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"We crossed Lake Michigan from St. Joseph to Chicago several days ago, just before the weather turned worse. We can truly say that Lake Michigan was kind to us! We only had one day in the past two weeks coming down the lake that got a little uncomfortable. This is one large freshwater lake! Along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, the state has developed "Safe Harbor" anchorages and marinas approximately every 20 or 25 miles. We picked our days carefully, would travel only when the weather was good, and stop at another of the "Safe Harbors" for a day or two, until it appeared safe to travel another day. Some of the towns that we visited along the way were Petoskey, Charlevoix, Frankfort, Ludington, Grand Haven, Saugatuck, and St. Joseph/Benton Harbor. Each town had its own personality, and various activities to enjoy. In Charleviox was an school building from the 1920's which had been restored to be a public library, the nicest public building that I believe I have ever seen. Salmon fishing was very popular this time of the year in several of the towns. A fisherman in Frankfort gave us some Salmon that he caught, and our friends on the boat "Bella Luna", a couple from Morehead City, NC, who started this adventure the same day Kay and I did, May 14, 2008, grilled it for us and several other boater friends to try. We saw the largest musical fountain in the world in Grand Haven, and we had to stop in the channel while going into Saugatuck to wait for a ferry, which was powered by a person turning a hand crank to pull the ferry across the river. Along the eastern shore of Michigan the coastline was made up of sand dunes reaching as high as 480 feet, and the lake was a deep as 700 feet in some places, WOW! This sand accumulated from the constant wind and waves from the west across Lake Michigan. "

"While in Chicago we had a wonderful visit by a former workmate and his family from North Carolina, Ken Nicely, his wife, and two young boys. Kay and I really enjoyed having their two young boys on board for a while, it reminded us of our grandchildren. Oh, we enjoyed Ken and his wife's visit also. We rode a Segway (a two wheeled gyroscope controlled transportation device) and went on a tour of downtown Chicago. We also went on an architecture tour of the city by boat. "

"Our plans from here are to enter the Illinois River tomorrow and begin our adventure down the rivers, arriving at the Gulf of Mexico in late November. Friends of ours from Southport, Bert and Becky Felton, are to join us this afternoon in Chicago for the next ten days or so of the adventure, what excitement!"

Robert & Kay

C-Life