More Petosky then on the road again - Charlevoix MI

We started to grow roots in Petosky MI. Boy, what a pretty town. Best so far, hands down. We have a lot of chances to say that, but everything will compare to Petosky. Never thought I would say that!!

Here are some more pictures of Petosky for your amusement:

Municipal Marina - we are at the end of the dock; 3 other loopers in this marina. The folks on two of the boats preferred to talk only to each other. One of the women was an exception. She talked to us a couple of time, each time repeating the same stories and warnings. I hope when we are half way through the trip we don't act like annoying know-it-alls. Sort of takes the fun out of it. I am pretty sure there is a way to share info and swap stories with being that annoying. Needless to say I will not be sharing the boat names! 

We also met and spent a day with two nice couples from Chicago area, Sally and Bob, and his sister and brother-in-law, Diana and Ron from Holland MI. We need to call them when we get to Chicago and Holland MI, respectively. We met Sally at Harbor Springs and figured out we were both from the Chicago area. We have a lot in common and they are a lot of fun.

 Great sunset!

 A second night of great sunsets.

 Big storm on Lake Michigan but it missed us. Big, big winds though.

 Another picture of the big winds. This was Friday night.

 Jumping off the piers is really popular in Michigan. The waves were about 3 to 5 and this girl was about 7 feet off the water when she did a back flip into Lake Michigan - actually Little Travers Bay. Bridge Harbor MI is just across the bay in this picture. That is her dad taking a picture of her dive too..

Petosky has a well developed downtown with lots of restaurants. We grilled out twice and ate out about 3 times. We didn't cover nearly enough of the options. On a rainy Friday we split up and I spent a fabulous afternoon at the library - just a lovely place. I must say these MI communities sure invest in their public spaces. They even had a book exchange so we brought back some of the books we already read and exchanged them for a new set. Speaking of reading, we have been gone 37 days and I have read 15 books and am almost done with #16. What a great trip!!

Did I mention before that Hemingway spent his summers vacationing in this part of Michigan? Kermit had his hair cut at the barber shop Hemingway used! His hair looks great now. This weekend Petosky had their summer festival with food stands, music, and activities. Kermit had a brat and I got cinnamin nuts and Rusty hoovered the grounds. Everyone got what they want. We found a great gym, CCG, so visited twice. It felt good to knock the kinks out and sweat from something other than heat (although it is not hot here - jeans and sweatshirts are the uniform of the day, I did not pack well for MI). Today is Sunday, August 19. We left Petosky on a crisp, clear, lovely morning. The lake was flat as glass in the bay and only a tiny bumpy in Lake Michigan. Hardly a cloud in the sky. We slept late, till about 9am  which is becoming pretty common for us. After an egg breakfast and one last doggy walk, we left Petosky bound for Charlevoix, a 2 hour trip around the corner at about 9 or 10 mph. The water was flat and at that speed we can relax. We burned about 20 gals total at that pace, pretty good mileage. We run about 2 or 3 miles off shore minimum to be safe so we can't really see the spectacular shoreline. Upper MI is definitely worth stopping often to see the land. The new binoculars are great when we are not rocking. When the seas are high we wish we spent the extra money for the image stabilizing pair.

Charlevoix is nice, small but nice. This is an arial photo of the lakes here. See the teeny little circle at the bottom? That is Round Lake with the town of Charlevoix on the bottom. We took the dinghy into Lake Charlevoix above Round Lake but we didn't get far. Kermit was spooked by the waves. We will try again tomorrow.



More about Charlevoix next time.