Elk Rapids 6-26-11

We traveled 24 miles from Traverse City to Elk Rapids on 6/20 and stepped back to small town Americana at its best. In our 7 days here, we’ve had 5 days of rain and NOAA which usually forecasts weather in technical terms ran out of descriptions and simply noted “the ugliness continues.” However, Elk Rapids is a great port to be waylaid. The marina is the best of our Loop of 7,500 miles as evidenced by its friendly and very attentive staff, sparkling restrooms complete with fresh flowers, comfortable boaters’ lounge and all this for $1.18 per foot including great Wi-Fi and cable. There is yoga every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday morning at 7am in the Pavilion and Acoustic Sunset performances every Sunday night.

You can reprovision at the Village Market, and while you’re up there, have lunch at Pearl’s New Orleans Kitchen. You’ll think you’re back in bayou country with spicy Jambalaya and Gumbo, accented with Mardi Gras décor and a Blues downbeat. Siren Hall Restaurant also has a tasty and creative menu. You are bound to need something at Gil-Roys Got It Hardware store. Elk Rapids has cute shops and even has a movie theatre and we enjoyed seeing Water for Elephants on a rainy afternoon. There are great walking trails along Traverse Bay and the beaches here are dog-friendly. Mollie enjoyed racing, swimming and doing what terriers do best—digging.

We take sunny blue sky days for granted in Denver; here when the sun comes out for the weekend, everyone rejoices. We had a perfect alignment of weather, place and people. We attended the Art Rapids Art Show, the Town Hall Ice Cream Social and the Elk Rapids Yacht Club pot-luck dinner. We met so many boaters and felt so welcome here that we joined the yacht club ($20) as we will be here annually every June and September.

On 6/27, we headed back to Northport at the tip of Grand Traverse Bay. Our car is here so we can reprovision easily after we come back from my nephew Kyle’s wedding in Seattle. We love the Pacific Northwest and it will be a chance to sample another seaside area and see our family again. Mollie will be vacationing at Sun Dog Kennel which has couches and lots of TLC from Tracy.

Northern Lake Michigan Traverse City 6-19-11

It is good to be back on the water again!!!!! After a week’s worth of inside boat projects at Northport Bay Boat Yard (we recommend them highly) and some reprovisioning and more projects at Northport, we headed off on 6/14 to explore Grand Traverse Bay. This 35 mile long bay is grand indeed with its clear Caribbean blue water surrounded by rolling hillsides filled with cherry trees and vineyards. This is cottage country where Michigan comes to play and visit the quaint port towns of Northport, Sutton’s Bay, Omena and Elk Rapids. There are plenty of anchorages but since our dink is with the Dinghy Doc trying to find that pesky hole, we will port hop for awhile.

Traverse City commands a position as the “cherry” on top of the bay which is only fitting as it annually hosts the National Cherry Festival in July. From its Clinch Park shoreline complete with beaches, pavilions, a steam engine train ride and tall ships to the walks and bike trails alone the Boardman River, Traverse City is a great place to explore. This is a small city with a lot of vitality with loads of visitors to its shops (check out the bargain book section at Horizon) and restaurants. There are plenty of dog-friendly ones and Mollie liked searching for some tasty morsels.

The locals are very friendly and rightly proud of their town and many give credit to Michael Moore, the filmmaker, even if they don’t agree with his politics. He refurbished the State Theatre for his Traverse City Film Festival and now it is open daily and run by a non-profit and volunteers. In our six days here, we saw Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (his best since Annie Hall and who knew Owen Wilson could act), the l960 classic Fall of the House of Usher ( no one does eyebrows better than Vincent Price) for only 25 cents and an encore performance of the Met Opera HD broadcast of Madam Butterfly.

The Balloon Festival filled the sky with color and created a party atmosphere in the park. We met so many great people and even reconnected with Loopers, Pat and Ted from South Shore and Jim and Lisa from Kismet. Lots of dogs here too and here’s Mollie with a basket full of Border Terriers, Elvis and Priscilla. We even attended the Grand Traverse Kennel Club and watched dogs show their stuff on the Canine Good Citizen test—do we have a lot of work to do!