Benton Harbor-St. Joseph, MI


Our final stop in Michigan, wahoo!! Most of the inlets to the marinas are flanked by beaches and lighthouses all through Lake Michigan. The water is still beautiful until you turn into an inlet and then it becomes brown again.  Brown will become the color of the next couple months as we enter the river system very soon.



When we made the reservation here they said we would have to stay the whole weekend (it's Labor Day weekend) because a Tri State Regatta is taking place here and sailboats will be rafted together and will pin us in.  More about that later.


Friday night there was a free concert in the clam shell near downtown.  The band was very good and I enjoyed every song since I knew all of them.  




We keep hoping for the best when we find these restaurants. Pretty good Mexican food place.


During the night Friday into Saturday, 20 sailboats arrived in the marina from Chicago and we heard nothing.  7 rafted up behind our boat, 5 others across the basin, 4 others down from us, and the remaining in slips.  

They came in around 3am in the dark, tied to each other, and never made a sound. Tents were erected on the lawn and as you can see below some just slept on the bow.  Everything they owned was soaked since they endured a storm while crossing the lake during the night.


As I said earlier, they came here (MI) from Chicago last night, today they went to Michigan City, IN, and Monday they go back to Chicago, IL completing the 3 states.  This is an annual race and most boats had 5 crew members with one being female. 

Here they are rafted up behind Second Wave this morning.



We took a walk to the beach today. Hot, gritty and sweaty people in line for concessions below. The beach was really crowded at the shoreline.


There was also an indoor carousel. We hadn't seen one of these since Hampton, VA.


Below is a look toward the beach and Lake Michigan from downtown.



Their was an antique market set up in town today. We can't tell the difference between an expensive collectible or just some old stuff. I think it was mainly just old stuff today. But it gave everyone a chance to get outside and people watch.



Of course there was the obligatory ice cream shop. Amazingly Brent didn't want anything from the 50 something flavor selections below!



Nice downtown area.



These guys have retirement figured out - at least for them.




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