8/24 & 8/25 - Friday & Saturday - Saugatuck, Michigan - Days 112 & 113
8/26 & 8/27 - Sunday & Monday - St. Joseph, Michigan - Days 114 & 115
8/28 - Tuesday - Michigan City, Indiana - Day 116
We were enjoying the artsy town of Saugatuck so much we decided to stay for 2 more nights. After Skip & Barb left on Friday, we continued our browsing in the many art boutiques in the town, now with Dave & Joy on Maia who had arrived in Saugatuck, hoping to find new decor items for Rickshaw. We settled on 3 wallhangings - one for the galley and another for the salon. One particular art gallery had some very interesting furniture (which we don't need) custom made to look kind of like Cat in the Hat furniture. On Friday evening, back on Rickshaw, we were able to sit out on our aft deck and enjoy the sounds of the local band playing
in the waterside bar, just 50 yards from our anchorage.
The next day, Saturday, Jim wanted to finally go to a beach. The one near Saugatuck is rated as one of the top fresh-water beaches in the country. The weather was perfect, but the hitch was that the beach was a few miles away, across a channel and on the other side of a very steep hill. So our journey to the beach started with loading the 2 bikes onto the dinghy, taking the dinghy over to the small boat dock, offloading the bikes and pedaling to the chain ferry, loading the bikes onto the ferry, taking them off the ferry on the other side, then riding/walking the bikes up to the top of the very steep hill, then riding down to the beach. The rest of Saturday was spent laying on inflatable rafts just off of the shore, and relaxing in the cabana we rented, catching up on reading, and just chilling out. At the end of the day, we reversed the order of the journey to the beach, and landed back on Rickshaw, thoroughly exhausted.
The next 3 days were spent moving further down the Michigan coastline to get us into a better position for a 50 mile weather crossing to Chicago on Wednesday. Since we had not been in a marina since Leland, we needed to stay at least one night in a marina to give our battery bank a full charge. On Sunday, we motored down to the marina in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI where we spent a couple of days, before pushing on to Michigan City, Indiana on Tuesday. The weather and waves were very accommodating for travel, which we were obviously very glad to get. The weather forecast for the crossing day, Wednesday, was 1-2 foot seas out of the northeast. The next day, Thursday, the forecast changed significantly, showing 5-9 foot seas in the middle of Lake Michigan, so we definitely couldn't delay our crossing, although we had enjoyed the eastern side of LM so much we really hated to leave.
8/26 & 8/27 - Sunday & Monday - St. Joseph, Michigan - Days 114 & 115
8/28 - Tuesday - Michigan City, Indiana - Day 116
We were enjoying the artsy town of Saugatuck so much we decided to stay for 2 more nights. After Skip & Barb left on Friday, we continued our browsing in the many art boutiques in the town, now with Dave & Joy on Maia who had arrived in Saugatuck, hoping to find new decor items for Rickshaw. We settled on 3 wallhangings - one for the galley and another for the salon. One particular art gallery had some very interesting furniture (which we don't need) custom made to look kind of like Cat in the Hat furniture. On Friday evening, back on Rickshaw, we were able to sit out on our aft deck and enjoy the sounds of the local band playing
in the waterside bar, just 50 yards from our anchorage.
The next day, Saturday, Jim wanted to finally go to a beach. The one near Saugatuck is rated as one of the top fresh-water beaches in the country. The weather was perfect, but the hitch was that the beach was a few miles away, across a channel and on the other side of a very steep hill. So our journey to the beach started with loading the 2 bikes onto the dinghy, taking the dinghy over to the small boat dock, offloading the bikes and pedaling to the chain ferry, loading the bikes onto the ferry, taking them off the ferry on the other side, then riding/walking the bikes up to the top of the very steep hill, then riding down to the beach. The rest of Saturday was spent laying on inflatable rafts just off of the shore, and relaxing in the cabana we rented, catching up on reading, and just chilling out. At the end of the day, we reversed the order of the journey to the beach, and landed back on Rickshaw, thoroughly exhausted.
The next 3 days were spent moving further down the Michigan coastline to get us into a better position for a 50 mile weather crossing to Chicago on Wednesday. Since we had not been in a marina since Leland, we needed to stay at least one night in a marina to give our battery bank a full charge. On Sunday, we motored down to the marina in Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, MI where we spent a couple of days, before pushing on to Michigan City, Indiana on Tuesday. The weather and waves were very accommodating for travel, which we were obviously very glad to get. The weather forecast for the crossing day, Wednesday, was 1-2 foot seas out of the northeast. The next day, Thursday, the forecast changed significantly, showing 5-9 foot seas in the middle of Lake Michigan, so we definitely couldn't delay our crossing, although we had enjoyed the eastern side of LM so much we really hated to leave.
We anchored one night in White Lake, spent two days in Grand Haven at the city dock, three nights anchored in Saugatuck, two days in Benton Harbor and one in Michigan City. We traveled a total of 144 miles.
 We bought this 3D metal wall sculpture for Rickshaw.  A print for the guest bath.  We enjoyed an afternoon at Opal Beach while in Saugatuck.  Rickshaw tied to the city dock in Benton Harbor. |  The furniture in this really unique store looked like something from a Dr. Seuss book. The piece in the middle thal looks like three stacked peices was $6,000. But what a conversation piece!  We bought this carved wood plaque for over the sink.  Leaving Benton Harbor and heading out into Lake Michigan. |
RSS Feed