Day 318-320- 8/17-19/24

Starting location: Moored in De Tour Village Marina, De Tour Village, Michigan Upper Peninsula.

Weather: 60s. Foggy, then sun, then overcast, then rain, then sun again.

Ending location: Moored in Petoskey City Marina, Petoskey, MI.

Statute miles: Approximately 85

General summary: We had heard the towns on the West Coast of Michigan were lovely, and didn’t want to miss anything interesting in a race to get home, so decided to check some out. Petoskey was our first planned stop. To get there we needed to head West between the Upper Peninsula and top of Michigan mainland through the Straits of Mackinac, past some lighthouses, and under the architecturally famous (and huge) Mackinac Bridge. This water can get rough when wind and current are in opposition, but those conditions were reasonable on our day. We just encountered a fair amount of fog, so took it a bit slow at first, but it cleared by early afternoon.

The coastline of Western Michigan is hilly with long stretches of sandy beaches and large private homes. I’m told the East side of Wisconsin (and West side of Lake Michigan) is flatter and rocky.

We planned a 2 day stay at the municipal marina in Petoskey but extended a night due to strong winds. There was a nice walk from the marina to downtown, which had upscale tourist shops – nice souvenirs, cheese shops, wine bars, etc. We found a great food truck court with covered seating that allowed dogs and ended up having dinner there on two nights. Fun to hang with locals in a relaxed outdoor setting. Great draft beer, fish and chips, tacos, Mediterranean food, and ice cream for dessert.

Nice trail system from downtown so we got to stretch our legs a bit on two days.

There was a historical museum near the marina that I checked out. It described the foundation of the town. I had thought the name was Eastern European in origin, but it is an Americanized version of Beedaasigo, the last name of the son of a French fur trader and his Odawan wife, who founded the town.

There was an exhibit about Earnest Hemmingway, who spent his youth locally. (Interesting how he connects our travel to Northern Michigan with our previous trip to the Florida Keys where he spent his golden years).

Finally, there was information about local artifacts. Petoskey stones are found on local beaches and are petrified coral. This is evidence that this land was once, geologically, under a tropical ocean.