While we like Virginia Beach and have gone there a few times over the intervening time, we never spent more than 3 or 4 days there. This vacation lasted 10 days. We took a cruise on Lake Michigan and then spent a couple of days in Chicago. Today, I'll be talking about the cruise and Friday, the time in Chicago.
The cruise was on a small ship that holds a maximum of about 100 passengers but this time only held about 50. The crew was excellent. Not a complaint about any one of them. And, as luck would have it, the weather was excellent also. We had rain during the time we were awake for about 2 hours over the entire 10 day vacation. (Our friends said it rained practically the entire time back home.)
The cruise line was the American Canadian Carribean Line. They gave us everything we needed regarding the cruise. Since this was our first cruise, I don't know whether that's the norm or not. But we certainly don't have any complaints about how things were handled this time. We were even allowed to board the day before, (which we did), to avoid any last minute travel glitches.
We ate 8 at a table, and the first night, we found that 3 of the men were ex-Marines, one of them a retired lifer. The next night, another ex-Marine joined our table and the four couples stayed together more or less the entire trip. On the last day, we met the entire crew. While we hardly saw some of them, these young women were 3 of the 5 that rotated serving duties in the dining room.
We cruised the entire circumference of Lake Michigan, stopping at 5 towns in 6 days, counter- clockwise from Chicago.
The first stop was in Holland, MI. The town was nice, but the real attraction was the windmill. Because of their name, they have maintained a relationship with Holland, the country. Due to this relationship, Holland sent them an actual windmill. The windmill was set in a large area that included a few buildings selling souveniers and such. They also had clog dancers that came out and entertained us. I climbed up inside the windmill for a look at the works. Very interesting.
Next was Manistee, MI. We signed up for a tour and saw a lot more of this town. It was fortunate that we signed up for this because we wouldn't have found these places by ourselves. The first stop was this gorgeous church that's over 100 years old. We both said that if we had a church like that near us, we'd probably go more. The stained glass throughout was exceptional.
Then to a small theater that is also about 100 years old, and is still working. James Earl Jones was apparently born in or near Manistee, worked in this theater and still supports it. It was once almost demolished, but has been renovated and is beautiful. We spent over 1/2 hour in each of these two places and both had someone there to tell us about their history. The rest of the tour looked at some of the old houses and after lunch, we walked the town nearer the ship.
Mackinac Island, MI was the third stop of the trip. It's main claim to fame involves autos. Mainly because there aren't any. When automobiles first started coming to the island, they frightened the horses. So the powers that be, back then, outlawed autos. There are still none on the island, except for the police, fire and ambulance corps. And they don't use the sirens because they frighten the horses.
I heard a rumor that during the winter, there are only 50 full time residents. Nevertheless, in the summer, it's a full blown tourist haven. We took a tour on a horse drawn buggy, naturally, and it took us out of the tourist areas to see a little more of the island. Near the end of the tour, we got out of the buggy to look at a large old fort, then we walked into town. In town, there were a few blocks of stores, including 6 or more fudge shops. All in all, a very interesting place.
The next stop was Sturgeon Bay, WI. We took a tour here too. One of the stops was a winery where we bought 2 bottles of a dry red wine that we shared with the table at dinner that night. Across from this was a cherry farm with 3 different kinds of cherries. We took some back to the boat. This was our rainy day, and I got pretty wet looking at a lighthouse, so we didn't do much in the afternoon. We were getting pretty tired by then, too. There was a lot more to see there, but unfortunately, we didn't.
The last stop was in Milwaukee, WI. This is a beautiful city and we took an excellent tour of a lot of it. There are many old houses there and we saw many of them. The tour bus also had two 45 minute drop-offs. One was at an old house, and the other was at a farmer's market. We opted for the latter but were somewhat disappointed. It only took a half hour or less to go through the entire thing, and that was stopping to shop. If I went by myself, without my wife, it would have taken 5 minutes. I'm not much of a shopper.
We bought a few things, but spent about 15 minutes outside waiting for the bus to return. I guess we're just used to Philadelphia. In the afternoon, we spent some time near the boat in a science museum. It was interesting, but filled with kids so it was hard to get a good look at some things. (Am I getting old, or what?) You can't really get a feel for a city the size of Milwaukee on one day, but what we saw, we definitely liked.
Overall, we took about 450 pictures. the few we included here are just a smattering. In Friday's blog, I'll tell you where there are more.
A few other comments. The boat did not have a paid bar. We understand you can spend a lot of money there on larger ships. Two nights, the cruise provided free drinks during the happy hour before dinner. The other nights, you were able to bring your own and cool it off in the fridge in the lounge. They provided glasses and mixers. They also had nuts and other snacks available.
The top deck was open and set up with tables and chairs. The pilot cabin was also here. You could stand outside and watch the captain steer the ship. We were up there after dinner watching the sun set most nights. The cabins were on the small side. It didn't bother me much, because we didn't spend much time there. But the bathroom, especially, could have been larger.
There's a lot more I could tell you, I guess, and I'm sure that as soon as I send this, I'll think of something I wanted to say. We disembarked early the next morning and went to our hotel. We stored our bags until we could get into our room and set off to explore Chicago. I'll tell you about that next time.
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Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot - others as a cow ready to be milked. But few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon. - Winston Churchill
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