For our next chunk of Lake Michigan we stayed at Lake Muskegon for three days and Grand Haven for two days and there was lots to do at both locations.
Lake Muskegon
We had perfect conditions for our run to Lake Muskegon. We ended up anchoring with Looper boats, Will 'n Joy and Stay Cool, near a cruise ship! The cruise ship was empty and we learned that they would be starting a cruise in a couple of days. They actually left after dark the first night and we were happy to see them go because their generator ran constantly. The first night we enjoyed a great docktails with the two other boats on Will 'n Joy. After that, we dinghied over to another marina looking for options for Frodo to do his business. We had previously taken him to shore at a boat launch but we didn't like it that much. We saw a huge flock of swans hanging out in front of a private marina. Inside this marina we saw a boat that we recognized called JEMA, but no one was on board. We docked our dinghy by their boat anyway and started walking Frodo when our friends drove up to us in a new pickup truck! They invited us for another docktails! It turns out that they met a couple at another marina who were on vacation with their boat and offered their slip, and their truck, for our friends to use while they were away. It's a Dockominium, which is sort of like a Condominium, where you own your slip. We had a nice visit with our friends and made plans to go grocery shopping and go to the submarine museum with them the next day.
We wanted to let our friends on Will 'n Joy know that we were leaving Frodo on the boat, dinghying to the other marina, and going to get groceries. They insisted on keeping Frodo for us which was so kind! Apparently, he snuggled with them the whole time. We got our groceries at Walmart and I've never been so excited to go to a Walmart in my whole life! This was the first one that we'd been to since we started our travels, and it was a relief to finally have a decent place to do our provisioning! In the afternoon, we took Frodo with us and left him on JEMA while we went to the USS Silversides Submarine Museum. The museum was very interesting, with a lot of history about the United States' role in World War II. I found it particularly interesting that for the United States, WWII started in 1941 with the attack on Pearl Harbour, instead of 1939, which is the date that we recognize in Canada. We even got to tour the 1941 USS Silversides SS-236 submarine, and the 1927 USCGC McLane W-146 Coast Guard ship. It was surprising to see how all these men could live and work together in such small quarters!
Back at the anchorage, another Looper boat arrived so we hosted a second Docktails on our boat for the four boats. It was a great visit and we were glad that we connected. Later that night, Cam and I were on shore with Frodo when we were told that a cruise ship was coming in 45 minutes and one of the Looper boats had to move out 100 feet. Security was about to get the bullhorn out, but Cam dinghied over to the boat, woke the couple who we had met earlier, and told them about moving the boat. That was a new one!
Our last day in Lake Muskegon was a rainy one, but we managed to get out for a dinghy explore in the evening. Around the corner from where we were anchored we discovered the USS LST-393. LST stands for Landing Ship Tanks and that vessel made more than 30 trips transporting tanks and supplies to the beaches of Normandy, and wounded soldiers and German prisoners back. It is now a floating museum. We were sorry that we didn't get to go inside.
Grand Haven
Our run to Grand Haven from Lake Muskegon was only about 15 miles so it was a nice short run and we arrived before noon. Heather took Frodo for a walk and ran into Maggie almost immediately. Apparently, there were a lot of Loopers in town so they made plans to organize a big docktails later with everyone. In the afternoon, we walked Washington Street, checking out all the shops. Heather got a blueberry lemonade at a Blueberry store and Cam got a Lavender Lemonade at a Lavender store. Such unique stores! Almost all of the Looper boaters showed up for docktails which lasted for two hours. It was great to meet so many new loopers.
One of the big tourist attractions in Grand Haven is the Musical Fountain and by a stroke of luck, the fountain was across the river almost directly opposite our boat. We got comfy on the bow of our boat and watched the fountain and light show set to the music from Star Wars. The next night they did a different show with a variety of music and both shows were great! On the first night, we had an additional light show with a string of satellites, most likely StarLink satellites from Elon Musk. Very cool!
We hopped on our bikes the next day and went to West Marine. We haven't been to a West Marine store for a long time since the one in Toronto closed so we were excited for the opportunity. We bought a bunch of stuff! Then we went to Miejer's for a few groceries and ended up buying two lawn chairs. Did I mention that we were on our bikes...with boat stuff...and groceries...and lawn chairs? At the checkout, we asked for options for getting back to the marina and learned about something called Harbor Transit, a free transit service. We called them and they picked us up at the store along with another customer. Our bikes were put in a rack on the front of the bus and the driver secured our new lawn chairs inside the bus. On the drive back, the other passenger and driver told us about a bike path that we could use. Later that afternoon, we followed the path and enjoyed a bike ride to explore Harbor Island. There are a lot of very rich boggy areas on the island. It was a short ride but nice to get out and we were able to see the marina from the other side and had a closeup visit with a Great Blue Heron.
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