. The lake homes are beautiful...I'll send a picture of one here in the harbor when I can. Hopefully, we can get out tomorrow. Have 2 weeks to get to Racine...

Pictures

I found I had a couple bars on the internet phone connection and thought I'd post some pictures. The first two are views of the park around the harbor here in Petosky, MI. Then the next Here are a couple of the unique kinds of Chris Craft boats found in the Le Cheneau Islands at the Hessel boat show. There is also some pictures of our trip to Beaver Island...Mackinac Bridge, the White Shoal Lighthouse and the entrance to the harbor at Beaver Island.

Straits of Mackinac, Beaver Island

Again I don't have enough power here to upload images. Anyway, we left St. Ignace bound for Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan on Monday, August 13. It was a little choppy going through under the Mackinac Bridge and through the straits of Mackinac. After that though, it was a pleasant enough trip to Beaver Island. We passed the White Shoal Lighthouse which marks the northern edge of Gray's Reef Channel --I think I have a Harbour Lights replica of that one too. We arrived at Beaver Island in time to anchor for dinner. While preparing that, another couple who was also anchored out, dingied over and gave us the lowdown on the area (they were from Door County area and sailed often in this area.)
The forecast for the next day was not good with high winds and storms, so we decided to get a slip in the harbor which we did early next morning, so we had the whole day to explore the town. That's just about all the time needed to walk the area immediate to the marina. This island has an interesting history with it first being inhabited by Native Americans, then occupied by the Irish who were fisherman and lumberman.. Then a Mormon named Strang brought in his flock and grew in strength enough to evict anyone who did not join his flock, off the island. He named himself King. In his early years,he had had aspirations of marrying a princess and becoming a prince, but that didn't pan out--so when all else fails, this is what you do !) Anyway, he had some enemies and 2 of them eventually assassinated him. When word got out that he had been killed, the Irish came back and reclaimed the island, evicting the remaining Mormons.
There is still a strong Irish influence there with that flag prominently displayed. There is a school on the island with 71 students in grades K-12--kind of like home schooling I would think. Many of the homes are set back from the sidewalk into the trees which gives a feeling of being in the country but you're still in the village. There's not much there as far as businesses, couple of gift shops, one restaurant and we saw one gas station--also a hardware. But we visited the toy museum (also a toy shop), the maritime museum and the Mormon printing museum. We enjoyed staying at this out of the way place. It is serviced by ferry from the mainland, and there are small planes which fly in. Apparantly there are a couple of resorts further away from the village and we saw some nice summer homes on the beach. This would be a nice relaxing getaway vacation place....
We left early Wednesday morning for the trip to Petosky arriving about noon and then we were followed into the marina by several other "Loopers" who had come from Mackinac Island, Mackinaw City and other places. In all there were about 10 boats who came in that afternoon, so an impromptu "Looper rendevous" happened in the evening. It was really nice to hear the experiences of the others and to get questions answered. All very friendly and a fun evening.
This town Petosky gets an A+ rating from all of us. It is 2 blocks to the Gaslight shopping district via underground tunnel under the highway. The shops and restaurants are all neat and appealing. There is a wonderful park all along the marina and lake--a really pretty setting. Because of high winds and waves we are all stuck here but everyone agrees that it's a pretty nice place to be stuck. And, even better, since the forecast is not for favorable boating conditions until Saturday, we'll be here for the start of their "Festival by the Bay". Tomorrow will bring musicians, sandcastle artists, vendors, and fireworks to the parks here by the marina which we can enjoy from the bridge of our boat ! We are really enjoying our stay here even with the windy conditions but the clock tower which chimes every hour on the hour and half hour reminds us of home.....(sorry, can't upload the picture of it). That's all till next time.......

Wooden Boat Show-Hessel MI

Monday, Day 15. Here we are in St. Ignace, MI where we stayed for 2 nights. After spending 2 nights anchored in Hessel Bay, and attending the boat show there, we left for here because of impending bad weather. We'd rather be at a marina in that event. Also, our generator was not working and we thought we had better facilities for repair here.
To backtrack, the boat show had 130+ Chris Craft wooden boats of all designs, some of which were restored from 1930 and beyond. They were beautiful and apparantly, if you live in these islands, you have to have one. I couldn't upload any of the pictures of the boat show, but believe me, they were pretty !
St. Ignace is a nice town too and I thought the marina was the best we've stayed in so far.Nice restrooms, docks and easy access to town. They even had music on the boardwalk Saturday evening.
Now the generator is fixed, and at 12:30 PM, we'll head for the Mackinac Straits, the Bridge and into Lake Michigan to Beaver Island--about 45 miles. Weather forecast sounds good.

A boat goes off course?

We saw this boat along the way to DeTour Village---no one seems to know what this is about ! Maybe it'll be a B&B! Speaking of DeTour, this town with a population of 450 has 20 businesses and all seem to be pretty good size--2 large gift shops, 4 restaurants, an ice cream store, a home improvement place and a marine store that was larger than the one at the Soo plus a bunch of others. Go figure...their main street was about 3 blocks--I forgot, we also stopped in the grocery. Tomorrow on to the LeCheneaux Islands where we'll be for a few days at anchor. Apparantly there's a big Antique Chris Craft boat show going on in the little town of Hessel--we were told there is nothing there except one restaurant. Should be interesting.....

Down the St. Mary's River

Today we left Sault Ste. Marie for DeTour Village on the Lake Huron entrance. On th way, we were stopped and boarded by the Coast Guard . The three who boarded checked all our safety equipment and decided that we were okay to go ! While this was happening, we had to get out of the main channel because a big laker was coming through...so that was interesting because sometimes it was pretty shallow right outside the channel.

Sault Ste. Marie

This ore boat and sailboat passed us as we were entering the Soo Locks waterway...the ore boat going down bound like us, the sailboat just leaving the Soo.
Spending a couple days here to do laundry, work on the generator, and miscellaneous stuff. Met 2 men who were going to Duluth and gave them our charts and guides on Lake Superior; in turn, they gave us the info on Lake Huron which we'll need when we head down the rest of the St. Mary's River tomorrow.

Whitefish Point Mall

You can tell this harbor is not a shopping mecca ! However, the Whitefish Point Lighthouse is about a mile walk down the road. Driving, it's a ways to get to but well worth the trip. Here you'll find the Museum, Keeper's House, Bird Sanctuary building and snack and Gift Shop all beautifully restored and updated. We'd been to the Museum before when it was just built about 15 years ago, and all the others have been added since then.
August 5, 2007

Destinations on Eastern Lake Superior

Here is Bob in front of the Miner's Castle part of the Painted Rocks in the National Park from Munising to Grand Marais. August 8,2007

DAY 1 We left Superior, WI bound for Stockton Island early Monday, July 30. Beautiful day with an uneventful journey arriving at Stockton early enough to be able to tie up at the dock. Afte a walk across the island, Bob decided to cool off with a "refreshing" dip in Lake Superior (75 degree water)! It didn't feel that warm to me though ! No internet access here.
DAY 2 After a long day from Stockton to Houghton-Hancock MI (12 hours), we dockd at the Houghton County Marina for the night. The showers and AC felt wonderful after the long hot day. It must've been 85-90 degrees. Overall, the trip over was rather boring...nothing to see but the water, boat or Bob (or me, for Bob) as we did'nt see land or another boat for about 8 hours. Learning more about the GPS !
DAY 3 Spent the day hanging around Houghton and Hancock trying to keep cool--another hot one ! Picked up a couple passengers to go from the Marina to the Houghton City dock (just across the waterway). Bought some pasties--an upper MI specialty which we enoyed for dinner. Spent the afternoon in their new library which was REALLY a nice one. Late afternoon we motored down to the southern end of the waterway and tied up to the harbor of refuge seawall where we spent the night. I docked it here---YIPPEE! A quiet night with no-one but us at this place.
Day 4 Motored to Marquette--another pretty long HOT day. Tied up to the city seawall (I docked it again ! WOW). No facilities or TV so we walked to a bar so we could see about the bridge tragedy in Mpls. Nice uupdated waterfront and parks.
DAY 5 Motored from Marquette to Munising which was an interesting ride. Not hot anymore temperature-wise but perspiring from the situation. Little did we know that a small craft warning was issued about 3 hours after we left Marquette. Waves generally 3-4 feet with some 5-6. Winds got strong from the north so we did a lot of rocking and rolling. But we're here--safe and sound. After another nice shower we walked the town ( pop. 3000) and had a whitefish dinner. Surprising to us, we learned about the Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park which draws a lot of people...there are 5 tour boats in this little harbor and they go out on tours each holding about 100-125 people and do this up to 7 times a day! That's a lot of people but because of the small craft warning, THEY didn't go out until this evening! The weather is supposed to be nice tomorrow so we'll take our own tour on our way to Grand Marais MI. I have some nice pictures, but at this point I can't remember how to post them...perhaps someone can help me out on how to do this...suggestions anyone?