Heading South

 In the laundry room at the Leland Marina we met a couple from Chicago who are heading back there on their sailboat First Look. (In fact, they found the missing sock from our laundry). Yesterday the wind finally subsided, so we all cast off and headed south, back to Frankfort.We both spent the night in Jacobson Marina in Frankfort- a friendly marina with great facilities including a pool and hot tub.

We like this town a lot- it has just enough shops to be interesting without being a tourist trap. The beach and bike path are easily accessible and top notch. The nearby streets are lined with Victorian era houses that are well-maintained.

Mark and I rode our bikes a few block to the grocery store to pick up a few things since we had invited Bob and Kathy to our boat for dinner. We had a wonderful evening together sharing stories and experiences- wine might have been involved. We all plan to move on down to Manistee today and hopefully cross the Lake to Manitowoc, WI on Friday or Saturday.

Kathy and Bob

Lots of Sand

Today our friend Don drove us to Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes National Lakeshore. http://www.nps.gov/slbe/index.htm 

It's hard to tell from the photos just how steep this 450 foot sand dune is! Many intrepid souls make their way down to the water rather quickly and literally crawl back up on hands and knees. We were quite content to stay up top and watch. 

The view of the Manitou Passage and Manitou Islands is amazing!

We were happy to spend today ashore and avoid the 10 foot waves out on the Lake. Hopefully the strong winds will subside tomorrow. 

Loving Leland

This morning we left Frankfort at daybreak, which comes a bit later on the Michigan side of the lake. We headed north to Leland, a 45 mile cruise of 4.5 hours. Once again we were treated to a dramatic sunrise.

Leland is a busy little harbor on the Leelanau Peninsula- they wouldn't discuss whether they had a slip for us until we were inside the harbor walls. Leland is a designated Port of Refuge, which means they cannot turn away any boat seeking to stay here. Sometimes it is so crowded that boats are tied together, end to end or side to side-- this is called rafting. We saw a few rafted boats this evening. We had a heavy but brief downpour and sustained 34 mph north winds. We planned to be here for two days knowing the weather forecast called for high winds.

Lake Michigan is turquoise-colored here.

At noon friends from Muscatine picked us up. Don and Janet Barko have a lake house here and had invited us to get together. We had lunch at the Bluebird Restaurant on the bank of the Leland River- a beautiful setting. They took us to their house on Lower Leelanau Lake- a beautiful spot. There is so much natural beauty in this part of the world that I am running out of adjectives to describe it all! The Barkos gave us a comprehensive tour of the area including a stop at the Chateau Chantal Winery. There are many wineries here, but this one is perched on Old Mission Peninsula between Little Traverse and Grand Traverse Bay. The wine is excellent and the scenery breath-taking. Who needs Napa!

Don, Janet and Heidi

Chateau Chantal

We continued on to Traverse City and ate dinner. We stopped at Fustini's to buy their delicious 18 year-old balsamic vinegar and extra yummy infused olive oil. Mark and I discovered Fustini olive oils and vinegars 2 years ago when we were boat shopping in this area - I was excited to return!

And yes, there is a fish on sticks in Leland!

And this is for my sweet granddaughter who often insists on wearing mis-matched socks:

I have been heard to say that life is too short for bad coffee and cheap wine, but the socks thing is a new one!