The weather on launch day was
picture perfect – blue skies, calm winds, temperature in the 70’s. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. The
following day brought a dip in temperatures and a high wind advisory for gusty
winds topping out at 40+ miles per hour!
That evening we were serenaded by the staccato rhythm of the straining
lines and the squeal of the fenders as they rubbed against the dock. Welcome aboard. . . .
The weather for the remainder of
that week was marginally better. The
winds died down to a more manageable 20 miles per hour but the daytime temperatures
hovered around 50⁰. The sun doesn’t set here in western Michigan
until well after 9 PM but the increase in daylight did nothing for the evening temperatures. It was downright cold – winter by Virginia
standards. In fact, there were snow
flurries on the Upper Peninsula!
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| The unrelenting winds at Great Lakes Marina kept the flags snapping at the fuel dock behind Lazy W. |
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| Dune Climb Stairway
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A 90th birthday party
in Pennsylvania for my Aunt Joan, too much wind for crossing Lake Michigan to
Milwaukee, innumerable boat maintenance issues and a dockage rate that we could
not pass up kept us in a three-week holding pattern at Muskegon’s Great Lakes
Marina. Needing a break from boat
chores, we visited P.J. Hoffmaster State Park which features over three miles
of sandy beach along the Lake Michigan shoreline, numerous hiking trails and
the 193-step Dune Climb Stairway atop the park’s largest parabolic dune. Unlike the dunes at Jockey’s Ridge on the
Outer Banks, this 190-foot tall dune is lush with vegetation along its
sheltered back.
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| Trillium in bloom on the forest floor |
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| Lake Michigan from the top of the Dune Climb Stairway |
Another highlight of our stay in
Muskegon was a lunchtime visit to Courses,
the eatery at the Culinary Institute of Michigan. We have really come to love these student-run
restaurants – the menus are always unique, the food is exceptional, the servers
are welcoming and exuberant. And the
price – well, think cordon bleu at a family diner price. Courses
lived up to our expectations and will warrant a return visit.
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| Culinary Institute of Michigan - Muskegon campus |
A Saturday afternoon bike ride
meandered along the shore of Muskegon Lake with a well-deserved stop at happy
hour at the Shoreline Inn. Nearby is the
large stainless steel and concrete sculpture Sails Ablaze. Dedicated in
2016, the sculpture commemorates the two-masted fore-and-aft schooner Lyman M.
Davis. After the great Chicago fire of
1871, there was an urgent need for lumber to rebuild the city. The schooner was built in Muskegon (near
where the sculpture sits) and, upon its completion, she made as made as three
weekly round trips transporting lumber from the mills on Muskegon Lake to
Chicago. The fastest schooner on the
Great Lakes, she sailed Lake Michigan for decades before being set ablaze for
‘amusement’ in Toronto harbor in 1934.
Born of fire, died by fire – Sails
Ablaze.
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| Sails Ablaze
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| Lyman M Davis
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A main attraction on the
Muskegon waterfront is the Gato-class submarine, U.S.S. Silversides. Launched
in 1941, the sub received twelve battle stars for its service in World War II. It sank 23 enemy ships, the third most of any
allied WWII submarine. Silversides was the site of a Memorial
Day Lost Boat Ceremony honoring the crews of the 55 submarines that were lost in
WWII. The event started with a War Birds
Fly-By courtesy of The Hooligans Flight Team and ended with the ‘lighting off’ of
one of the submarine’s 1500-horsepower Fairbanks Morse diesel engines.
(Yes, all you SUNY Maritime engineers out there, the engines are still
in working condition and are started up for special occasions several times a year!) In between the fly-by and the engine startup,
two WWII submarine veterans solemnly read the names of the 55 lost subs and the
Coast Guard laid a memorial wreath in the channel.
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It was striking to hear how many men were
lost on each of the 55 submarines. As
the name of each submarine was read, the ship’s bell tolled and a carnation was
tossed into the channel. A twenty-one
gun salute followed.
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On June 2nd we flew
out of Gerald R Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids bound for
Philadelphia and the not-to-be-missed birthday party/family reunion of 2017. On the drive to the airport Frank and I
reminisced about our last experience at the then Kent County International
Airport. It was Thanksgiving weekend 1977 and the reason I remember this so
well almost 40 years later? We were young,
living in Stevensville Michigan and we had the bright idea to travel back to
New York to spend Thanksgiving with the family. I was pregnant with Jonathan.
We should have been smart enough to realize that late November was not the best
time of year to make that trip – winter starts early along Lake Michigan and we
had to fly across the lake to Chicago and then on to New York’s Kennedy
Airport. That leg of the trip went
without any hassles – it was the return trip that did not go so well. Mother Nature chose to drop ten inches of
windblown snow over southwestern Michigan the day we left New York. We landed in Chicago and then waited and
waited and waited for the flight to Benton Harbor/St. Joe. Instead, we were flown to Grand Rapids and
then DRIVEN BY A CRAZY CABBIE over 80
miles during the height of the storm to the airport in Benton Harbor!?!? And
toting a bag full of onion and garlic New York bagels that had me feeling queasy
since we had left NY!?!? (For the life of me, I cannot imagine why I did not
dump those stinkin’ things in the trash in Chicago – our Michigan friends would
have understood!) And the adventure did not stop there as our VW bug was buried
in snow with a dead battery. But that is
another long story for another time...
Aunt Joan, the only one of my
father’s seven siblings still with us, turned 90 this year and it was time to
celebrate the occasion. Her three
children, Anne, Peter and Margaret, hosted a wonderful party at the retirement
community where Aunt Joan lives. It was
well attended by her family and friends.
We all agreed that it was great to reconnect with all the cousins.
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My siblings and their spouses with Aunt
Joan
Me (cousin #5), Frank, Bob (#1), Aunt Joan, Kathy
(Bob’s wife), Marian (#25), George (#11), and Jim (Marian’s husband)
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Bob reveals to Aunt Joan that she was his
‘first crush’ – as an infatuated ten-year-old he firmly believed they had a
bright and happy future together!!
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Aunt
Joan, the last of my dad’s surviving siblings, is held in high regard by her 36
Buckheit nieces and nephews. Twenty-one
of those attended the party and we lined up in numerical order – my brother Bob
has the distinction of being #1 while I made the top five. Anne (in front of me), Peter (first guy to her
left) and Margaret (kneeling, far left) hosted their mom’s party. A heartfelt thanks to all of them.
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And here we all are (in true numerical
order) in 1967 with Grandma Buckheit. At
that time, there were ONLY 29 of us!
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Now we are back on Lazy
W waiting for the perfect weather window for crossing Lake Michigan to
Milwaukee. Maybe Thursday…
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