Lake Michigan 101

Wait - my cell phone has 4 bars of 5G - what's 5G - haven't seen that in months! My Verizon hotspot actually works. I can navigate around our own blog - amazing! The buoys seem to be a little bigger. We must be back in the US.  In fact, we are.  As much as we enjoyed Canada, it's been nice to be back in the US.  We missed some of the comforts of home.  Clearing customs was easy.  We had the ROAM app loaded with our passports, vax cards, and all of our boat identification information.  While we were underway toward De Tour (pronounced detour), we activated the app and were told to wait for a video conference or approval.  We got the approval and we were all set.  Some of our friends had been given a hard time so we were relieved to get the go-ahead.  

After a stop at De Tour, we went to St. Ignace (pronounced Ig-neese - yes there's a theme here).  We jumped on the ferry in St. Ignace to visit Mackinac Island(pronounced Mack-in-aw). We originally planned to take Egret to Mackinac Island but we were running ahead of schedule and on the day we passed the island we couldn't get a slip.  Mackinac was very touristy but well worth the ferry ride over.  We took our bikes and, fortunately, we were given a wonderful bike route by our friends Brad and Susan that was off the beaten track and took us through some nice neighborhoods and fun tourist stops.

Arch Rock, Mackinac Island, MI

Just being tourists at the Arch

Mackinac Straights

Some of the houses from the Mac Is bike ride.

Chrisy insisted on a glass of wine on the world's longest porch of the Mackinac Island Grand Hotel 

and it did not disappoint.

No cars on Mac Is. just horse and carriage

After St. Ignace we headed to Beaver Island (mercifully pronounced Beaver Island).  We are the types that need to learn from experience. We can't read about it and learn. We can't listen to it and learn. No. We need to experience it.  We had read and heard that Lake Michigan can be insanely rough.  Fresh water is less dense than salt water and consequently gets a steeper and shorter period of chop than salt water.  It also builds up quicker. And weather changes quickly on the lake.  All that is to say that after getting a nice forecast, we started off having a smooth ride to Beaver Island and then the weather changed, the wind filled to about 15 knots and we got the snot kicked out of us.  What does that look like exactly?  Well, let's just say that there were plates, utensils, avocados, and bananas flying in the galley.  Millie was not a happy camper and her poor little heart was pounding for quite a while. Oh, and we also got a late start which is a no-no on the lake. Misery loves company and there were at least six other Looper boats out in the same conditions.  We have learned from our experience and that will not happen again. 

 

On our first night on Beaver Island, we were treated to dinner at David Kasievich and Andrew Kellner and their son Kayden's home. Tyler and Shelby were also visiting.  A special evening, Thanks. They have a beautiful home on the western side of Beaver Island, right on the water.