A non-travel Monday

Michigan Day 4

After enjoying our wonderful view for an hour, we drove to north Marshall to Free Range Pancake House for breakfast.  Mary had the Fresh Start crepe – eggs, ham, hash browns, cheese crepe with hollandaise; I had the ham and veggie omelette.  The food was really tasty.

Arriving back at the cabin, the lake(s) look so inviting that we thought we’d go for a paddle. There was very little wind and with temperatures in the mid-70s, it was a perfect time.

We launched the boats onto Stuart Lake and started following the shore line. We stayed a little away from the shore mainly because the water was about three feet deep. In fact, I don’t think the whole lake wasn’t much deeper than 6-8′.

Pretty soon we came to a narrows area that led to Upper Brace Lake. This lake seemed a little deeper and had a less accessible shoreline. Still the water was very clear, we could see down at least six foot.

All in all, it took a little over an hour to paddle around both lakes.

We sat out on the deck and had left-over pizza for lunch and discussed our plans for the afternoon and evening supper.

Mary suggested we make our own supper so we planned on a visit to the grocery store to get chicken, sauce, lettuce and dressing for Chicken Alfredo with Caesar Salad.

Pickleball was on the schedule as well. We headed into town to the courts at Marshall High School. The courts were a little disappointing. There were just a few converted from tennis and the lines were hard to see along with rough surfaces. Not the kind of courts we’re used to.

We played for about 30 minutes, then thought it was time for afternoon coffee. We found Serendipity & The Brew in downtown Marshall.

After shopping and on our way out of town, we just had to stop at True North Ice Cream Shop for a quart of Chocolate Decadence (chocolate ice cream, plus chocolate chunks plus brownie bits).

I grilled the chicken while Mary prepared the rest of meal. We have no photographic evidence, you’ll just have to take our word for it–the meal along with the dessert was wonderful.

Oh about the Lake Michigan Ferry. It was confirmed that the ferry did not allow any vehicle taller than 8′ to board. They even specified bikes on top of vans were too tall. Well, our van with two kayaks on the roof certainly exceeded 8 feet. We would not be able to take the ferry across the lake.

How can you have a public ferry that can’t fit anything taller than eight feet? No campers, no RV’s? And no Dodge Caravans with cedar kayaks? But I digress.

We started looking for options and found the Ludington MI ferry, the SS Badger. It allowed all sizes of vehicles. We would have to drive an hour further north to Ludington MI then cross Lake Michigan to Manitowoc WI then an hour south to Milwaukee.  Not the perfect choice but certainly the correct one.

We were able to purchase SS Badger tickets, cancel the Muskegon hotel and reserve a Ludington hotel. Crisis averted. Plus it cost less for passage!