Wisconsin Shore of Lake Michigan

Storms threatened from Sister Bay to Kewaunee, but with the help of Sirius weather radar we managed to avoid them.  Monday, Sept. 2, we moved on to Manitowoc.

Approaching Manitowoc

We heard the radio broadcast announcing the Badger's arrival from Ludington and went to watch.  A sailboat was aground very near the arrival path of the Badger.  The coast guard was there and another boat trying to free the sailboat, but without success.  The Badger came right past him (probably not as close as it looked from our viewpoint), turned and backed into it's dock.  I imagine it was a tense moment for the sailboat crew.

Badger entering breakwater

Sailboat aground

The moment of truth

  I contacted one of the many Linda's in my high school graduating class, Linda Wenzel, who met us at the marina and gave us a car tour of the area. Manitowoc has done a great job of enhancing the lake shore with parks, bike/hike paths, sculpture, etc.  We ate dinner at a local diner with great hamburgers and fried cheese curds.  The next day Linda joined us as we rode from Manitowoc to Port Washington, about 50 miles.  The waves were on the beam so we had a rolly ride at first, but it flattened a bit later and as we turned to make our approach to  Port Washington the waves were astern.  It was good to have a long visit with Linda and catch up with her life since high school as well as reminisce.

Two Linda's

The scenery now includes farms along the shore

In Port Washington, we met up with Donna Counselman and Donna and Louie Lawinger, more PHS friends.  We had a great visit and enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant recommended for its seafood. Donna C. stayed the night with us and we had a revenge game of Five Crowns which had a fabulous ending!!!

Donna C., Donna L, and Louie

The town of Port Washington was a fun stop.  The skyline is dominated by St. Mary's Church which boasted a great view of Lake Michigan if you were willing to climb the 85 steps.  I talked Tom into this only to find the view obstructed by trees. Oh well, it was good exercise!

Fisherman statue with unique channel
marker in the background

Port Washington Harbor
St. Mary's steeple towering above

Tranquility
Think we could trade even?

Port Washington visitor center
completely covered in lake pebbles

We left Port Washington Friday morning and cruised to Milwaukee.  There as we were walking to the kite shop we came across two loopers, Bob and Debi aboard In Our Element and Maryann and Ozel aboard Freya.  We later joined them for cocktails.  In the meantime, Tom purchased a Sopwith Camel bi-plane kite to go with his Red Baron tri-plane kite.  Then of course we had to fly it.

Boys and toys

A fine day to fly a kite!

Saturday morning, Louie picked up Tom and they toured the Harley Davidson museum while I went to the kite festival in the park.  Around noon, lightening brought a quick end to the kite flying.

Deep concentration and concern

Joy

Kites away

Milwaukee art museum

Stephanie (my niece), Marcus (her husband), Rachel (my 9 month old great niece), and Joe and MaryJo (Marcus's parents) joined us mid-afternoon to ride to Racine.  We had to wait about an hour for the storms to pass, but then we had a fairly smooth ride.  Adorable, active Rachel kept us entertained.  We were so glad the timing worked out for all of them to join us.

Captain Rachel

Co-captains
Rachel and Stephanie

MaryJo and Joe on deck

Ride 'em Rachel

Rock a bye baby

Modeling Aunt Linda's present
with mom and dad

Rachel captured the day and the wheel!

Joe and MaryJo at the helm

In Racine we stayed at Reef Point Marina.  Loopers Bob and Madeline Vreeland (Betty L) offered a BOGO certificate for the marina on the AGLCA Forum and we took them up on it.  They also mentioned that we should look up gold loopers Dean and Beth Johns aboard Kismet while there.  Before I had a chance to get to their boat, Beth showed up at ours and volunteered to drive me to the grocery store.  Such a nice thing to do since the store was beyond walking distance, especially when carrying cartons of soda!  She said she was  paying it forward for all the times someone had given them lifts while they were on the loop.  Later that day, Freya and Sun Gypsy (Rick and Leila Minnis) arrived.  All gathered on our boat for cocktails and stories that evening.

Rick, Ozel, Dean, Maryann, Leila and Beth

 On Monday, we met Stephanie for lunch.  She is a reporter for the newspaper in Racine and she gave us a tour of her office after lunch.  Tuesday the weather was sunny and the wind and waves were moderate so we decided to head off to Chicago a day early.