Tony M Trawler: Last Days on Lake Michigan

August 26-August 31, 2010 Thursday to Tuesday

Although we enjoyed our stay in Frankfort, we knew it was time to move on south to Pentwater, MI. The winds were light, the waves 1-2 feet and we had a following sea-it doesn't get much better than that on Lake Michigan. Pentwater's main street is very typical of all the Michigan port towns we've visited, but this one had a small but interesting marine store with almost any kind of marine part you'd need along with some marine antiques. The town provides another fish preparation station for all the fish the fishermen catch and a weekly concert for the locals and tourists. And, of course, ice cream parlors galore!

Great Music!


Fish Prep Station

We knew the winds were iffy, but decided to make our way south. The day started out calm but soon changed to what we call "uncomfortable"- so it was a rough three and a half hour ride on four to six foot seas. We pulled into White Lake and welcomed the six mile calm ride to the end to the Whitehall Municipal Marina. We thought we were in the wrong place because only two sailboats were in this good size marina.
No, the dockmaster told us, we were in the right place ...pick any slip we wanted! That was certainly different. (We were later told that seasonal slip rentals now choose to go to another marina with a pool.) This town looked as if the economy was beating it up more than the other towns as there were more vacant buildings and fewer people enjoying the park than other Michigan towns we've visited. They did have a beautiful quilt shop that got thoroughly scoured! They also had a fantastic 22 mile bike path with its own bridge to get across the river that was very enjoyable to ride. Pete spent some time replacing belts, cabinet hardware and fluids-there's always something to look after...

Whitehall's empty docks

We had stayed in Whitehall for two days and were getting itchy to continue on. The water was again rough with noticeable winds, making for another "uncomfortable" ride to Grand Haven, Michigan. This port was almost as busy as Mackinac Island with plenty of tourists and a parade of boats all day long. They had an interesting three town museum dedicated to transportation and two mile boardwalk running out to the lighthouse. We noticed their main street was torn up and learned that the power plant on the river was piping their hot water into the newly laid pipes under the street so the street would stay snow and ice free all winter long -I 'd love to have that in Newtown! We were entertained by the Musical Fountains-a light and water show that danced to tunes like "Let It Be"-very different.

Grand Haven Lighthouse

Bowden Bike

Grand Haven's new streets in the making

Musical Fountains

The weather Monday as we left Grand Haven was getting hot and humid but the lake was calm with light winds. We had wanted to stop at Saugatuck as it was highly recommended by many folks but we decided to take advantage of the good travel conditions and continue on to South Haven. South Haven is more upscale that some of the other towns with more boutiques and other shops. We did some needed grocery shopping and laundry which left us little time to really explore it. We needed to get to New Buffalo to pick up our mail. Our ride to New Buffalo was bumpy but reasonable. We took on fuel and went to the municipal marina and were again surprised at the amount of empty slips available-surprised because we had read how we needed reservations at these marinas, yet Mackinac Island was the only one that required a reservation-lucky for us.
Our big disappointment was that our mail package had not arrived yet. The post office people were most accommodating by offering to drive it down to the marina if it arrived Wednesday(it didn't) so now well have to figure out a new PO after we leave Chicago. New Buffalo has a glut of condos by the waterfront but unfortunately, are only about 1/3 full. It seems the developer had grandiose vision of this being a suburb of Chicago, got Amtrak to put in a stop here and then when bankrupt. You can see the condos in the picture of the marina. The town has scars from being abandoned by the developers.