Visit From Heather and Jennifer

Heather and Jennifer are with us and we’re having fun now.  The weather has been great and so we are out every day.

Sunday we took the boat out and went for a little trip south to explore Arcadia Lake, a harbor of refuge port about 10 miles south of Frankfort.  It is a little, shallow lake with many cottages and not much commercial development, but a fun place to travel to.  Attached is a picture of Heather and Jennifer on the boat. 

Monday was jet ski day!!!  We launched the jet skis into Lake Michigan and buzzed north to Point Betsie Lighthouse, a 6-7 mile trip.  Great day even though we learned, AFTER we got there, that the lighthouse is only open Friday thru Sunday!  Attached are a number of photos from that trip.  What you can’t see is how hard it was to re-launch the jet skis from the beach.  More waves were coming onto shore than we realized, so getting the heavy jet skis back into the water was not do-able until some guy put his muscles into the task also…without him we’d still be there.  Always an adventure!

Tuesday all four of us went to play golf.  Heather and I were “cart executives” (read cart drivers), and Emery and Jennifer had a good round of golf.  Jennifer loved my driver, so I am going to have to screen her luggage before she leaves!

Wednesday was a shopping and beach day except for Emery who was trying to fix the boat.  We developed an electrical problem overnight and the boat doesn’t run.   Seeing we want to go to Leland on Thursday,  Emery is working to get the boat back in shape.  I am sure BOAT (bring out another thousand) is going to come into play!!

Today, we drove Jennifer to Leland so that she could join her friends for the week-end.  Your guess is correct--we did not get the boat fixed in time to take her by boat.  More on the boat problem later.  Heather will be with us until Sunday morning. 

So our fun summer continues to roll along.  We are enjoying…hope you are too.

The Amway Big Boats

In the last blog I mentioned the big boats that had pulled in to Jacobson’s Marina.  Well, it turns out all those boats belong to the DeVos family whose fortune comes from Amway Products.  And we saw all the boats again.  We believe they have a total of  6 of these very large boats capable of moving along at about 35 knots. 

Our friends Greg and Sally, our friends from the vessel Odyssey came to visit.  We met Odyssey in the Trent Severn Waterway in Year 1, and have kept in touch ever since.  Greg and Sally drove over from Aus Gres, MI to spend the day with us.  We decided to take the boat up to Leland for lunch.  For us, Leland is about 1.5 hours north of Frankfort by boat.   Getting out of Frankfort we had to jockey around the big boats to get out, and learned they were moving….to Leland.

Off we went, soon to be passed by the big boats.  Being passed is a new phenomenon for us as The Emerys is a FAST boat.   Anyway, they were in the harbor at Leland when we pulled in, and attached are some pictures.  Leland is a small harbor, so Russell the harbormaster rafted off the boats (parked two boats at the dock and then parked the other two off those).  Hard to travel in a group of boats that large.

Anyway, we had a good visit with Greg and Sally and are now on our way to pick up Heather and Jennifer.  They will spend a few days with us, and Heather in particular is looking forward to cool Michigan weather (after a summer in 100 degree Williamsburg).  Since we are late in posting this blog, we will very soon post a blog about Heather’s and Jennifer’s visit with us in Frankfort. 

Hope all is well with you and yours.  Cheers.

Baseball and Jet Skis

Last night we went to a Traverse City Beach Bums baseball game.  The Bums play in the Frontier League, an independent league which is heavily scouted by big league teams.

Attached are pictures from the night.  It did rain off and on, but that didn’t dampen the fun environment.  Lots of kids, and contests for them between innings….all in all a great summer experience.  Very colorful!

Today was another great day here, and no wind.  So we took the jet skis into Lake Michigan.   There is a nice boat launch here in Frankfort just down Betsie Lake from Jacobson’s Marina.  It was fun; we went mainly south along the shoreline and there are endless, huge sand dunes.  Quite a sight!  We came back into the Marina and parked off the swim platform of The Emerys and relaxed for a while.  While we were there, 2 hundred-foot boats came in along with a couple “little 50 footers.  One doesn’t usually see such big boats, so it was fun to watch them jockey around.  John the Harbormaster did a good job preparing for them earlier today, so it went smoothly.

All in all, a good couple of summer days in Michigan.

More Golf, Jet Skis, & Food

We’ve had a great visit with friends Susan and Mark from Williamsburg.  They were in Michigan to celebrate the 100^th birthday of Susan’s grandmother and drove over from Detroit to spend a few days with us.

Wednesday evening we strolled the town, had cocktails on the boat, dinner on the deck at Coho’s restaurant and then dodged the raindrops as we walked home.  We had a terrific soaking rain all night, something Williamsburg hasn’t had for a long time, so Susan and Mark enjoyed that.

Thursday we took the jet skis out for the afternoon and had a blast.  Attached is a picture of Emery and guests on the front porch fixing one of the jet ski covers before we took off (it had gotten torn earlier on the gate of the parking lot where we are storing them).  We had a great dinner of steak and shrimp on the back porch after coming home and before walking to the beach for a beautiful sunset…fun day.

Friday we had planned to take the boat up to Leland for the day, but big wind canceled those plans and we decided to golf instead.  We found the delightful, hilly Champions course outside of town and had a great afternoon round.  Attached are a few pictures from the afternoon.

We ended the day going to Arcadia Bluffs for dinner.  It is a fabulous golf course set high above Lake Michigan, with wonderful views and Scottish style undulations and sod-walled bunkers.  We sat outside with a view of the finishing holes and the lake with a bagpiper playing in the distance.  The bagpiper plays on Friday and Saturday standing on a cliff over the last holes just before sunset.  It is wonderful entertainment and a fine finish to Mark and Susan’s visit.  They left this morning, and Emery and I have spent the day enjoying the British Open (E) and the beach (M).  Saturday is busy in summer Frankfort, so people watching is as much fun as anything.

Happy summer to all.

Michigan Weekend

We just had a terrific Michigan weekend.

Houseguests Roger and Jean left Friday morning after a wonderful visit.  Friday afternoon Emery and I trekked 30 miles to Bear Lake to see family friends from Midland.  Sue and Phil have a house on the lake, and all their children and grandchildren were visiting.  As all were friends of Steve and Kate, it was a great visit.  Bear Lake is small-ish and shallow, thus warm and welcoming for little kids and pontoon boats and general family fun.  On the way home we stopped at Arcadia Bluffs golf course on the hills above Lake Michigan.  It is gorgeous, so now we will plan to play it with future guests.

Saturday was the art fair in Beulah, then a trip over to Crystal Mountain, a ski resort in winter and golf mecca in summer.  We rode the Alpine Slide….a fun way to keep the chair lift going up in summertime and a great bobsled course like ride coming down.  Lots of fun!!!  Attached are some pictures from this fun Saturday.

Traverse City called on Sunday as we needed to get a few things to make our rental house more “user friendly”.  So off to Target we went , then visited with our friends Ron and Kay at their gorgeous home on Grand Traverse Bay.  What a location they have.  After a great late lunch/early dinner at Bowers Harbor Inn on Mission Peninsula we headed home.

All in all we had a terrific weekend and we look forward to many more.

First House Guests

We’ve had our first guests in the Frankfort rental house and all went well.

Roger and Jean came to visit on Wednesday and we had a nice couple of days with them.  We rode the jet skis; ate lobster for dinner on the boat; walked the beach and watched the sunsets; played golf; shopped and in general had a great time.  Attached are pictures that Jean took and shared with us (as we  seemed to forget we even owned a camera!).

Jean knows antiques and Victoriana, and declared this house to be a real treasure.  Roger is up early, so he went and got the morning papers…..no better house guests than these two.   Come one, come all this is a great place.

202 Forest Avenue

Here is the house at 202 Forest Avenue in Frankfort.  The location is wonderful, just a block from the big Lake Michigan beach, 2 blocks from downtown with restaurants, shops and ice cream, and 4 blocks from the boat at the Marina.  There are always people walking by on their way to and from somewhere, or just strolling Forest Avenue with its huge maple trees.

Attached are pictures of the four porches (front, back and two screened side porches); the guest bedroom and the master bedroom (both made up with quilts from Mrs. Conyers) and the kitchen, main bath and dining room.  The house is old and quirky; and is filled with beautiful antiques and memorabilia.   A bit challenging to get comfortable with, but we are working our way into settling in. 

Tomorrow Roger and Jean (Michigan friends) come to stay for a few days, then next week Mark and wicked Susan (from Williamsburg) will be our guests.  We plan to jet ski and play golf and do some beaching with everyone.   It is hot at the moment with occasional rain showers, but not enough to interfere with any plans.  Cheers.

Frankfort--The Fourth of July

Today is Sunday, the Fourth of July and we are in our house in Frankfort, in the middle of all of the beach, parade and firework action.

Thursday we left beautiful Charlevoix to come the 70 miles south to Frankfort.  It was a gorgeous ride because the Lake was “flat”…which means Emery can crank up the boat and run it at 26 miles per hour with no bouncing around….he loves it!!

Friday we met with Lary, the owner of the house and he showed us around and how everything works.  I plan to write a whole blog about the house tomorrow, so stay tuned for pictures and stories.  The best thing is this house has four porches, and they are wonderful!!!

Yesterday Frankfort had its Fourth of July parade right down our street.    We had invited some folks from Jacobson’s Marina to join us on the front porch, so we had front row center seats for viewing.  There were fire trucks and horses and police cars and veterans and antique cars and even a float or two in the 40 minute spectacle.  Attached are pictures from the event, which was heavily attended by surprisingly large numbers of people.

Tonight is the fireworks display which is shot off from the north breakwater wall.  We plan to watch, using special 3-D glasses, from the boat.  Jacobson’s Marina is having a big barbeque event today so it will be festive.  Happy Fourth of July, God Bless America!!!