8/21/11 - 9/8/11 Saint Ignace is a nice tourist town just before you turn into Lake Michigan. We saw more fudge shops than one can count and the usual local art. We did enjoy a tour of a retired ice breaker ship that was used to clear a path for freighters. Maybe the center of tourist attention in Lake Michigan is Macinac Island (pronounced mac-in-aw (but why?)). The only ways to get there are by ferry or private boat. It has no cars so transportation is provided by several hundred horses or bicycles. After talking to friends that had gone there we decided to bypass it knowing we would miss overpriced meals and more fudge shops. In the summer time the prevailing winds on Lake Michigan are moderate and from the southwest then they shift into the northeast and get stronger and harder to predict. Over the next three weeks we found ourselves dodging into anchorages or marinas waiting for the weather to change so we made little progress. When we did move it was usually in marginal conditions and at least once we encountered 5 foot waves. We were not enjoying Lake Michigan. The highlight was when we got to Saint Joseph. We wanted to spend some time in Chicago when we eventually got there but it is expensive to park the boat near downtown. When we got to St. Joseph we expected to be trapped by high winds for several days so we decided to take the train into Chicago, an adventure in itself. We took the two hour ride in, got aboard a topless bus, jumped off at the Art Institute for a couple of hours, got back on and finished a very entertaining two hour tour of downtown Chicago. We then got back on the train and got back to the boat in time to feed the cats. A great day.
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