Tuesday July 25 - Thursday July 27 (South Haven)

Tuesday

It was another lovely day today,  blue skies and pleasantly warm. 

We drove from Okemos, MI, to South Haven on the lake. On the way, we drove through rolling countryside with lots of fields of corn and soy bean, following a detour, we also found a field of Sunflowers. 

Not long after this we were driving up a hill and a car went smoking past us, literally! A wee bit later we passed him pulled over and smoke coming out of the engine area, possibly he had blown it up!! 

We also passed through through a town called Hastings, in England I was born and lived 20 miles from a town called Hastings!!

Lake Michigan was an absolute picture, it looked as if diamonds were sparkling in the sunshine. The visiting Tall Ship was also out on the water! It was very busy with people visiting from different states, by looking at the car number plates!! 

After unpacking, we drove to downtown where I bought a few bits and pieces. We then drove along side the lake and saw so many beautiful houses, there is obviously a lot of money invested there, lol! There are also many marinas with many large/expensive boats moored as well as others in dry dock.

Then we drove back to the house and had a very late tea before heading to bed. I also had a few emails to send and bills to pay!

Wednesday

It was warm and humid today and I felt a bit sleepy so after breakfast I worked on my IPad and read some more of the book I have borrowed. 

We were meeting a friend of Barbara's for an early tea/late lunch at Clementines, an extremely popular restaurant in the town. Yesterday, about 5.30 pm, we had seen a huge queue outside! I had the "High Roller", slices of beef in toasted French bread with Au Jus, I just cannot get enough of them, lol!

I stopped at a cafe on the way back to the car and bought a Latte, it wa very good! The young lady server asked me if I was from around these parts, I replied in the negative and she asked me to put a pin in my home town on their world map. Napier was actually marked and I did notice one pin in the South Island, lol!

We drove down by South Beach again And parked up so Barbara and I could walk out to the Red Lighthouse. We saw a couple of nice boars as well as some jet skis among other things. We also saw a mother duck with ten very young ducklings, she sure was keeping a close eye on them! The cloud was beginning to gather on the horizon but lots of people were still in the water.

We then went for a drive through another part of South Haven and saw many lovely houses, large and not so large. We ended up at a small town called Bangor, to the south east, after driving past lots of fields of corn. We returned back to a south Haven and stopped at Sherman's Ice Cream place, the blueberry was very tasty!

Back at the house, it was time to write the text for my blog, so I can upload it all on Friday. Barbara and I went for a stroll down to the dock and ended up talking to a chap on a 35 foot yacht. It was a recent purchase and he sailed it from Pennsylvania taking eleven days. He lost his main sail in a storm and was waiting for it to be returned from the sailmaker who was repairing it!

Thursday

We return to Okemos tomorrow after a wonderful stay in South Haven. This place has grown on me, I love the downtown area with its restaurants, cafes and shops. The Blueberry Shop with all the different Blueberry or related products and Decadent Dogs which Leo has a Cats Corner, lol, are two that spring to mind. There is a great Bakery, gift shops and a shop that had great deals on T-Shirts.

Today we returned to Clementines, a restaurant that has the very best and crispest Onion Rings I have ever tasted, for a mid afternoon meal. 

We returned home via a resale store that gives all profits to the local humane society. I bought a second hand book for 53c, it is by the same author that I have just finished reading and it was a great read.

There was a gorgeous kitty in the back of the store, she had had six kittens who were all adopted and she now needs her furever home. She is such a sweety and the top was opened so I could pet her, she was making biscuits, lol!

Then it was back to base where I started another book, having read the other one in under two days, lol! I went out at sunset and took a few photos of the marina behind the house and caught a jet flying high wind jet stream behind it! 

I also took one of the house, it is a great place to stay! I am somewhat sad as we have to leave this great place and this time next week I will have started the long trip home, sigh, another trip over, my how time flies!

The forecast was for showers today and while there was some cloud around in the morning it cleared to another lovely day. 

There was a great breeze when we were downtown and there were quite a few whitecaps on the lake, the water was breaking hard against the two piers!