The last time we visited Chicago was about 15 years ago. We stayed at a hotel on Michigan Avenue and visited the museums and the Navy Pier. I remember it not being the nicest of places back then, so it was with some mixed feelings that we decided to stay at DuSable Marina in downtown Chicago for three nights. The trip from St. Joseph to Chicago took us across the bottom of Lake Michigan and as should be expected the…
This stop was chosen specifically because it would allow us to make the trip to Chicago the following day without another intermediate stop. I had been watching the weather reports for the lake and it looked like that would be our best bet for a couple days. So we departed Grand Haven about 7 in the morning and made the long-ish trek down the coast to St. Joseph. It was an uneventful ride and we arrived to a mostly empty…
We were blessed with another really nice day on the lake, so we made the trip down the coast of Michigan to the city of Grand Haven. The first stop was at the North Shore Marina to top off the Diesel tanks, and then we headed to our reserved slip at the municipal marina. I had been to Grand Haven over 30 years ago to see the nightly light show, and I remember there were boats along the waterfront. On…
We were eager to get going again after spending four nights in Leland to wait out the weather. So the night before we planned to leave we moved the boat up to the fuel dock where we filled up the diesel. We then tied up on the dock closest to the entrance to the harbor so we could get an early start. We left the next morning to find calm water and light winds. It was really nice and the…
Weather again became the boss, so we ended up spending four nights in a little fishing village/tourist town called Leland. This ended up being a great place to spend a few days and get work done. We parked next to a 27’ Ranger Tug that was the same year as ours. They looked like momma and baby tugs On Tuesday there was a gale warning, and sure enough the weather showed itself as a formidable force. I added lines and…
Today we had good weather that allowed us to make the trip under the Mackinac Bridge, to the west past Grays Reef, and south across Little Traverse Bay to the city of Charlevoix. The difficulty here is that sometimes the weather in the straits is different from the weather on the lake, so we needed both to be cooperative. The trip was fun and the water was mostly settled, and we arrived just at the right time for the highway…
The weather report for the week was not awesome, so after some deliberation we decided to avoid any chance of foul weather by heading the 6 miles to Mackinaw City. This is another DNR Harbor, and provided good protection for a few days until the weather improved. I spent the week working. We ate at several of the local restaurants but avoided much of the tourist-y shops and attractions. We did enjoy walking out to see the bridge up-close. The…
The trip over to the island was easy and enjoyable. We entered the harbor after two tour boats had left so there wasn’t a lot of traffic to deal with. Mackinac Island does not have any motorized vehicles. Everyone either walks or rides bikes or horses or horse-drawn carriages. This makes for a unique environment in today’s world. After getting tied up at our slip we headed over to eat lunch at the Pink Pony. We then spent most of…
USA here we come! We had great weather once again so we decided to take the shortest route, which took us across the wide part of the north channel. The travel day was awesome. We arrived at De Tour Village around 2pm and immediately I began the process of contacting US customs. Since we are both trusted travels with global entry, I didn’t expect much trouble. They have a new app that lets you complete the process without leaving the…