New Charlevoix Marina

September 3-4, 2008

Hello. My name is Bernie and I am a Woolly Bugger addi - I mean, "fan" -- especially their Lake Effect. But Phil exaggerated in that last post. I did give the guy the stern line before I ran to the coffee shop.

Last year when we were in Charlevoix, the marina and park were under major construction. So we were curious how it had turned out.

It turned out beautifully. We think they did a great job on the marina building and the park around it. The marina building plays homage to some of the distinctive Earl Young "mushroom houses" that are scattered throughout Charlevoix. The harbormaster said that it was designed by Peter Pollock and mentioned that it took 27 masons to do the marina house and that they needed a little retraining to get them to make the curvy design. They were having trouble with the concept of someone actually wanting the edges not to be straight.

The park is also beautiful. You'd never know that about a year ago it was all torn up. It does make us wonder what progress has been made on the DuSable Marina building and bike path in Chicago in our absence.

They've also put in a shooting water fountain that, at night, puts on a colorful water display. It doesn't speak in first person like the one in Grand Haven. The boater's lounge is quite nice and comfortable, too. It has wi-fi for boaters, a television, nice laundry facilities ($1/wash; $1/dry) and a telescope for night time stargazing -- or just scoping out the boats in Lake Charlevoix.

Really a great job and a great marina staff.


It was easy for the harbormaster to direct us to our slip. This large boat, a 172 foot mega yacht names the Battered Bull, was parked at the end of the dock that we were to pull into. We heard a rumor that it was Kevin Costner's - batter, Bull Durham, makes sense - and that he, too, had stopped in Charlevoix to get a Lake Effect at the Woolly Bugger. (OK, so we just heard it was Kevin Costner's. We also heard speculation that it was Scotty Pippen's - now there's a battered (former) Bull - or maybe just someone who's been beaten down in the stock market - hey, does that make it ours?)

Phil feels the need to point out that it is now September. He knows this because it is very windy. All the time. As evidenced by these views of Lake Michigan from the Charlevoix breakwater. Bernie calls it a little breezy. There's plenty of summer left!



The next morning we went to the Charlevoix Farmer's Market. It is great to be back in the land of farmer's markets. Especially when one of the vendor's, Friske's Orchards, still has some late season raspberries, cherries, blueberries, peaches and cherry cobblers.


Now, our next stop may surprise some people who are familiar with this area. We're heading for Petoskey. Yes, we know that is north. Yes, we know we're supposed to be going back to Chicago. But we really like Petoskey and we missed it on the way up and skipped it on the way down. It didn't feel right to skip it. So we're going to go there next. And, what a coincidence, we'll be there in time for their Farmer's Market.