Author: Mike & Jonell Murphree

I almost hate to make a post talking about having fun, while the folks in Florida are at high risk and the folks in Texas are still in recovery mode. We ask all of our followers to pray for them all.

Chicago – Many of our followers have been here and know the city well, not so much for me and Jonell.
Lots to do, lots to see, lots to eat/drink.
It truly is a great city in spite of all the national reports on local area crime.
For a reminder on the previous post, we arrived Thursday afternoon and in the afternoon Thursday & morning on Friday, we saw the Riverfront & the Sears/Willis Tower.

On Friday afternoon, my brother Kenny & girlfriend Carla came for the weekend.

Between 5pm Friday & 10am Sunday, here is what we did;
1. Water Taxi
2. Navy Pier
3. Wrigley Field
4. Tour by amateur photographer / Chicago resident David Tucci
5. Daley Park
6. Millennium Park – with The Jay Pritzker Pavilion & “The Bean”
7. Face Fountains at Millennium Park
8. China Town
9. Deep Dish Pizza at Lou Malnati’s
10. Nite Cap @ The Green Mill Jazz Club.

We took the Water Taxi so Kenny & Carla could see the Riverfront, but make it a quicker process than walking.

We then went to Navy Pier and had dinner at Harry Carey’s Tavern.

On Saturday morning , we went on a ballpark tour at the historic Wrigley Field, 2nd oldest park in the country next to Fenway in Boston.

After the tour at Wrigley, we went to lunch at the local bar “Bernie’s Tap & Grill”, recommended by the Wrigley tour guide Clay.
We then came back to the boat and met amateur photographer and Chicago native David Tucci. David works at a local second tier TV station (channels like Me TV), is married, and has a 2 year old son.
Strange Story – David enjoys taking rustic/rural/industrial photography (like the ole train station in Detroit). He has always wanted to shoot the abandoned industrial sites on the river south of Chicago, but the tour boats do not go down that far. David stumbled upon our blog and contacted me about a potential ride. After significant initial reservations & an initial “feel out” phone call, we agreed to meet each other to see if we were compatible. We agreed that David would give us a tour of his local town, give us some of his finished photos, and we would give him the ride between Chicago & Joliet.
Thus started the David Tucci Tour.

We met at the boat about 2pm, David 1st took us to Daley Park.
Daley Park has a beautiful walkway between the marina & Millennium Park. The walkway was built with a Styrofoam type base material to make the hilly terrain, then covered with dirt and grass. The walkway also includes curved path areas for roller blading in the summer and ice skating in the winter. There are also several rock climbing walls along the path.

The next stop was Millennium Park, and a visit to the iconic Cloud Gate Sculpture (aka-The Bean) created by Indian-born British artist Sir Anish Kapoor. 
The walk thru Millennium Park also included passing by the very large Jay Pritzker Pavilion, where there was a live concert of some very strange music. The structure is pretty stunning in size.

After Millennium Park, we went to the Crown Fountain (Face Fountains). The fountain is composed of a black granite reflecting pool placed between a pair of glass brick towers. The towers are 50 feet tall, and they use light-emitting diodes to display digital videos on their inward faces. The intent of the fountain is to show the diversity of Chicago, with the faces changing ethnicity every few minutes.

The next stop after Millennium Park was China Town, including visits to a few of the trinket shops & a few China town fruit smoothies (they were very yummie !).

After China Town, we returned to the boat, said farewell to David, had a few beverages, and cleaned up for the night. We went to dinner at the Chicago famous “Lou Malnati’s” restaurant for Deep Dish Pizza.

The night ended with some Jazz at the Chicago landmark “Green Mill Cocktail Lounge”. 
The Green Mill has history of an old mob lounge. The story says that during the Prohibition era, Jack McGurn of Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit became a part-owner. Singer and comedian Joe E. Lewis was attacked by McGurn’s men in 1927 after he refused to take his act to the Green Mill. Lewis’ throat was slashed, but he survived. The incident inspired the 1957 film The Joker Is Wild.
Al Capone’s favorite booth is still in the establishment located directly west of the short end of the bar. Capone and his men would sit here because it afforded clear views of both the front and back entrances to the establishment.
Note – Detroit does have Chicago beat in this one area, Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit is the oldest Jazz Club in the USA, and in my opinion the music is better.

That’s it for the whirlwind Chicago tour.
The Kenny/Carla visit made it a great weekend.
We are tired, time for bed.

Tomorrow is a big day = Entering the Chicago River Lock and traveling thru downtown Chicago by boat to Joliet Illinois (40 miles).

After 6 days, and a 2 day delay due to Wind/Waves, we finally made the journey from Michigan City to Chicago yesterday. Small craft warnings expired at 10am, we left at 10:30am. It was a bumpy ride (photos don’t show it). We are looking forward to some river boating.

Dusable Harbor is a very large marina. When you enter the large harbor, you have to pass by a LOT of sailboats moored on the left, then the full marina. There are about 400 slips in the marina. Dusable Harbor is located just south of the Chicago River Lock, Navy Pier, and the Ferris Wheel. Dusable is located just north of Soldier Field, and just east of Grant & Millennium Parks.
Here is the view from our slip.

Last night on our arrival night, we did part of the river walk and ate dinner at Dick’s Last Resort. The waitress at Dicks was very rude, I guess that is their claim to fame. After a long day on the water, I was ready to chill out not be treated rude. After a short conversation, she altered Dicks normal protocol to be nice.

This morning we went to the Sears Tower, now named The Willis Tower. It was built in 1973, and is still the 2nd tallest building in the USA and 16th tallest in the world (108 stories/1450ft). The building was renamed in 2009 by the Willis Group as part of its lease agreement for a large portion of the building. The Willis Group is a brokerage company based in London.

Tonight we expect my brother Kenny & girlfriend Carla to arrive about 5pm and join us for some weekend fun in the Windy City.

 

Michigan City is for sure our favorite port in Indiana !
Actually, it’s our only port in Indiana.
We came to Michigan City for two reasons ;
1. Stepping stone to the next stop of Chicago
2. Meet my cousin Tony, who lives in Fort Wayne Indiana.

I was somewhat surprised by Michigan City.
I expected a very industrialized/commercial city without a lot of waterfront activity.
But Michigan City / Washington Park was very much another nice waterfront city. They have lots of restaurants, a very nice beach, beautiful river front, and a nice park with several benches all many of different shaped large rock.

We stayed at Washington Park Marina, a very large marina of 600 slips, seems larger than Jefferson Beach in Lake St Clair. Looks like a lot of sailboats, but was about a 50/50 mix of power & sail.

Thursday – Aug 31
We arrived at Michigan City from St Joe about 1pm.
We had an awesome Italian sub from the nearby Dockside/Tin City Grill.
We met Gold Loopers Jim & Moe (Malinda) Jablonski, who live in Michigan City.
Jim & Moe invited us to a Pizza party for all the Loopers staying at Michigan City this weekend.
There were about 20 Loopers/10 couples at the party. Many of the people we had seen at previous stops, but the party allowed us to get to know many of them better.

Friday – Sept 1
During the day Nellie went to a local landmark “Barker Mansion” with a few other Looper girls. Mike did some boat maintenance (check fluids) & cleaning.
At night, we went to the highly recommended Fish House restaurant with fellow Loopers Dennis & Dana from Pharm Team who we had met in Mackinaw City. Jonell had Walleye & Mike had a Double Stuffed Pork Chop. Jonell’s walleye was the best I have ever tasted. The fillets seemed different; they were much thicker/rounder than typical walleye fillets, had seasonings/breading that I have never tasted, and they melted in your mouth.

Saturday – Sept 2
During the day, we received my cousin Tony Chesney (son of the famous aunt Angie), his bride Julie, and grandkids Keegan & Kolton. We spent a few hours on the boat. Since they arrived by car, Tony & I went shopping to restock the boat with water, beer, and snacks.
We all then went to the beach restaurant Fire & Ice, and had burgers, nachos, etc. Then did a little sand castle making with the boys on the beach.

During the late afternoon we invited the Gold Loopers (Jim & Moe), who threw the Pizza Party, over to our boat for drinks and appetizers. Their “57ft Carver” was in the slip next to ours, that is their home slip. We also invited Loopers Tony & Kathy Zarcone from New York.

It rained all night, so Jonell & I went to the local Blue Chip Casino. The casino offers a free valet service from the marina & back. We had a nice dinner at a restaurant called “The Game” set up to look like a sports book, but not an active sports book. Jonell gambled and recovering gambling addict Mike watched sports and the local casino bands. To my shock & surprise, Nellie did not win again (2nd time this trip – $$).

Sunday – Sept 3
On Sunday we installed some new Fuel Vent Whistlers.
Since we purchased the boat, every time we fill the tanks, if we choose to “Top Off” the tanks, we get some fuel spit out of the vent lines before the pump shuts off. I want to “Top Off” to keep a more accurate history of fuel usage. The whistlers provide an audible warning when the tank is about to fill, changing in pitch as you approach full and stopping the whistle just before full. We will see how they work during our fuel fill tomorrow before we leave for Chicago.

At night we went to dinner at a river front restaurant called “100 Washington” which also functions as an Amtrak Railroad Station. The location had it all ; river front & Lake Michigan scenery, boats, draw bridge, and trains !

Next stop = Chicago !
I am so pumped, I can’t wait to go thru those sky scrapers.

Well, it has been 6 weeks already and yesterday we crossed the state line out of Michigan into Indiana. Check out our GPS Tracker Link – expand to see the entire Loop https://share.garmin.com/GettinLooped2017

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We thought it would be a good time to give our friends/family a summary of the first 6 weeks on the Loop. It was really nice to get to know our home state of Michigan much better. We had not spent much time on the west coast of Michigan, and we were both very impressed with the boating towns on the west side of the state.

Here is a recap of the first 6 weeks of the Loop – 17 Ports
1. Algonac – After leaving all the excitement of the Miller Marina Farewell Party, we went a whopping 20 miles north to the Algonac Harbor Club & continued the farewell party with our boater friends Dave Vrabel, Carol Perotta, Rich & Anita Cook, and my last FCA boss Dave Herzog & bride Shelly.
Full Blog Post = https://gettinlooped2017.com/2017/07/16/bon-voyage-party/

2. Lexington – meeting with Luchkovitz’s , Deloneys, nice marina, beach vollyball
3. Harbor Beach – quiet town, nice bike ride, deer, Smallie’s Bar & Grill
4. Caseville – Grobbel’s Cottage, Agar’s Yatch Club, sea plane, violent storm
5. Harrisville – quiet town, nice bike trail, Shot Maker’s Bar/Grill
6. Presque Isle – Crystal clear water, Aunt Angie-Kathy-Dan, Mike’s Family drives from Royal Oak to Alpena, Dan Engagement, car breakdown + John/Mary Alice Krajanta ride, Waterfalls, Light Houses, Dinghy ride to Albany ship wreck
7. Cheboygan – Mulligans restaurant
8. Mackinaw City / Mackinac Island – New Looper friends Tag Team & Pharm Life,  Lunch/Drinks at Grand Hotel with Tag Team, Outdoor Indian Fur Fair, Boating under the Mackinac Bridge
9. Beaver Island – Crystal Clear Water, Beautiful Island w/ lots of morman history, Incredible day long tour by Doug Edgar & Sharolyn, in a police car !
10. Harbor Springs – LARGE Boats, Beautiful flower lined homes, waterfalls in front yards, great downtown, new friends Oat & Rose Whitney.
11. Bay Harbor (+ Charlevoix & Boyne by car) – Road Trip with Shannon & Scott, Agar visit #3, Wrenched Back, disappointed that we did not boat to Charlevoix !
12. Leland – Wonderful Fish Town, Rick’s Café with Chubby Mary, new friends Bill/Deborah from Gross Pointe & Loopers Tim/Alice from Boston.
13. Frankfort (+Manistee by car) – Ashley/Dave visit, the OMNI road trip, Beach Day, Rainbows, Dinghy ride to lunch.
14. Ludington – Most Beautiful Harbor, Park Sculptures, Badger Ferry, Beer Fest, Flower Lined streets, gettin to know Tag Team even better (Tom/Sue Ann from Texas).
15. Grand Haven – Musical Fountain, Waterfront Music Concerts, Best Beach, Trolley Cars, Freightor on Grand river during dinner, Best Bike Trials & Boardwalk, Coast Guard City.
16. South Haven – Harbor Village, Idler Restaurant Boat, Best Waterfront Bar (Captain Lou’s), Best Theatre Value, Best Nightlife Entertainment, new friends Ken/Chris Smyth.
17. St Joseph – Best under rated town, Best Restaurant RyeBelle’s, nice downtown street art.

Mike’s Top 5
1. Grand Haven – The Musical Fountain, Waterfront Concerts, Best Beach, Trolley Cars
2. South Haven
3. Ludington
4. Leland
5. Harbor Springs
(6. Beaver Island)

Jonell’s Top 5
1. Harbor Springs – Walk to Downtown, Best Boats, Beautiful Homes with waterfalls
2. Ludington
3. Mackinaw City / Mackinac Island
4. Leland
5. Beaver Island
(6. Grand Haven)

Fuel/ Distance Stats
* $2700 in fuel so far
– approximately 750 gallons @ $3.60/gal
– approximately 700 miles
– approximately 0.93 mpg / 11 GPH @ 10-11mph

Next Stop Chicago = Sept 5,6,7

We were advised by some Loopers & friends that St Joseph was a boring/sleepy town, they said “don’t waste your time”.
Our plan was to use St Joseph as a stop-over from South Haven to Michigan City, In.
We planned to go to Michigan City because it would shorten the ride to Chicago, and because we wanted to visit with my cousin, Tony Chesney.

What we found in St Joe was ; a wonderfully quiet marina, a charming city with lots of street art, a beautiful downtown, a nice beach, nice restaurants, a historical area of an old amusement park from the 1950’s with indoor carousel, a huge water fountain park for kids.
The biggest drawback to St Joe was a pretty long bike ride (20min) from the marina on the north side of the St Joseph river, to the downtown & waterfront park on the south side.

We started our St Joe adventure with the 20min bike ride across the St Joseph River. On the ride we saw some very nice homes in the residential area. St Joseph is home to Whirlpool Corp.
We also got a good view of the river & railroad swing bridge from the main highway 63 which crosses the river.

Once across the river, we first went to the Lake Michigan waterfront. We discovered the following ;
1. A large waterpark fountain for kids, sponsored by Whirlpool
2. A nice beach
3. A Railroad (functional Amtrak RR with touristy gift shops & pizza station).
4. An area honoring a former waterfront amusement park from the 1950’s (Silver Beach)

The historic amusement park area had an indoor carousel, historic movies of days long passed, and many things for kids to do
Carousel Video = https://youtu.be/BqkGbcbKJRg
Historic Silver Beach Amusement Park Video = https://youtu.be/Rmoo-xx6jhI

The park originally opened in 1893, saw its hey day in the 60’s, and closed in the 1973. Do you think the kids in the video look like Brenda, Kenny, and Paula ?

After touring the Silver Beach waterfront area, we went to the downtown.
What we noticed initially was all the street art work shaped like Fish, similar to the Tigers street artwork located in Detroit. It was charity based, but we are not sure what the fundraiser was for.

We also saw the Clark Griswald mobile. If you are taking the family cross country, this ole family truckster is the vehicle for you !

We then strolled the downtown shops & looked for restaurants for dinner later that night

We noticed a nice rooftop area, so we went to the top and found an awesome bar combined with a relatively high class restaurant one floor lower. The restaurant/bar was named “RyeBelles”. It was about 3pm at that time so we went back to the boat to clean up for our fancy dinner, and tried to find an Uber or Cab with no success. The marina guys go home at 5pm so we could not pester them for a ride. So we took our second 20min ride into town (+ 20min back). Nellie’s (and my) legs/butts were very sore but it was worth it. RyeBelles was an awesome place. We had a nice rooftop drink, then went downstairs to the main restaurant and had an awesome dinner (NY Strip w/ mushrooms and apple pieces for Mike & Shrimp pasta for Jonell). Both meals were very very good, and the bill was only $58 bucks with two beers (I love a bargain).

We ended the night watching the Tigers on the marina TV in the courtesy room.
Tigers lost again, but it was a fun day in St Joseph.

 

Well, we are really starting to like these “Havens”.
Grand Haven was wonderful, and now South Haven is maybe even nicer.
Grand Haven is listed at a population of 11,000 and South Haven about 4,400.
Both have wonderful riverfronts & downtowns.

Upon arrival into South Haven on Friday afternoon, the ole AGLCA burgee brought in more new friends. Ken & Chris Smyth from Schwartz Creek Michigan noticed the flag. They are in the dreaming/planning phase for potential Looping. They had a lot of questions for us & we picked their brains about western Michigan coastal cities. We had dinner with them at Idler Riverboat Bar & Grill, an old moored boat being used as a waterfront restaurant. The area around the Idler Riverboat is called Old Harbor Village, loaded up with the usual restaurants, bars & gift shops. This was right on the waterfront, there is also a separate large downtown area.

We finished Friday night with a waterfront stroll past the many marinas, the South Haven Yacht Club was very finely manicured with lots of grass and paved patios at each set of slips.

On Saturday we began the day with a 3 mile bike trip to the grocery store to re-provision on supplies. We spent the afternoon at the beach, we ate dinner at the South Haven famous “Captain Lou’s”, and Mike ended the night with a last minute walk-in ticket to the Mayweather/McGregor fight at the Black River Tavern (Nellie did not want to go to the fight, she went clothes shopping and then watched Netflicks reruns of NCIS until Mike returned home at about 1am).

Sunday was a somewhat blasé’ day, with Mike suffering a slight headache, Jonell going shopping, and both of us going to the local movie theater. We saw the action movie Assassin’s Bodyguard with Ryan Reynolds & Samuel L. Jackson. Get this – two movie tickets, small popcorn, and medium diet coke = $10 (I love bargains).

Today/Monday was also a rainy/dreary day.
I went to the local marine store to replace the deck brush I dropped into the boat slip while washing the hull ($90 mistake).
We then worked on the boat; Mike buffed & waxed the bow pulpit (not done in Detroit) & Nellie cleaned the interior and washed clothes.

We ended the day at the South Haven famous “Clementines” restaurant. On the weekends, there was a 2 hour wait to get in. We were able to walk-in without wait tonight. Not sure about the fuss, the food was pretty good, not great, ambiance & prices were good.

Time for Gettin’ Loooped to go nite nite

Rainy day in Grand Haven today, good time for a blog update !
Grand Haven was an awesome city. Much larger than some of the previous smaller towns of Frankfort & Leland. Grand Haven proudly displays its “Coast Guard City USA” designation, an honorary designation by the CG intended to recognize civilian communities of special importance to the U.S. Coast Guard.

They also advertise their winter friendliness with heated sidewalks within a 3 block radius of the downtown .
So much to do, the city features many touristy things to do and see, here is the list of the 15 things Jonell and I saw & did  !

1. Bike rides along the very long Grand River boardwalk, the downtown, and the Beach at the Grand Haven State Park (& Beach).

2. Went on the Trolley Car

3. Ate Corndogs at the Grand Haven famous “Pronto Pups Corndog Stand”

4. Had dinner at famous “Snug Harbor” on the Grand River and watched a large freighter pass.

5. Went to the Eternal Flame Veterans Memorial.

6. Had Burritos at the Grand Haven famous “Butch’s Beach Burritos Stand”

7. Pierre Marquette Railroad Museum

8. Coffee & Awesome Cinnamon Rolls at the Grand Haven famous “Morning Star Café”

9. Went to the South Pier Lighthouse.

10. Rode bikes and looked at houses/churches, Parks, etc

11. Biked to Charter Boat Row (Trolley guy says -largest Fleet in one spot in Michigan ?)

12. Watched 2 outdoor bands, free waterfront entertainment – nice  !

Band #2 ; Waterfront entertainment on a Wednesday night, supposed to be another band tonight
Click on the link = https://youtu.be/P9n49qsSn8w

13. Nellie got her nails all prettied up at the Nail Haven (lots of shops here end in the word  “Haven”).

14. Ate dinner at the Grand Haven famous Kirby House (3 restaurants & a nightclub).

15. But the best touristy treat was watching the Grand Haven Musical Fountain/Light Show. The show is a mini Bellagio fountain display which happened across the river, up in the hills, DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM OUR BOAT SLIP !


Click on the video link = https://youtu.be/g4ERKssT0Og

 

 

Ludington was a great stop for us.
The city is beautiful, they have flower lined streets, a beautiful park surrounding the harbor, a couple beautiful marinas, a wide assortment of restaurants, bars, gift shops.
The city park on the water also had many Ludington history based bronze statues.
Overall a beautiful place with nice folks.

On Saturday, Ludington had a very large Craft Beer Festival in a large park a bike ride away from the marinas. We attended the beer fest with Loopers we had met in Mackinaw; Tom/Sue Rushing (Tag Team) & Dennis/Dana Hann (Pharm Life). Tag Team & Pharm Life also introduced us to more Looper friends ; Steve/Teresa Lasher (Sanctuary), Pat/Cathy Deadwiley (Southern Cross), and Scott/Mary Haws (JaycieLynn). It was a token based system with easily over 100 varieties of beer available. Six tokens for $30, 1 token = 4oz sample , Nellie shared her tokens with me & still got blasted.

On Sunday;  we did laundry, rode bikes to see the town, went to the beach, & ate subway at the harbor park while watching the car ferry Badger return to its Ludington port. The ferry docks by dropping its anchor and pivoting about the anchor to do a 180 turn before backing in to the pier. The process is pretty cool to watch.

Badger Car Ferry Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD5b6gkjT6A

We arrived from Leland on Monday, August 14.
Monday night we visited new friends Bill & Deborah, who we had originally met in Bay Harbor, then again in Leland.
Bill & Deborah are from Gross Pointe, but keep their sailboat at Bay Harbor.
They are a wonderful couple we hope to stay in touch with. We spent 2-3 hours on their boat.

We spent Tuesday getting chores done prepping for the visit of our daughter Ashley & 1st mate Dave Lyman. Mike also got a much needed haircut, turning his Round Mop back into a Flat Top (Pat – I told the guy #2 on the sides & blend in the top. He did an ok job). Had to bike 2 miles to the shop & 2 miles back.

Ashley & Dave arrived about 3pm on Tuesday.
OMG – They arrived in Ashley’s 2nd car, the ole 1988 Dodge Omni that they had driven to Michigan in December. They flew into metro AP, got the Omni out of storage in Waterford (it started right up after 8 months) drove the Omni from Waterford Michigan to Frankfort Michigan, and plan to drive the Omni back to Oakland later this week. The car is an eyesore, but you can’t argue about it’s dependability, it just won’t quit.

We went for a walk to the beach & then dinner.
Nice to see the exuberance of youth again in our playful daughter.

Wednesday was beach day, we unloaded the dinghy and took it out on to Lake Michigan to the nearby beach.

 

Thursday was travel by Omni day. We had planned to go Looping from Frankfort to Manistee then Ludington while Ashley & Dave were with us, but very high winds (25mph w/ gusts to 40mph) grounded us. So we drove the Omni to Manistee & Ludington. The Omni has no rear seats, so we had to improvise by using the Gettin’ Looped beach chairs, a going away gift from lifelong pal Dave Noffert (I apologize to my safety friends at FCA for this careless activity).

The day in Manistee & Ludington was rainy/windy. In Manistee we dropped Nellie off at the local Casino (no she did not win big, no bigger boat).
Ashley, Dave, and I had lunch in Manistee and walked the downtown. Jonell & I will now skip Manistee and go directly to Ludington hopefully on Saturday after Ashley & Dave depart, if the winds die down as predicted by Sailflow. Manistee was another nice northern Michigan town. It is along the Manistee river which is relatively narrow, but apparently still sees large freighter traffic (would have liked to seen that).

After Manistee, we took the Omni to Ludington, home of the Badger car ferry which travels from Ludington to Manitowoc Wisconsin. Ashley & Dave purchased ferry tickets for their return trip home. They wish to take the northern route from Michigan back to Oakland. The car ferry will take 10-12 hours off of their trip.

We then went for a walk on the VERY LONG Ludington breakwall, and climbed to the top of the North Breakwall Lighthouse.

Lighthouse Breakwall Slow Motion Video compliments of Ashley   https://youtu.be/7IfugMszHWs

We ended the night back in Frankfort with a nice dinner, strolled the downtown Frankfort, watched a BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW after dinner, checked out the courtesy room at our Jacobsen’s Marina, and got back to the boat on a  “calm before the storm” peaceful dock walk before the winds kicked up again at night.

 

The trip from Bay Harbor was a little bumpy (20mph winds) . The good news is that I am really getting to “feel” the Viking. It is starting to feel like a smaller boat finally. Riding the waves was starting to feel more like the ole 24ft Four Winns.

Leland is only Port #12, but it may now be our favorite port so far.
The marina is in great shape, the courtesy room is new/clean, everyone is super friendly.
Nothing really to speak of, it’s just a very nice small Lake Michigan town. It’s history is of a fishing village, and the town today is a combination of fishing work boats & tourism.

There is a small section of the town known as Fishtown, with fish stores, cheese shops, candy shops, hand crafted stores, restaurants, gift stores, etc.

There are a handful of restaurants & pubs. One of the places was recommended to us by blog followers, and FCA co-worker Andy & Lynn Hulway. They recommended a place called Rick’s Cafe.
Rick’s Cafe is located along the Leland River and has a Key West tiki-hut theme.

Andy & Lynn said you have to go there for the “Chubby Mary”.
We went for a late breakfast and ordered the Chubby Mary with some chips/salza, expecting a bloody Mary – but got a little surprise.
A bloody Mary with a fish !

Overall the Chubby Mary was in fact a fine drink/food sensation & experience.

We then went to the beach for the afternoon, came back and washed the boat, and ended the day meeting some new sailboat friends we had first met in Bay Harbor, and new Looper couple #9.

The western Michigan boating travel circuit is smaller than one would think. The next stop for Mike/Jonell, Bill/Deborah, and Tim/Alice is Frankfort.  Also our previous Looper friends from Mackinaw City, who we ran into in Charlevoix – Tag Team & Pharm Team will right behind us coming to Leland next , then Frankfort. We have stayed in touch by phone with Tag Team (Tom & Sue Ann from Texas).

The other big update – our daughter Ashley & 1st mate Dave will be joining us for a week, meeting us at our next stop in Frankfort Michigan on Tuesday.

Oh, by the way – my bride continues to take some darn nice photos with her fancy new smart phone, while I am not around.