We stayed four nights in Muskegon. They have a very nice long bike trail and we enjoyed several rides there. Mark and Jane were joined by family that traveled with them on their boat to Grand Haven. Jan and Jane enjoyed shopping at the farmers market.
Upon arriving at Muskegon's entrance, in the fog again, Average Looper needed to change course to avoid a large ship exiting the harbor into Lake Michigan. They never actually saw the ship in the fog, except on radar and AIS. At 464 ft long, it surely had the right of way!
Now is probably a good time to explain AIS. It stands for Automatic Identification System. It sends information such as type of vessel, course, speed and other identification information via VHF radio. The purpose is to avoid collisions. The commercial ships are required to have Class A AIS which is send and receive. Pleasure boats are also allowed to have AIS which can be send and receive or receive only. We have found that having send and receive is very helpful. We have been called by tows and ships. One unexpected benefit was having the doors open on a lock because the lock master saw us coming on his AIS.
We again rented a car from Enterprise because they really do pick you up! Enterprise should know me by first name pretty soon after having rented from them many times on the loop. Obviously a car always expands our horizons and this time we visited Grand Haven among other places. Also I went to Home Depot and purchased material to build a seat for the dinghy. Whenever we used the dinghy for any distance I would get a sore back from driving in an uncomfortable position. With the seat I will be able to face forward instead of sideways. I hope the seat resolves the problem.
Grand Haven's claim to fame is their laser light show. After dark many people gather in the grand stand to watch the lights choreographed to music across the river. It was a pretty cool show. .
We happened upon Taste of Saugatuck while we were there. These community festivals are always fun. The yacht club, next to our marina, had a band that we enjoyed. The town has a very prosperous looking downtown area with several nice shops and restaurants.
South Haven was our last town on the east side of Lake Michigan before crossing to Chicago. While it was rainy while we were there it was still a nice visit. The sunsets were amazing here. We had visited here previously with our Chicago Mertz family.
This is the beach and the light houses that we couldn't see in the fog when we came through.
It's really a nice, large beach.
This restaurant on the beach used these pontoon boats for additional seating.
Very creative!
I couldn't resist including this T shirt.
It doesn't apply to me. Sent it to a friend though!
Sagatuck has this chain ferry to cross the river.
Although we didn't ride it, it appears to be hand powered.
The other side where the ferry lands.
This shows some of the vendor booths.
In full bloom.
Just beautiful!
Is anyone tired of sunsets yet?
Obviously I'm not. The sun sets every night - we are in a position to see them now!
This is a beautiful Pacemaker boat.
It's about the same year as our son Mike's boat that we will see in Chicago.
We took this picture of Navigator and Average Looper across the river
while on a bike ride.
Another picture of Sagatuck's beautiful beach.
We saw several pirate ships on the loop.
Luckily they are tourist attractions, not real pirates.
Another beautiful sunset.
And another beautiful sunset.
How does it keep getting more beautiful?
Wow!
I was trying to show how white the boats' wake is in Lake Michigan.
I like the light in the wake.
Here's the white wake.
Just wait until we get to the rivers. you will see a big difference!
One of the scenes in the laser light show.
Another laser light show scene.
Additional pictures didn't turn out very well.
The next post will be Chicago and our two families that live there.
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