Happy Destiny: 6/14/23 - Leland day 2

Many wildflowers from our hike at Clay Cliffs

Overnight a thick fog settled in over Leland Harbor and what appeared to be the majority of this area of Lake Michigan. Fortunately we had not planned to move from our slip but rather to stay put to enjoy another day exploring the area. Sitting around lazily drinking coffee and working on our travel blog was in order. When we pulled into marina yesterday we were placed in a slip next to a 38 ft Chris Craft out of Saugatuck named “Lord Willing”. As we glanced over we saw what appeared to be a couple with a large contingent of children aboard and around the marina. This morning while out walking around the marina we met Nate and Heidi and struck up a lively conversation. They had lots of questions about our travels on The Loop and had been considering doing it in segments with their clan as well. We came to find out that they have 7 children ages five to nineteen ALL aboard the boat with them…..We speculate that the Lord WAS willing! Hard to imagine traveling with that many folks aboard on a boat that size but they appear to all be in good spirits and enjoying it. We had them aboard our boat briefly because they were interested in the layout. We too were interested in seeing their boat layout and how it could possibly sleep that clan! We went aboard and saw that they make it work quite well actually; their layout is significantly different than ours and obviously more of a family cruiser. Each of the forward and aft staterooms have two full beds where ours only has one in each location. The salon/galley area is on one level and does not have a dinette which leaves more open space where they have set it up with two large couches. Quite impressive that they all still like each other….we think anyhow. Very nice family and we sat and chatted for quite some time. They homeschool all the children. The youngest, Daniel, was enamored by Riva and of course she never minds the attention. The dad, Nate, and four of the children were all heading out to play a round of golf which we thought was also really neat to see. Glad we met them.

Nate and Heidi’s boat

And their tribe
1 of 7 kids is hiding behind another in this picture

After the restful early morning we decided to do a triathlon (at least in our minds). We set out on bicycles and rode 2.8 miles (mostly flat according to Maps, but the map makers idea of flat was different than our burning legs) to Clay Cliffs Natural Area trails. Once there we did a 1.6 mile loop hike that also had quite a bit of up and down inclines offering what would have been a spectacular view of Lake Michigan from 200’ high cliffs; The fog below had other ideas about the view. Another part of the loop did though offer up nice views of Lake Leelanau as well as some interesting forest and vegetation. In this area of Michigan there seems to be a wide variety of different trees that make up the wooded areas that we have seen. Much of the area we walked through had an abundance of birch trees that gave a neat level of contrast.

An invigorating hike

On our return to the bikes at the trailhead we headed off to go to a small dog friendly beach we had seen and wanted to take Riva to. The beach was on Lake Leelanau rather than Michigan but still had crystal clear waters only with a warmer temperature (about 70 degrees). Riva again made the most of her time there as we played fetch with her as she swam after a stick. We only waded in up to mid calf depth. We did however feel that constituted a swim and also the last leg of our triathlon 😝.

Riva loves sticks and water!

We needed a rest after the afternoons activities so we relaxed on the boat having a light lunch of crackers with the delicious salmon pate and some garlic cheddar cheese we had picked up at the Cheese Shanty. The light lunch was in order even though we had split a huge breakfast plate of corned beef hash earlier in the morning at the Leelanau Coffee Roasting Company. The weather surprised us because for our bike ride and hike outside of town and slightly off the lake the sun had shown up finally and burnt off any fog the morning had produced. However, the fog down by the lake never really lifted but rather actually periodically thickened to pea soup.

3pm and Leland Harbor is still fogged in

A short walk up into town produced a couple small bags of candy (cappuccino jelly beans and salt water taffy) from “Dam Candy Shop” as well as an obligatory ice cream cone from one of several local shops. Some further relaxation aboard seemed appropriate until it was time for a 6:30pm dinner at “The Cove” which turned out to be somewhat lackluster but adequate.