Back on the lighthouse trail...

July 16 – Lighthouse Day!  The plan was to go south to the fartherest point and work our way back.   By the time we left traffic was pretty light as the workers were all at their jobs for the day.  We went to the little beach side town of St. Joseph. 

First St. Joseph Pier liight

All of these towns have nice downtowns that are mostly

Second one

tourist shops and eateries.  We stopped at the both of the gift shops on the main street for my passport stamp and found that each one was different.  I need to check with the Lighthouse Society to see if I can put both in my book.  So I had the first one stamped in the book and the second on a piece of paper.  Getting to the lighthouse is a small challenge and if we didn’t have directions I’m not sure we’d have found it.  The second gift shop had a hand drawn map and it was excellent and got us right there.  We had to pay $3 to park as it’s a beach area and that’s how they

Dredging vessel

take care of the area.  That was for an hour.  Bill hit the restroom and then we walked out to the end of the pier.  Nice walk for us to get some fresh air and exercise.  At first you only see the first lighthouse, which looks like a small house with a light on the top.  Once we did our photos there we decided to walk behind it to see the dredging going on out in the bay.  Well, then we saw the smaller lighthouse actually on the pier head.  Too bad there wasn’t a reasonable spot to get to and take a photo of them together.

Next stop was South Haven.  It’s larger than St. Joseph and again, set right on the water of Lake Michigan.  They all have bays and inlets and lots of expensive boats scattered along the many marinas.  Bill said his dad told him that boats were money pits, just like an RV.  I guess it’s chose your poison!

South Haven also has 2 passport stamps.  First we stopped at the Chamber of Commerce

South Haven Lighthouse

and got their stamp on paper as it’s HUGE!  We also got directions to the lighthouse and since you turn on the main drag to get there, there are also lots of good eateries to chose from.  We decided, well, Bill will say I decided on Phoenix Street Café which had good ratings.  Bill had the special, some big chicken sandwich with bacon, etc and a side of potato salad.  It was a tough decision for me as they had some interesting sandwich choices as well as salads.  Luckily they had a half and half so I had the apple, cranberry, walnut salad, which was LOADED with those items and a ton of feta cheese.  The lettuce was definitely in the minority.  I went with raspberry vinaigrette.  My sandwich was turkey, cream cheese, cranberries, havarti, lettuce on rye.  OMG!  I asked for extra dressing and that made it perfect!   I had to cut the half of sandwich in half.  Bill said the whole must have filled a plate!

We strolled the downtown and checked out a few shops but didn’t buy anything today.  The weather was perfect with sunshine and a light breeze.  The main street ends at the harbor so as we left we drove along the side of the harbor and “boom” there was the lighthouse.  It was closed today, so I could not go up but we got our photos. Before leaving town we stopped at the Maritime Museum where I got the second stamp and had it put in my book. 

Back on the road north, we stopped at a “dutch” farmer’s stand that had fresh veggies and fruits for sale.  They infer that it’s all grown there but we saw boxes from other places.  I thought the prices were high.  The best deal was u-pick blueberries but we opted out.  Inside the old building they have an ice cream parlor that also sells fresh baked goods.  Bill had a cookie with his ice cream but I was happy for just the ice cream.  We sat on the porch in old fashion metal yard chairs that motion forward and back.  Nice break!

We arrived in Holland, home of the USA tulips regalia.  Too bad it was before we arrived in

Holland Lightjouse

the area!  Another beautiful town, but larger and more retail areas than our first 2 stops.  Most of the big stores line US 31 so the downtown is still quaint.  According to my information the passport stamp was available at the museum that is open, but was not open!  Darn!  So we headed to the lighthouse anyway.  We had heard the best vantage point was in the state park and our directions took us right there.  There’s a charge to get in as once again, it’s on the beach.  Bill asked if we could circle around right in front of the entrance to take pictures and he told us we could.  The bay was lightly foggy and I was shooting into the sun so didn’t get a very good photo, but it was better than none. 

The plan was to stop in Grand Haven for dinner on the way home but it was too early for dinner after a big late lunch.  We headed on back to the campground with no delays.  The office was closed which surprised us, but it’s slow and a good chance for the owners to have a dinner without interruptions.  Molly was happy to see us as usual. 

Eventually we each heated up leftovers for dinner.  I had a salad and my alfredo lasagna.  I downloaded my photos from today and then we watched the season ender of a show Bill likes on WWII.

Before bed I tightened the leak just a little bit more!