Lake Michigan - August - September 2006
We made it out of Canada and back into the US and northern Michigan on August 24. The weather is getting colder and it's definitely time to head south in earnest. We cleared back into the US at Drummond Island which hopefully will turn out better than our experience with Canadian customs.
When we entered Canada - way back in July - we came through the Canadian customs checkpoint just north of Rouses Point New York on the Champlain canal. We stopped at the checkpoint, got cleared in, and merrily continued on our way. Unfortunately - as we found out later - they didn't do what they needed to do in order to clear us into the country. They were supposed to give us a clearance number as well as a 'blue form' that we would then post in the window of our boat during our stay in Canada. The lady at the checkpoint entered us into a ledger book, but provided no clearance number and no blue form. We were stopped in Kingston by a couple of customs officers who asked for the number and the form. We had neither, but fortunately they seemed to believe us, and so issued us a number. Armed with that, we continued on our way. We were stopped again a bit farther along and gave the number which seemed to satisfy the officer, although he did ask for the elusive 'blue form'. On our last day in Canada - we were boarded by another customs officer, who also asked for our number and our blue form. He was surprised that we didn't have one, and was kind enough to issue us one even though we were leaving Canada the next day. I guess now we know that next time we enter Canada, we will make sure we have a number and a blue form - as well as the badge number of the officer that clears us into the country!!
This is a picture of the lighthouse at De Tour Village, which was the first town we stayed in after re-entering the US. De Tour is on the north-eastern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula Folks that live here call themselves 'U.P.s '. Everyone else is a 'troll'. We asked why a troll - and they said that it was because everyone else lived below the Mackinac bridge. which is the bridge that connects the U.P. to Michigan's lower peninsula. They also said that when they called us a troll - they were doing it in a very 'loving' way. HA!!
Passing through the Great Lakes - we primarily saw two types of big ships - 'Salties' and 'Lakers'. Salties are ships that travel through the great lakes and out through the locks into the ocean - or salt water. The pilot house for these ships are located high at toward the back of the ship so the captain can see over the entire ship as he (or she, as the case may be) is steering. 'Lakers' are those ships that stay in the great lakes and never enter salt water. These ships are configured so that the pilot house is located at the front of the ship. This makes it easier for the captain to see what's going on as they move into locks and transit narrow areas. Below is a picture of one of the 'Lakers' we saw as we came into Lake Michigan.
One of the best places we stopped at after getting back into the US was Mackinac Island (pronounced 'Mackinaw island'), Michigan. It's a tiny island - the road around the perimeter is only about 8 or 9 miles long - and cars are not allowed. All transportation is either by foot, bike or horse. This is a picture of the island's harbor.
Mackinac Island has many lovely old Victorian homes like the ones shown below. Many of these have been converted into bed and breakfasts.
The motorcar was outlawed in the early 1900's here (about the time they were invented). The problem was that the noise frightened the horses, so the town passed an ordinance banning them. The ordinance has been expanded to include any form of transportation that uses a motor - including motorcycles, and even segways. The only exception to this is the forklifts down by the dock, and these are not allowed to leave the dock area. The other exception was when they filmed the movie 'Somewhere in Time' on the island. The film was set in 1912 and they permitted period cars to be brought on an used during the filming.
This is the taxi stand in town.
You can only reach the island by boat - either your own or a tour boat. There is a fleet of very fast tour boats operating from Mackinac City as well as from St. Ignace. These puppies all put up the biggest rooster tails I've ever seen. It was almost like a competition as to which boat put up the biggest rooster tail coming into the harbor.
We took a walk on the road around the island. As you can see the island is VERY green - something to do with a combination of unlimited fertilizer from the horses and fresh water from the lake.
Our walk soon took us to the Grand Hotel - the oldest and fanciest hotel on the island. It's billed as having the longest balcony of any hotel in the world. The first three pictures are of the hotel taken coming up and onto the balcony. The last one is of the hotel limo.
The hotel has a pool, tennis courts, and a beautiful front lawn and garden leading down to the water.
Ignorance is certainly bliss sometimes. We wandered up to the hotel and walked along the balcony and inside. Once we left and were walking back to town, we found this sign indicating the proper dress code. We, being boaters, were decidedly NOT wearing proper dress for the hotel. Not only that, but we saw a sign farther down the road that folks wishing to visit the hotel who were not paying guests would be charged a fee of $12 per person to enter the hotel. Fortunately, we weren't stopped and didn't know about this until we were leaving. We spoke to some other boaters who came in from the front way along the road, and they said that they were stopped and asked to pay.
We saw this pretty little stone church on the way back to town from the hotel. The church was built in 1904 of Mackinac island stones. The stained glass windows were installed in 1914 and tell the story of the protestant movement on the island.
We also saw this place that offered 'U-drive' horses and buggies. I tried to talk Jeremy into it, but he didn't seem too interested.
Mackinac Island traffic.
Besides the horses, the other thing that you notice right away on the island is the multitude of fudge shops. I think there were probably 50 or 60 fudge shops in the tiny downtown area - at least 2-3 fudge shops on every block. Good thing we only spent a couple of days here. Between the fudge and ice cream, I'm not sure I could have fit back onto the boat if we stayed much longer!
There is an old fort on the island near the harbor. The re-enactors were wearing period uniforms and shooting off period guns. We suspect that they practice by shooting those pesky trespassing tourists that are rounded up at the Grand Hotel.
The cannon is actually aimed over the harbor. Fortunately they didn't load any cannon balls, just blanks. They shot one off just as one of the tourist boats was leaving and putting up the big rooster tail. The tour guide looked out over the bay at the tour boat and said 'Looks like we got one'.
Leaving Mackinac Island and passing under the Mackinac Bridge - heading for Troll country!
This was one of the big 'salty' ships we passed after crossing under the bridge into Lake Michigan.
Lake Michigan light house.
Leaving Mackinac Island, we headed over to Beaver Island for a few days before crossing back to the east coast of Lake Michigan and the town of Charlevoix.
Developer Earl Young's great gift to Charlevoix, Michigan, was a group of fairy tale mushroom houses that he built around the Boulder Park neighborhood near the city's lakefront starting in 1918. There is not a single straight line on any of these houses.
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We traveled down the east coast of Lake Michigan - hopping from one town to the next as the weather permitted. Lake Michigan can cut up pretty rough - especially as we are getting farther into fall and heading into winter. We hopped from Charlevoix down to Frankfort, Pentwater, Muskegon, Grand Haven, Saugatuck and Benton Harbor before crossing over to Chicago. There are harbors down the eastern coast of the lake every 25 to 30 miles, most of which have marinas which are designated 'safe haven' harbors. That means that if the lake is acting up and you come in, they will find a spot for you. It may be rafted up to another boat - but they can't turn you away.
One thing that you really notice coming down the eastern coast of Lake Michigan is all of the huge sand dunes that line the lakeshore.
Many of the towns have great beaches on the lake - including this one in Frankfort. You could almost imaging yourself in Florida or the Bahamas. Of course that layer of white stuff coming soon would soon remind you of where you REALLY are.
Walking back from the beach in Frankfort, we spotted this yacht with a car strapped to the top. Now THAT's what we need.
Lighthouse coming into Muskegon harbor.
There is a great marine museum on the way into Muskegon harbor. Unfortunately, it turned out to be about 4 miles from the boat. Since we arrived after Labor Day - there was no longer any bus service. We discovered that in many towns lots of tourist related services run only between Memorial Day and Labor Day. No bikes (and no car strapped to the top of our boat), so we hoofed it to the museum and back.
This is a picture of a 'Laker' coming in past the boats when we were in Grand Haven. It's a pretty narrow inlet and it gets narrower after the marina, as shown in the second picture below. We were interested to know where and how they turned these ships around when it came time to leave. Turns out they don't, they simply back them out all the way into the lake. We were woken up at about 1AM when this one was backing out past the boat the next morning.
We really liked Grand Haven - I think that may have been my favorite town along the lake. There was gas and diesel dock which offered discounts to 'loopers' (cruisers doing the Great Circle Loop as we were doing), plus the town had a farmer's market, marine store, wonderful bakery, great restaurants and even a bead store. What more could you ask for!
After we left Grand Haven, we stopped off in Saugatuck where we ended up staying for 5 days waiting for the weather on the lake to settle down. Saugatuck is an 'artist' community - they had as many art shops and galleries as Mackinac island had fudge shops.
They also have a place known as the 'red dock' on one side of town. It, sadly, had also closed on Labor Day - but based on the signs hanging up, it looks like it would be an interesting place to visit when they're open. I especially like the sign showing their hours - "Open until sunset - when the sun goes down, you leave town".
There are lots of little parks in Saugatuck, and they are all filled with art and sculptures. The red one below is 'Family Outing', followed by 'Reclining Bear', and 'Girl with a Hand Puppet'.
When we got to Benton Harbor and St. Joseph (sister cities), we noticed that they had art of another sort. They had a display of painted bears (sort of like the painted cow exhibit years ago in Chicago). There had to be about 50 bears in town - here's a few of them.
Jeremy was consulting with this one as to why I wanted to take so many pictures of them. 'Cause we're so cute!', said the bear - shyly peering towards the camera. I think Jeremy really liked the 'cool' polar bear in the sun glasses.
Meet my date - Mr. Blossomtime..... Ok - enough of that..
Finally coming into the big city of Chicago!! You can just about make out the skyline in the distance.
Chicago harbor and harborside fountain.
We stayed at the Du Sable marina right in downtown Chicago. We were within an easy walk to Navy Pier, as well as Michigan Avenue. Below is a picture of Navy Pier.
Navy pier has a great stained glass exhibit including many works by Tiffany including this one of the Chicago Skyline.
These were a few of the other Tiffany windows in the exhibit.
We were lucky to be in Chicago when there were a few festivals going on. We saw these dancers from Puerto Rico when we were at Navy Pier. We also saw a celebration for Mexican Independence day at the park near the marina.
Chicago has some of the best architecture in any city in the US. These pictures don't do it justice, but shows some of the skyline of the city. The odd looking structure with a web of stainless steel pipes in the second picture is actually a huge amphitheater in the park. There are speakers scattered throughout the overhead web of pipes. The resulting sound system is amazing.
This is a picture of me on the stainless steel pedestrian bridge in the park.
We found this statue of an old salt down by the water front. That's Jeremy doing his best 'Peg-leg Pete' impersonation.
The Lincoln Park zoo was about a 3 mile walk along the shoreline from the marina - so we took a wander up there on our last day. It's a beautiful park and zoo. These were a few of the residents that we met while we were visiting.
Updated September 25, 2006