8/23/18 Thursday: We knew that the wind was forecasted to pick up in the afternoon, so if we were going to make a break for it, we had to get up and go! Tomorrow (Friday) is forecasted to be ‘small craft advisory’ AGAIN. The wake up alarm was set for 6:15! 😳 We were out of the marina before sunrise – woah- we haven’t done that for awhile! This shows the SS Badger smoking away. It makes two runs across Lake Michigan each day. It just came in at 6:30am – I’m glad we weren’t leaving 15 minutes earlier!
As we headed out to the breakwater, there were thousands of fishermen. Well, not really that many, but there were a lot of them! Apparently the salmon in the lake do come up the rivers, and this inlet is actually the mouth of the Pere Marquette River. We were already starting to feel the swells from the lake. Oh dear… I sure was praying that it wasn’t rough out there!
It was a clear-sky day, and a rocky rolly swelly day on the water. Why does this lake think it is an ocean?! There weren’t any white caps, and the wind wasn’t bad, but the waves and swells were coming from different directions. That made for a wobbly ride, and there were lots of drawers and cupboards opening and closing, with a few things on the floor that I forgot to secure. Our total journey was about 60 miles. We started out going south-southwest. I think the waves were coming from the west, and the swells from the north. Finally after about 25 miles we got around Little Point Sable and were headed more south-southeast, and then all the action seemed to be coming from the west and was a little less jostley. It got chilly, so I made my way downstairs to try to warm up. Here’s a little snippet video of the water – hopefully it works. (Beware if you get seasick.). It doesn’t look terrible, and it really wasn’t, but it was rolly. By this time it was just the three foot or so waves instead of the confusion that knocked us around earlier.
http://lattitudetravel.com/travelblog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/B0AA1B14-C268-4A8A-8C42-99C74E6604C3.mov
When we were about 20 miles from Muskegon, Kenny cranked Island Girl up from our normal 10mph, to 20mph. WOW! What a difference! She rode really nice at that speed, and the water didn’t seem nearly so gnarly. Soon we pulled into the Muskegon breakwater. Once again, a familiar setup with the double breakwater, jetties and light houses.
We tootled our way about 4 miles into Muskegon Lake to the municipal marina. Muskegon looks much more industrial than any of the other towns that we’ve been in. Unfortunately, much of that industry is now obsolete, and many of the buildings and sites are abandoned.
Along the way, we saw this USS Silversides Submarine museum. Who knew there were submarines in the Great Lakes?!
Once settled in the marina, we walked the bike path walkway into town. Several people had told us there wasn’t much to Muskegon, and truthfully, it wasn’t even on my initial itinerary of places to stop. But with the windy weather, this seemed like a good place to come today. AND – this is where our friends Tom & Julie on Sum Escape are from. In fact, they are here for a couple of weeks celebrating anniversaries and birthdays with their family, so we are really hoping to connect with them. It’s nearly a mile into town, and then walking around town itself, we put a couple three miles on the shoe treads. This is the old train depot, built in 1895, which is currently used as the visitors center. It is really a nice looking building with a lot of character.
We saw this AMAZON building and wondered what it really was…. like Amazon.com? Nope – it is apartments. It is a cool old building too! The building was constructed in 1899, originally for Amazon Hosiery Mill, then Amazon Knitting Mill. So these ‘industrial’ apartments have 15 foot high ceilings! The building is as wide as is long – a big square.
That bright green thing in the foreground is “art”. Apparently, Muskegon’s art selection for around town is decorated kayaks. This one is sad… a mermaid with a life jacket on?
We found brewery number one: Pigeon Hill. We stopped in for a beer and a cider. We got there just before 6:00, and there were plenty of tables. By the time we finished one drink, the place was packed! This is just the bar – there was a whole big room full of tables, and even outside seating, and it was all full.
Next stop was brewery number two: Unruly Brewing Co. This place was enormous inside, with a coffee shop, a stage, a pizza shop, a bar, and lots of tables and a dance floor. They had a big seating area outside as well. The place was packed with people picking up t-shirts and having a beer. We finally figured out the t-shirts. There is a beer festival on the beach this weekend. Some of the shirts said ‘volunteer’, some said ‘security’. They must all be helping out at the festival. We thought about going because there will be lots of live bands and something crazy like 70 breweries. But it’s $50/ticket, plus $20/designated driver (me). We might not go. There is also a jazz festival in town this weekend which would be great – with national names like David Benoit and Marc Antoine, which I would LOVE! But they will be here Sunday evening, and we need to leave Sunday morning. Boo!
After a couple more beers, we wandered around town a bit. This was a cool statue in the middle of town. I don’t know what it is, but it was big and impressive.
This was a cute area down by where the Farmer’s Market is held three times a week. I’m going to check that out on Saturday morning, for sure!
We saw this mural painted on the side of a building. Apparently, Muskegon has been a place where springs – like real metal spiral springs – of all sorts have been manufactured over the decades.
There was another big cool all white statue.
And then we decided we should have had something to eat at the brewery. So we set out to find a little bit of food. And we found THIS! Rad Dads’ Tacos & Tequila Bar. It was in the front of a pretty big building, with seating outside. We went in to check it out -after all, how bad could it be? And tacos on Thursday is perfectly appropriate!
Low and behold, it is in a hockey rink! This is just the taco section, which is right in the square corner of the big room with the oval rink and stadium seating. The zamboni was even cruising around the rink! So we ordered a couple of tacos. They were like fresh gourmet tacos! Kenny had deep fried pork belly with I don’t know what else on it. He said it was AMAZAING! I had a kahlua pork and coleslaw one, without the pineapple pico (since my belly has a strong aversion to raw onions), and it was great! They were really super fresh. The place must have just opened, because we saw some locals come in (that we saw at the brewery) and they were blown away. Way fun!
We really enjoyed our evening out in Muskegon. Even if other people said “there isn’t anything there”, we found cool stuff. I guess we all have different things that we like or expect. (And we were willing to walk a mile to find it.). Since we weren’t expecting anything, the stuff we found exceeded our expectations, right?! We’ll be here a couple more days, so stay tuned for more from the place that “has nothing”.