8/5/14 Charlevoix

We are in the tourist/shopping mecca of northern Michigan!  Ann and I love to shop, so we headed out at 10 a.m. for a couple of  hours.  We found some wonderful shops and shared some of our money with them.  The guys met us for a late lunch at Weather Vane.  This restaurant overlooks the inlet and lift bridge. 

In front of the marina office, there is a water feature for kids.  They were having lots of fun.

Ron, Ann and I  walked to the "mushroom houses" between Clinton and Park streets.  These houses were designed by a local resident, Earl Young, in the late 1930s but they were actually not built until the 1950s.  Each house has a unique name:  Betide, the Half House, Abide, the Mushroom House.  They are the most photographed houses in Charlevoix.  Some of the walls are 3 foot thick.  The leaded paned windows came from a Polish castle.  Special stones called "onaway" stones were used to build the homes.

 

view from park Street

 

The flowers around town are beautiful.

After returning to the boat, we dropped the dinghy in the water and took a ride around the harbor.  While in the dinghy, we saw this boat on the bridge crossing the inlet.

 There are beautiful boat houses, elegant homes, and lots of boats here.  We stopped and talked to a man whom we met in Meldrum Bay and is on the boat, Resolute.  His boat is parked in the slip belonging to people who are building a 23,000 square foot house on the property.  He said the owner of the house under construction has twenty extended family members and he took them all to Norway for a vacation.  WOW! 

Our boat is 50 yards from the band shell in the park.  Last night there was an outdoor movie there and tonight there was a band concert.  We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the music after having dinner on the boat.

Tomorrow we leave for Northport, on the western side of Grand Traverse Bay.  On our way tomorrow, we will cross our wake, completing the Great Loop, and tomorrow night we will celebrate with Ken and Ann and put the gold flag on our boat.  They are staying in Northport for repairs, and Ron and I will continue traveling.  Our next destination is to cross Lake Michigan and go to Fayette on the U.P. and then on to Door County.