The final blog post in each of our yearly adventures traveling along Americas Great Loop are always bitter sweet. As we close out this chapter we’ve decided it should be appropriately named ‘Happy Destiny’.
The winds and rain that had dominated yesterday had all passed or subsided. When we awoke the wind directions had changed from what had been the NW to the S/SE and they had subsided substantially. Viewing the lake from our binoculars we could see that the lake was a MUCH nicer animal this morning; now akin more to a koala 🐨 than a grizzly bear 🐻.
Looking like a “go” day!
Riva really wants to play with her new friends!
Time had come to assess what perishable food we had in the fridge and attempt to use it up. For quick breakfasts Derek had the one remaining coffee yogurt and granola, Renee polished off the end of a box of Lucky Charms (the generic version with marshmallows as something other than yellow stars, blue moons and green clovers) and the last of our milk, Erik finished a semi fresh (but not yet moldy) loaf of bread by having toast with the remainder of the yummy guacamole. Fine dining on more of ‘what’s in the fridge’ would be on the menu for the remainder of the day.
After our morning routines Derek embarked to drive our SUV from Michigan City Indiana to St Joseph Michigan. Our AGLCA friends had delivered the car to us here at Washington Park Marina yesterday late morning since we had gotten laid over for an extra day. Renee, Erik and Riva climbed aboard the boat for what would be their final leg to this years journey; a 35 mile run across the bottom of Lake Michigan. After exiting the city harbor to get out into the lake the throttles were pushed down a bit in order to make decent time and not leave Derek waiting too long for us in the other end. Although MUCH smoother than it had been yesterday, and even what we traveled with on Sunday, there were still 1’ or so slow moving rolling waves coming at our front and port side beam. Not uncomfortable at all, but did have us slowing down a bit from Erik’s planned speed. As the three hour, 36 mile trip went along the waters did calm even further to just a minor chop with almost no rollers. Erik quenched his need for speed by briefly opening up the engines (and the checkbook!) to achieve our high speed of travel for the trip at 28 mph. A debate ensued as to whether we should consider competing in the Michigan City Nautical Grand Prix upon our return to the area next year…nah…we’ll probably just keep things at our comfortable and “affordable” 8-12 mph. Co Captain Renee took the helm as we entered the break walls off of the lake into the St Joseph River. Erik and Riva rode on the bow to handle photography and videography.
I’m here for the photo shoot! 📸
Coming into St Joe, Renee bringing us to our winter
home
The last two miles of this years trip was a slow, no wake, cruise up the river past three bridges, one of which was a low railroad bridge which was already turned and open for us, and into our temporary slip at Pier 33 Marina. ‘Happy Destiny’ will sit in this slip until the marina staff put her up on stands for an 11 month rest. We actually learned the morning after our arrival as we were planning to depart that they won’t likely take it out of the water until after Labor Day weekend! Could there be a road trip back up to Michigan in store for Labor Day?
Entrance to St Joseph river
View of the beach we would visit later
Welcome!
After checking in with staff and getting marina keys for bath houses and gates we pretty quickly suited up and headed off to check out the Beach. The town beach was not huge in length (maybe 1/4 mile long) but is very deep and has nice, fine sand. Being a beautiful, sunny day the beach was crowded with lots of people enjoying themselves. Before laying out we went into the water, Renee only up to her calves, as the water was a little chilly!!!🥶 After laying in the sun on the beach for a while we all cooled off in the chilly water, even Renee all the way up to her shoulders!
Lots of folks enjoying the beach 🏖
Boat hair… don’t care!!!
Following our beach visit we drove through the downtown area a little and spotted an ice cream shop! Kilwin’s smelled delicious as they made their own homemade waffle cones. 🤤 Then back to the boat. Erik and Renee loaded up the towels and laundry that was staying on the boat and headed to the laundromat. While clothes were washing we went to Walmart and got a tarp to wrap the Bimini, then while clothes were drying took Riva to a dog park. Riva made a new friend in the small dog park, a little yorkie named Atticus(about 3 pounds!) Riva did not know how to play with someone smaller than her. In the big dog park she ran and romped with Jelly Roll, Maggie, and Bradbury. After retrieving the laundry we returned to the boat to begin the packing up, storing, and stowing process. We removed all of the Isenglass panels, removed flags, the grill, organized for packing in the morning.
In the morning we stripped the beds, laid out the isenglass in the bow, packed, emptied the fridge into the cooler, loaded the fuel bladder into the car, folded and wrapped the bimini tops to protect them from the weather, and stowed away all of the many things we would not need again till next year 😢
Happy Destiny all wrapped up to be tucked in for a long winters nap 😴
The wind continued to blow and the boat rocked through a good part of the night. We were all tired enough that it had little or no affect on us sleeping well.
Erik awoke at his usual pre dawn 4am and ventured out to the lighthouse pier to check out the wave action and await what ought to be a glorious sunrise.
Early morning waves coming in strong
Can’t have too many sunrise pictures! Pics don’t need captioned
The humidity had dropped and the temperatures were perfect. Renee and Erik sat up on the Flybridge drinking coffee, catching up on a few emails and planning the activities for the day.
The best part of waking up!
Since we had early dinner plans with friends in New Buffalo Michigan we made a big breakfast to tide our appetites for the day. Breakfast pan fried quesadilla deliciousness and bacon did the trick. After breakfast Renee and Erik walked 3/4 mile to a morning AA meeting which turned out to be a very good one. It was at a combination meeting hall/half way house and had good attendance by members with varied sobriety. It reminded Erik a lot of The House of Hope in Columbus; an old turn of the century home well maintained with an almost identical layout and basement meeting room. Hope was found here also!
TGCHHO
Derek was awaiting us when we got back to the marina and we left shortly thereafter to walk over the 1/4 mile or less to the Washington Park Zoo. It wasn’t huge or spectacular but very nice and well worth the $8 admission. Since the temps were cool the animals were out and very active.
Long history at this quaint zoo
You just have to!
Lots of peacocks and other birds
Derek loves his feathered friends…lol NOT!
We might need more milk for cereal in the morning
Striped donkey
The elusive cougar
4 story historic fire tower on top of a hill at the zoo
View from the top of the fire tower was amazing!
Video of fire tower view at zoo
Quit monkeying around
One of several bald eagles
After the zoo we walked back to the boat for quick showers and headed off in the car which had been delivered to the marina for us earlier in the day by generous AGLCA Harbor Hosts Tom and Collette to New Buffalo to meet Erik’s childhood friend Cindy and her husband Jeff for dinner. The rooftop dining and conversation was a fun way to round out the afternoon! Sorry we forgot to snap any pictures 😕
Back at the marina the day was finished off with a nice walk to the beach to witness the end of the days light….and of course some ice cream (duh!).
The early morning dark hours were spent enjoying cinnamon rolls cooked in the insta-pot air fryer and sipping coffee while looking at weather and lake condition apps to make the determination on whether to boat to St Joe today. The determination was made to stay put. The days lake/wave predictions were not terrible; 1-2 foot waves early with SW (ideal) gusty winds but direction changing to NW (not ideal) late in the day. A decent amount of rain was looking to move in by mid morning though. Making the decision to stay put today essentially was also making the decision to stay 2 more nights because although the weather is supposed to be nicer tomorrow (partly sunny and 73 😊) the lake/wave conditions tomorrow are calling for gusty winds out of the NW creating 4-6’ waves….that is NOT good for us or really anyone to have a comfortable travel day.
Todays wind/waves would have been manageable Tomorrow’s not so much! Notice predictions of 5-7 and 4-6 footers in the morning and early afternoon 😮
Not the most peaceful looking weather map either The combination spelled ‘no go’
The remainder of the morning was spent continuing to consume copious amounts of caffeine, taking a walk up into town, and investigating what all we could see and do in Michigan City. Since it’s a layover and likely somewhat rainy day we will also be making the blog a picture dump day…lol.
Looks like the town has a nice arts district for us to explore today and tomorrow
Nice Monument honoring fallen firefighters
And fallen police officers… Thank you for your service and sacrifice
Fellow loopers out of Key Largo Fla heading out of the marina toward Chicago aboard ‘Sea Sorolla’
Nice fountain in the park just above the marina
Riva would jump up on the wall of the marina coy pond and stalk the fish
Monument at the park/marina entrance honoring those who died in the civil war
More pretty flowers
Lighthouse museum Built in 1854
Given that the day was supposed to get progressively wetter we decided that we would go into the south part of town and take in a movie at the local AMC theatre. We debated between several movies and settled on Top Gun Maverick. An Uber would have been about $16 ea way. However, there is a sure way to get the true feel for any town; take a bus. We walked up the road a quarter mile to a bus stop at the towns library. On the ride to the theatre we were treated to listening to a woman from Chicago in town visiting family tell us all about everything we didn’t necessarily need to know, but now we do! The bus stop was only about 50 yards from the theatre. The movie was entertaining and we all thought well done. Meijer was also adjacent to the theatre so we stopped in to get a couple quick grocery items before riding back. Our arrival back was timed with a steady blowing rain that dampened us all on the walk back to the boat from the bus stop. Guacamole was prepared for a mid day snack while we queued up the original Top Gun on Netflix since Derek had never seen it and the rain and wind were persisting. This was the first time we had turned on a TV since boarding the boat for the trip.
The rains subsided around 6:30 enough for us to fire up the grill to cook dinner. Steak and potatoes (Jackfruit for Derek) satisfied our pallets. The rain had ended except for an occasional drizzle but the wind was blowing pretty strong and had shifted to coming out of the NW. This has the boats in the marina a rockin and a rollin. We added to and adjusted our lines a couple of times in order to keep the boat from banging against the dock. The waves could be heard crashing onto the break wall and rock pier; they were predicted to go up to 5-7 ft. We stayed cozy and safe in the salon of the boat and continued our movie watching day with Steven King’s ‘It’ , or at least Derek and Renee did whilst Erik fell asleep at around 8pm.
Even with the rain and nasty weather we enjoyed the day together. Hoping the rocking boat puts Derek to sleep rather than making him sea sick 🤒
May have to zoom in to see the boat name On the boat directly behind us Has to be an educator with the name “Perfect Attendance” You’d think that teachers just float around all summer!
