The drive from Grand Haven up the Lake Michigan Coast to Manistee was only 100 miles, but it was a white knuckler all the way. We fought 30 to 40 an mile and hour wind gusts the whole way. We made it OK but one of our neighbors in the RV park had his mirror taken off by a semi who was blown into him while passing.  Manistee is another quaint coastal town that sits on the banks of the Manistee River which flows into Lake Michigan. One of the landmarks in the area is the SS City of Milwaukee an old ferry that used to ply the waters of Lake Michigan but is now used as a hotel in the summer.

We parked the RV for our stay at the Little River Casino, a First Nation Resort owned by the Ottawa ​ Nation. All the signs on the property have native translations on them. I tried my luck with the slots and got up early but of course got greedy and ended up in the hole.    

One evening we drove to the small town of Onekama for a concert in the park. It was a nice setting with a very lively trio providing the music. I tried a local favorite from the sweet shop, cherry pie blended into soft serve ice cream, very tasty. The next evening, we had dinner at North Channel Brewing. Never would have thought that onion rings would taste good with drizzled honey on them but they were great, as was the Oatmeal Stout we had with them. 

The best golf course that the public can play in Michigan is located just north of Manistee in Arcadia, Michigan. Arcadia Bluffs and its sister course, The South Course are complete opposites. The Bluffs sits up on the high sand dune shore of the lake. It is very scenic and has a lot of elevation change with huge bunkers. The South Course, was very flat with long bunkers strategically placed in the fairways. The greens were huge and very rolling, and many of them were square shaped.  

The day after I played the Bluffs, I took Josie to dinner in the beautiful clubhouse and of course she had the shrimp. We both enjoyed our meal and the great view of the Lake. 

We make the short trip up to Traverse City tomorrow. 

We have spent the past week in Grand Haven, Michigan. For the first few days of our visit our longtime friends Hutch and Lynn from Virginia Beach joined us. They were on their way east after a long trip out west and when they found out we were going to be in Grand Haven they changed plans and met up with us here on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hutch and I played a round of golf each day, and in the evening, we met in town for drinks and dinner. The final night of their visit we enjoyed a band that played on the waterfront of the Grand River. It was great visiting with them.  

There is a nice riverfront walkway from downtown Grand Haven out to the lighthouse at the entrance to the Grand River from Lake Michigan. After walking out and back we stopped at a quirky little place called Pronto Pup where there was always a long line. The reason being they sell fantastic corn dogs, and that's all they sell.  They were delicious because they were so lightly breaded. 

We spent one day driving to Marshall, Michigan to the new location of Roak Brewery where we picked up two cases of their French Toast Stout, that Josie absolutely loves. From there we drove to Holland, Michigan and had dinner at New Holland Brewery that makes a Bourbon Barrel Stout that our friend Robert turned me on to last year in Florida. The stout was a great pairing with our Greek Pizza. Along the way we stopped at a few antique and collectable stores to look for Josie's pottery, but had no luck finding anything she does not already have.  

The city of Grand Haven has been putting on a light, water and music show for the past 50 years. We went to the river front one evening and enjoyed the show and while at the show someone from the Bowling Green Kentucky Jeep Owners Club, ducked our Jeep. This is a Jeep owners thing that if you like someone's Jeep you leave a small duck on it. This was our first duck with the new Jeep so now we are going to order a few ducks and start passing on the tradition. 

Tomorrow we drive farther north to Manistee. 

The past three weeks we have been visiting with Josie's son Michael and her Granddaughters Abby and Anne, on Lake Orion, Michigan. We had a great time hanging out at the lake, watching the kids enjoy the lake and eating out on the patio. 

We forgot to get a picture of our lunch with our great friend Gloria, but we sure did have a fun time catching up with her and her travels. 

I was able to play golf with Glenn, Mikes next door neighbor, a couple of times and with Russ, an RV friend once during our visit. 

On Saturday, June 12th we sailed Michael's 46-foot Mathews Cruiser to the Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle. Besides Michael, the crew included two of Michaels fellow workers and their wives, Glenn and myself. Josie does not like being out on the big water so she stayed at the lake.  We anchored off the southwest side of the island and watched the race from there. We could just see the tops of the cars and were amazed at how fast and loud they were. A good time was had by all, even though there was a break of over and hour and a half to repair the wall where one car had hit it. 

We are now on the west side of Michigan at Grand Haven.