We left early Friday morning in the rain and darkness with a couple of bags and a cooler in the back of the Jeep. It was dark all the way to the other side of the State, and the rain was heavy in some spots and lighter in others. Grand Rapids was particularly abysmal: pouring rain and I could not see the painted lines; the rush hour commuters did not care that we were from out of town and enjoying a day off work (while trying our damndest to get out of their construction-zone laden city). It cleared up a bit during the stretch to Muskegon, and we could see that somewhere in our great State the sun was coming up. Our first stop (not counting the McDonalds off of 31 where we got coffee) was the Muskegon State Park. We had been there before, but wanted to stop for some scenic Big Lake views (it was still pretty dark, but we got to take a couple of photos of the Lake we hadn't seen in 9 years and two months.)
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| Our first view of Lake Michigan on Friday at Muskegon State Park |
We had time to kill before we could get into our room so we took a leisurely drive northwards - we wanted to see as much of the Big Lake as we could during our drive. We stayed near the coast on Scenic Drive, through Duck Lake and her State Park, then upwards to White Lake. This we followed inland and the houses were so beautiful and well kept-up everywhere there! ( no photos - why?!? ... note to self).
We stopped for gas in Montague ($2.26 a gallon) and a bag of freshly popped popcorn (the marketing strategy of using smell to entice is affirmed here again) and were off northward. We hopped on 31 and exited at Hart eager to see Silver Lake and the dunes.
During most of my adult driving years, I have found it prudent to keep in the vehicle (or at least in a box in the closet by the front door, ready to be grabbed and taken to the vehicle) relevant maps: always a Michigan map showing US- State- and County- highways, city maps for local detail (Detroit, Lansing, Tri-Cities, Manistee, Ludington, Big Rapids, Mackinaw, etc), and county maps showing lake access, and where pavement starts/stops. Since the reign of the Computer with Phone Apps began though, paper folded maps with lots of tape on the worn spots and black penned lines showing well-traveled routes are become out-dated and not really necessary. Until you get to an area in northern Lower Michigan with no cel towers that your phone recognizes (which, for us, was everywhere past Grand Rapids).
So, while nearing our destination from the east and simultaneously looking out for a local establishment to provide us some breakfast, we might normally have said, 'breakfast nearby' to the phone, which would show local spots as well as give phone numbers and links to their web(s). But not here. No service was all we got, and that meant no texts, no calls, and no directions to Auntie Janes Good Eats.
So, we pressed on to Silver Lake, got into town and stopped at the first (and only, we found out) breakfast joint in town: the Sand Castle Restaurant. The parking lot was full ('that means the food is good!") and there was one booth available on the floor. After a few minutes, an elderly gentleman slowly (remember Tim Conway's old man character on The Carol Burnett Show?) brought us menus, laminated and with about half the entries colored over with black marker. (It turns out the Oceana County Dune Riders Association had chosen this spot and time for their annual breakfast, and the place was packed).
We decided on our choices, and, after the same three waitresses rushed by us each about 12 times seemingly not even remotely interested in taking our order, we ambled across the street to The Sands Restaurant, which had very few cars in its lot. As we got closer, we saw why: the sign in the window said 'Closed', or some such nonsense.
We had seen places open in Hart/Mears to the East, so we headed that way. Across 31 and just outside of Hart, we found That Place, who's parking lot was also full, and for which we had high hopes. Again (and this is about 10:00 am on a Friday morning), there was only one table available. The nice waitress dropped off menus and said she'd be right back. The restaurant was emptying at this time, and Butch the cook hadn't time to come out and bus the tables. Three quarters of the floor was void of people, but every table was still dirty. As more people paid and left, Butch was able to bus the dirty tables (but for some reason he must have been prohibited from killing the flies) and get the place looking respectable again. Our meat-lovers omelette with Texas toast came out hot and cheesy and we were satisfied and ready for our day.
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| Betty Boop and Moni, at That Place in Hart |
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| My first selfie of the trip |
Our hosts advised at that point that our room was not quite ready (check back at 12:30 or so), so we headed west again to see the Big Lake. Through Silver Lake, and then a little jaunt brought us to the Little Sable Point Light, where we could hear the waves pounding the sand.
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| The nice couple from eastern Illinoiz took this photo; he, a Vietnam Veteran who has gone through agent orange treatment, and she, whose family had been coming to Silver Lake to vacation for over 50 years. |
The waves were huge, and there were several Amish families coming back from the beach. We decided to go see the Big Lake at the Township Park about a quarter mile back towards town. We had been there before, but hadn't spent much time on the beach because we had Sierra the Old Malamute with us.
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| Golden Township Park parking lot, next to the old house we are so enamoured with |
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| We have photos of this old house near the Big Lake from 2010 |
We headed back to town to see if our room was ready and behold! she was. We brought in our bags and made ourselves quite at home.
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| The view from our deck looking west towards Silver Lake, the Dunes, and the Big lake |
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| Neat room; small, but with a fridge and a very comfortable bed |
We were initially quite happy with the room, and especially the breeze out on the deck, which we enjoyed all weekend.
We walked over to where the festival was right off main street - it was fenced in with the food vendors already set up and the smoke in the air was like nothing I have experienced! There were pizza trucks, bigass roasted corncobs, elephant ear trucks, popcorn and pretzel trucks, and of course mostly barbecue options. In the center of the park was the huge flag pole and pavilion with t-shirts, southward still was the band shell and beer tent. It was early afternoon and there still weren't many people there yet. We walked around and smelled the smells and took in the scenery for about and hour and then headed back to our room. I took a dip in the beautiful sparkling pool and, again, it did not disappoint.
It started getting cloudy again and the view from our room was quite beautiful, so we sat on the deck and discussed dinner options.
We decided on pizza from the Silver Pointe gas station/party store/general store/bakery and it did not disappoint. We had been up since two in the morning so we kind of crashed right about the time it got dark, but we were blessed with a beautiful sunset over the dunes.
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| Friday evening from our room, as the sun was going dipping toward Silver Lake, the dunes, and the Big Lake |
We awoke well rested on Saturday morning and took an early walk through town. They already had main street blocked off for traffic and the craft and apple vendors were setting up their tents on the lake side - 80 spaces for about a half mile of road. We ambled down down the road and back before dawn and decided to try a place in Mears we had seen the day before for breakfast.
Nice place was The Golden Eatery, with good hot coffee and cute sayings all over the walls.
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| After breakfast in Mears, the view east toward sun-up |
We followed the big setting moon back to town, and took another walk among the crafter's tents, then back along the Silver Lake shore. Beautiful homes there, well kept up.
We paused for another set for a spell on our deck, and took some moon photos.
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| Moonset Saturday morning over Silver Lake |
We wanted to be near the pavilion by 10:00 as there was going to be a playing of the National Anthem at that time. Wonderful. Walked around and enjoyed the smells of the vendor trucks and then took another walk down through the craft and apple tents. At some point, the Classic Auto and ORV Show vehicles began coming west along the road.
Overall the festival was fun and we should have stayed there and enjoyed the day. NOOOOO, we chose to get back to the room to watch our football Spartans, which almost ruined the day.
We opted for pizza again from the gas station for dinner and after that called it a night.
We checked out early on Sunday and took a quick ride up to Pentwater to say hi. We visited Charles Mears State Park for a final look at the Big Lake and, yet again, it did not disappoint. We walked out on the pier and took photos and then said hello to Cenzo's, which was our main supplier when we camped here in 2010.
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| From the pier at Charles Mears State Park |
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| Sunday morning dawn in Pentwater |
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| Looking south on the coast toward Silver Lake |
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| Pentwater Cenzo's!! |
The drive home was pretty uneventful, except for a quick stop at a farmers stand we had passed a couple times in Hart, and an ill-advised stop at Burger King outside of Muskegon.
God blessed us with so much fun and good fellowship on this weekend! We met folks from Dearborn, Pinckney, Terra Haute, Harrison Township, and Frankfort, IL (not Chicago!).
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