Week 8 America's Great Loop

 


Week 8
Sep 1-7, 2025

Monday
We went for a walk this morning to the boat museum, but maybe because it's a holiday it wasn't open. We left Beaver Island for Charlevoix MI. We had to cross lake Michigan back east and south a little bit. It was a much smoother crossing this time. We traveled 30 nautical miles.






Charlevoix is amazing. We love it. We had to wait for the draw bridge to be raised to get onto round lake and in the marina. The east shore of Lake Michigan is full of sandy beaches and sand dunes and crystal clear blue Caribbean water. We all (Elise, Milani, Ed and Allison) took turns riding the scooters and walking around town and going to the beach. It's very touristy and posh. This is way more upscale than all the other towns we've been to.





There's an area called the mushroom houses. A builder, Earl Young built approximately 28 homes between 1918 and 1978. They're very unique and look like a hobbit houses or gnome houses. It was fun to walk around and see them.
 
Tuesday
We didn't have to leave early today. Elise and I went for a walk. We got back, shoved off and left the marina and we timed it just right to hit the bridge going up. The water was so smooth. Lake Michigan is known for its rough waters. Today you could water ski on it. We stopped after a couple of hours to float. Elise, Milani, and Ed went for a swim. They said it was cold but refreshing. That doesn't exist for me. Cold is cold. Then we got the dingy down. It's fun to ride around in it. Milani even took a turn driving it. We pulled into Traverse city mid afternoon and got fuel and a pump out. It was 37 nautical miles of travel today. We have reservations for several nights because the forecast is an arctic storm is coming in from Canada tomorrow. We could be here for a bit.






We walked around town a bit, got dinner, and hung out in the marina lounge playing games.

 
Wednesday
It was cold, windy, and rainy all day. We all went for a walk on a path following the beach, walked through the farmers market before the first rain hit.




Ed and I taught our institute class. The new block started this week. Our students are all from the middle east this block. Elise and Milani went to get pedicures while we did that.
We walked back into town for dinner and some shopping. It's the end of the season, so many things are discounted. I got a necklace with the famous Petoskey stone on one side and the Leland blue stone on the other. Petoskey stone is local to this traverse city. It's petrified coral. The coral died after a volcanic eruption, sank, compressed, and broke apart. It has a very distinct look. The Leland blue was found on the coast of Leland Michigan and is the slag of mining ore cooked by the clear blue lake Michigan water and a reaction causes it to be blue.
The winds really picked up in the late evening. We are in a protected bay and our boat was really rocking even here.
We saw sleet!






Thursday
It was cold this morning! The sun started to peek out. We went to the beach to look for Petoskey rocks. We were able to find several.


We headed into town to eat lunch and do a little shopping. We found a cute jewelry making store. Milani and I both made bracelets. Elise made a necklace. We took a little tour of the historic opera house. It's the biggest one that was built in MI in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This one was completed in 1892. It's one of 5 of the historic opera houses still standing. It was beautiful.



Elise and Milani left at 4:30om for the traverse city airport. We were so sad to see them go. It's been so fun to have them with us.
We were invited to go with another looping couple to go listen to some live jazz music and dinner. The band was very good. We love live music.
 
Friday
It was very bad weather today. Michigan is living up to it's reputation. But even the locals are saying this is very early in the season to be this cold and wet.  20F degrees below normal.
We did laundry and hung out on the boat most of the day. Towards late afternoon there was a break in the rain and we took off for the grocery. It was a small market like a bad, tiny trader Joe's. We didn't get much. They don't sell coke zero!  A few stores down was a pie shop we'd heard about. We ended up eating dinner there and buying some chicken pot pies and a strawberry rhubarb pie.








After dinner our boat buddies Jeff and Shelly came over for a visit. They're crossing their wake in a couple of days and grew up on this lake. They've helped teach us a lot about Lake Michigan.  They're very interesting. They met when they were mid 30s. They didn't want kids so they dated for a couple of years, got engaged and were engaged for 14 years! They got married when they were about 50 and have been married for 7. Super interesting couple. Wonderful people.



 
Saturday
By 9 the rain had calmed to just a drizzle. We ran over to the farmers market for a couple of things. They have an awesome farmers market here. I would've liked to spend a lot more time and gotten some more things. We had a very small window of calmer winds around 10. We left the marina around 10:15. It was kind of foggy. The crossing turned out to be not too bad at all. Only 1-2 foot waves. We traveled for a couple of hours and got to Northport marina. It was 22.5 nautical miles.
Northport is a darling little town. There isn't even one stop light. There's a lot of art galleries and boutiques.




 
Sunday
We left early today to catch the best weather conditions possible. There isn't a ward or branch anywhere near us, so attending church wasn't an option.  The closest one is 35 miles and it was their stake conference today.  
We traveled 25 nautical miles to Leland MI. It was a rough crossing and really tricky getting into our dock slip. It took a couple of tries and a bump on a piling.





We spent the afternoon with Jeff and Shelly LaViolette. Leland is the oldest fishing village in Michigan that still has a working fishing industry. It's absolutely darling. We went to the beach. It looks like the Caribbean. The water is a gorgeous turquoise. I decided I wanted to go back with short pants and a strainer to look for Leland stones. Shelly wanted to go with, so the two of us went for about an hour. The water was way warmer than the air. The locals told us the air is 20 degrees colder right now than it normally is this time of year. It's pretty chilly! I found some cool rocks and a couple of really small Leland stones.



This small town is a top 10 on most loopers list and I'd have to say it is for us too. We've seen such cute quaint towns that all have a different flavor and history. It's fascinating.
The sky has changed so many times today, and tonight we had clear skies and a beautiful sunset!! Lately it's been so wet and cloudy. It was a stunning view tonight.  We hope to leave tomorrow with 2 or 3 foot seas because Tuesday is predicted 9 foot seas.  Yuck.





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