On to Lake Michigan

We leave St. Ignace and Mackinaw Island

Fishtown...famous historic area in Leland MI

The Neighborhood next to marina, Leland MI

Leaving the Mackinaw Bridge in our wake on the way to Petoskey MI

Cocktail Hour at the Gazebo, Petoskey MI

Ron, Molly and Claire at Harbor Springs MI

It's January, 2008 already so guess I'd better get caught up!

We left St. Ignace to head to Harbor Springs MI and our first stop on the downhill portion of our Adventure. Lake Michigan offers many posibilities for cruising inclusive of two coastlines to follow. We decide to "harbor hop" down the eastern shoreline to just south of Grand Traverse Bay, cross from Frankfort MI to Sturgeon Bay and then Green Bay, after which we "harbor hop'd" down to Chicago via the western shore.

Little Traverse Bay, our first area of cruising, is home to a number of quaint towns including Harbor Springs and Petoskey. Mother Nature seemed cooperative when we left St. Ignace but on our way she decide to let us know that a front was on its way. With the winds increasing from an uncomfortable direction and all slips filled in Harbor Springs, we opt for Petoskey just across the Bay. What a fortunate decision as we will be weather-bound for 5 days.

Colonel's Lady pulled into a slip just across from us and after getting settled, we find there are quite a number of Loopers present. This calls for socialization and story telling! Cocktail hour is organized for the gazebo area of the lovely public grounds surrounding the marina for the first evening on shore.

Of the three main town areas on Little Traverse Bay, Petoskey serves as the center of commerce and tourism. In days gone by, Petoskey was a lumber and manufacturing center but is now a waterfront community known for its charming downtown, historic homes, its waterfront park area and beaches. Of particular note, the area is popular with rock hounds and tourists alike for hunting the state stone: the Petoskey Stone. Shined up from its years of lying in the water or on the beach, it is a very pretty glacial stone of varying size. Molly brought one home for her souvenir! I passed. Another pastime is fishing from the waterfront and though the weather was not particularly inviting, nearly every day we saw small boats go out for a chance to catch the Big One.

We spent an enjoyable five days here while waiting for Mother Nature to quiet down. Lake Michigan can be quite unpleasant when the winds are up! of which we were to have a close and personal knowledge later on in our trip. But, while in Petoskey, we took advantage of the shopping opportunities to re-provision, Molly had to have some dental work done and the local Indian population has a casino that required us to make our semi-annual contribution.

Since our stay was much prolonged, we rented a car to tour the other towns nearby including Harbor Springs and Charlevoix, infamous as the summer home of Jon Benett's parents. Harbor Springs was quaint and definitely a tourist town originally settled by the Ottawa Indians followed by the French fur traders then lumbering. In its later life, it became famous as the summer outpost for such famous families as the Ford's, Upjohn's and Gambles. Interestingly, we saw Elaine Ford's yacht leaving Little Traverse Bay. Her yacht was known to us as it had spent a winter at our marina in Miami Beach. Harbor Springs was definitely high end. We had an enjoyable lunch at the marina/hotel before heading off to our next stop, Charlevoix.

Ron and Molly had ordered a travel guide and chart packet from a local marina so we drove through the main village on our way. Another quaint village filled with tourists and shopping and dining opportunities. It is located on an isthmus between Lake Michigan, Round Lake and Lake Charlevoix and again is noted for its famous names summering in the area. Castle Farms, built in 1918 by Albert Loeb of Sears and Roebuck fame, is located in the area. With traffic heavy and shopping not on our agenda, we opted for the "drive-thru" as our visit to Charlevoix. Most notable, next to the plethora of shopping opportunities and Victorian-style homes, were the planters hung from the light posts along the main thoroughfare. Simply awesome!

The eastern shore is famous for having a safe harbor about every twenty miles so when the winds died, we set our course for Leland on our way to Frankfort. Grand Traverse Bay was unfortunately eliminated from our travel plans due to our Petoskey delay and because the draw was more "tourism". I was disappointed because, from trips in years past, Traverse City is a wonderful place to spend a few days...which we were getting short on! There are great shops including a Forever Christmas store I was eagerly looking forward to, good restaurants and charming locale. Guess we'll have to save that re-visit for our land yacht.

Leland is known as one of the more picturesque stops on the eastern shore. Famous for its Fish Town, it is equally famous for its marina since, literally, they turn no-one away, regardless. We were to experience the "no-one is turned away" philosophy. There were no slips available but never mind! Both Colonel's Lady and Wild Turkey were simply placed in the middle of two yacht slips, with yachts in them, and tied to the end of the slips. No problem...just hop off your boat onto the finger pier and you're off to explore the town.

Fish Town is a National Landmark District and is home to an authentic Great Lakes fishing tug. Old (and I mean old) fishing shanties now house an operating fish house and a variety of specialty shops along with downhome restaurants. Seems like each little town along this shore offers an opportunity to leave a few hard earned dollars behind! Steve is especially enchanted with the smoked fish offered by the local fisheries so we stock ed up on a good supply and headed back to the boat for a night's sleep before heading to Frankfort, our next stop before crossing to Sturgeon Bay WI.

After a good night's rest, we leave early in light winds for Frankfort. We, fortunately, have reservations which is a good thing! since there is a fishing tournament in town. While we are planning to stay only overnight, Mother Nature again has other plans and we end up spending five days here in Frankfort. But, it was a very fun stay.

Our first day was spent cleaning up the boat, checking out the Big Top and the local park followed by a late dinner on Colonel's Lady. In the morning, I went to the marina office to confirm our stay for yet another night and while there, mentioned to the owner/operator that we sure would like to get some fishing in and were, in fact, heading to Green Bay for three days of fishing...if Mother Nature cooperated. Lo and Behold, he reaches into his refrigerator below the desk and pulls out a package of Lake Salmon for me...us. Let me tell you how quickly I ran back to the boat with my treasure in hand and promptly bragged to Steve that I must not be the ugliest 60 year old in town! otherwise I wouldn't be bearing gifts from the marina operator. Let me tell you how delicious that fish was...on an equal par with the salmon Steve brings home from Alaska...if not better.

The second day brings another bad weather forecast so we decide to rent a car for a few days and check out the locale. The shoreline from Leland to Frankfort was so very interesting with 480 foot tall sand dunes, sandy beaches interspersed with pine forests, and white beaches. Along with being a tourist town, Frankfort is also a center of commerce so we were able to reprovision although we couldn't find any of the famous MI cherries or cherry pie...we were a little late in the season. We did find corn and tomatoes which are, in my book, even a better find. And, we found another Indian Casino. Ron and Molly play poker whenever they have a chance so, of course, we spent a couple of nights as guests of the local Indian tribe.

We are disappointed to learn we'll be stuck in Frankfort at least thru Friday. Not disappointed in the town or the people because there is plenty to do and see but disappointed because our time is running short as we have to be in Racine WI by Labor Day and Chicago shortly thereafter. More delay means that we'll have to cut time from somewhere and the only somewhere is the Green Bay area...no fishing, no cruising the area. And we were so looking forward to the guys fishing for three days while Molly and I did "girl things".