July 12, Monday
Van Buren State Park
We left around 10 am, and it took us about 4 1/2 hours to get from Lowden State Park to Van Buren State Park. We stopped once at a Pilot Travel Center along the way. We drove through a very congested area, and Lisa did an amazing job handling traffic and construction along this route.
The campground has 220 campsites, all set up in a grid. We had site #50, a back-in site near the bathrooms. It was a dirt site with a hard-packed gravel-sand base that was plenty wide to park our truck next to the camper. Though it sloped downward, it was level side-to-side.
After we set up, we walked down to the beach, about 450 yards away, across a large parking lot. When we arrived, we quickly took off our shoes and enjoyed the sand and the water. I did see a little water snake on the beach during our walk, which did not make me happy. The enormity of the lake is always breathtaking. It felt like we were on an ocean beach, except the water was not salty.
After playing on the beach, we returned to the camper for dinner.
Sherman’s Dairy Barn
After dinner, we went to Sherman’s Dairy Barn in South Haven for some ice cream. Sherman’s began as a dairy in 1916 and shifted its focus to producing only ice cream in the 1950s. The retail location of Sherman’s in South Haven opened in 1958 when cones were sold for 5 cents. In 2019, they quit producing their own ice cream, and now the recipes are produced by Hudsonville Ice Cream.
Its two blue cow statues, “Blue Moo” and “Baby Blue,” were stolen and damaged in 2020. Blue Moo was repaired, but Baby Blue had to be replaced. It was painted to look like the original. They had previously sat on the roof of the shop for 21 years undisturbed.
South Haven South Beach
We then drove to South Haven’s South Beach and walked to the South Pierhead Light on the pier. The lighthouse is on the south pier at the entrance to the Black River. The station was lit in 1872 and is still operational. The current 35-foot cast-iron lighthouse replaced the original wooden one in 1903 and was moved to its current location at the end of the pier in 1913. The original catwalk links the tower to shore, and it is one of only four that survive in the State of Michigan.
We then sat at a picnic table on the beach to watch the spectacular sunset with the lighthouse in the foreground.
After watching the sunset, we returned to the camper, arriving around 10 pm.
July 13, Tuesday
Today, we decided to head south along the coast and visit the Indiana Dunes National Park.
Lake Michigan Beach
We followed the coastline as best we could as we drove south. Just north of the city of Lake Michigan Beach, we stopped briefly at a roadside park we found so we could check out the beach and water.
St Joseph
When we entered St Joseph, we got stopped by the draw bridge across the St Joseph River. We then stopped and walked around the south side of the river at the Maritime Heritage Trail park before driving over to Silver Beach County Park along Lake Michigan. We then continued south on Lakeshore Drive.
Indiana Dunes National Park
In Shoreham, Lakeshore Drive turned into Red Arrow Highway. In New Buffalo, we merged with US-12. Indiana Dunes National Park encapsulates Indiana Dunes State Park and runs about 20 miles south along Lake Michigan. Our first glimpse of the park was the marshlands on the northwestern side. They were not something I envisioned when I thought about this national park.
I had set Google Maps to take us to the Dunes Learning Center. When we got there, we found a lot of ranger vehicles, but the facility looked closed. We learned that this is a special event center that is not open to the general public. Because of COVID, many of the special events have been canceled.
We backtracked and found the Indiana Dunes Visitor Center. After looking at their few displays, we talked with a ranger and asked what we should see while we were there. They suggested we drive down East State Park Boundary Road to West Lake Front Drive, which would give us views of the dune forest, take us along the Lake Michigan shores, and then through the 1933 “Century of Progress” Homes.
Initially built for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, the five “Century of Progress” Homes — the Cypress Log Cabin, the House of Tomorrow, Florida Tropical, Armco Ferro, and the Wieboldt-Rostone house — featured modern appliances like dishwashers and air conditioners, innovative materials and new construction techniques. They were moved later by barge to the shores of Northwest Indiana and now reside within the Indiana Dunes National Park. Since they are private residences, we had to view the homes from the street.
Saugatuck
We decided to book a 5 pm cruise out of Saugatuck because the weather forecast looked worse for the rest of the week. We took the faster I-94 back up north, stopped at the camper to change into warmer clothes for the open water, stopped at a convenience store to buy some Michigan wine and crackers for the cruise, and arrived at the docks at about 4:15 pm.
This was a two-hour sailing cruise on the Serenity II, Saugatuck’s only authentic tall ship. We started loading the boat at about 4:45 pm despite a thick fog. At 5 pm, we sailed down the Kalamazoo River on engine power, where we saw a lot of nice lake homes along the banks. We went out past the piers at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River and used the sails to cruise around in the fog that was so thick we could not see the shore. They assured us that with all their modern instrumentation, there was nothing to worry about.
After sailing around Lake Michigan for a while, we returned to the harbor under engine power. It was disappointing that it was so foggy, but sailing on a masted ship was still fun.
We got back to the trailer about 8 pm.
July 14, Wednesday
South Haven Farmer’s Market
At about 8 am, we headed to the South Haven Farmers Market, which was under a permanent shelter in their downtown area. We bought a couple of blueberry pocket pies for lunch, and Lisa tried a breakfast taco.
DeGrandChamp Farms
On the way back to the camper, we stopped at the DeGrandChamp U-pick stand, which was not very far from the entrance to the state park. We were in the middle of blueberry season and saw lots of blueberries and blueberry products sold at the farmer’s market.
They handed us some buckets at the U-pick stand and told us about the various varieties available. In general, the more tart ones were better for baking, and the sweeter ones were better for eating directly. Each of the varieties was in its row, and each row was marked, so it was easy to differentiate them. We tried all the varieties and probably ate as many as we put in the bucket. When we were done, we took our buckets back to the stand, where they weighed them and put them in a bag for us. We bought 0.56 pounds of blueberries, which cost us $1.09. I am glad they did not weigh me before and after!
Centennial Park
We stowed our blueberries in the camper and then headed north to Holland. Our first stop was Centennial Park, which was reported to have beautiful flower gardens.
The land was originally set aside as the village market but was redeveloped and dedicated as a park in 1876. In the center of the small park was a 20-foot mossy-covered rock fountain with fish in the pond beneath it.
We found a Kansas connection in the corner when we found a “living mosaic” with 600 living plants on a large steel-based book with the words “The Wizard of Oz” on it. We learned that Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, had a summer cottage not far from there, and it was rumored that this book had been written there.
Across the street, we played around the Wizard of Oz sculpture garden in front of the library.
Kollen Park
We then went down to Kollen Park on the shores of Lake Macatawa. We decided that this was a beautiful place to have lunch, and then afterward, we walked along the shoreline.
Windmill Island Gardens
Windmill Island Gardens is home to the 1761 de Zwaan windmill. The last mill was allowed to be transported from the Netherlands. It is in the middle of little replica Dutch buildings, shops, and 36 acres of beautiful gardens.
There was an antique Dutch street organ given to the City of Holland by the City of Amsterdam after World War II. We watched while they loaded a “book” of music and played it.
There was also a hand-painted antique Dutch carousel from the Netherlands, but it was not in operation because of COVID-19.
I climbed the four stories of the de Zwaan windmill (the fifth floor was closed for COVID) and walked out on the gallery, where I could see the blades and the steering wheel used to rotate the windmill cap. It also gave me great views of the entire island. Each floor had displays explaining what happened to the grain on each floor. Lisa stayed on the ground floor, where she met the original gardener for the Gardens and had a very good conversation.
We then walked along their canal and then through their village. We stopped in their large gift shop, where Lisa bought some postcards and mailed them in their antique mailbox.
Velheer Tulip Gardens
Our next stop was the Velheer Tulip Gardens and the De Klomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory. Velheer is a huge tulip retailer with acres of tulips that bloom from late April to mid-May. When we peeked into the storefront, we saw they still had rows of tulip bulbs for sale but were primarily cleaning up from the previous bloom. Next door, they had a Wooden shoe and Delft Factory. Delftware or Delft pottery is generally used for Dutch tin-glazed pottery, primarily blue and white. The city of Delft in the Netherlands was the major center of production. The factory was mainly a huge gift store with glassed-off areas around the perimeter where you could see the delft and wooden shoes being made. Neither area was making anything, but we did get to see the delftware being painted by hand. There were plenty of fun tourist gifts to look at and play with as we wandered through the store.
Holland State Park beach
We then drove down to Holland State Park and its beach area near the north pier of the Lake Michigan channel into Macatawa Bay. It was very crowded, but we could find a parking spot and walk around their beach.
We also walked along the channel and took pictures of the “Big Red Lighthouse” on the southern pier. The current lighthouse was built in 1907 as a fog signal building only. The light was put on a separate steel tower until 1936 the Coast Guard consolidated the two structures. Originally, the steel tower and the fog signal building were painted pale yellow with a deep maroon base. In 1956, however, the Coast Guard sandblasted the tower and painted it bright red to satisfy a requirement for the aids to navigation that a structure or light on the right side of any harbor entrance must be red.
The beach area next to the channel was huge and full of people. One of the historical challenges Holland had was keeping sand from blocking or filling up the channel. That challenge was easy to see based on how large the beach was. We walked along the shoreline for a short distance and then found a bench at the rear of the beach near the snack bar. We sat there for a time and admired the view. While we were there, we watched an “interesting” game being played by some young children where they would fall back onto the sand to see how much sand they could get “stuck up their butts.” They had a blast showing each other the butts, and we had a hilarious time watching them.
When we got ready to leave, I took a moment to climb on the dunes near the parking lot.
Saugatuck Brewing Company
We could not decide on any interesting Dutch restaurants for dinner, so we decided to head back and eat at the Saugatuck Brewing Company. After enjoying a flight of beers, we ordered some fish and chips, an avocado burger, and two glasses of our favorite beers. Because it was my birthday, the waitress was able to get my beer for free.
Downtown Saugatuck
We then drove into the old downtown area of Saugatuck to Butler Street, named after the town’s founder. We bought some ice cream at the Round the Corner Ice Cream shop and then walked along the waterfront. It was about 8 pm, so the sun was starting to fade.
Van Buren State Park
We then drove back to the state park and stopped at the beach because the sunset had not quite faded from the sky. By the time we got to the beach, though, the sun had hidden behind the clouds.
We were back at the camper around 9 pm.
July 15, Thursday
Saugatuck Dune Rides
We left the trailer at about 0900 and headed toward Saugatuck Dune Rides in the rain. Our dune ride was supposed to start at 1000, but because it was raining so hard, they decided to delay it for 15-20 minutes to let the rain pass. We were fortunate because they could have just canceled our ride. Around 1020, the rain did pass, and we all loaded up and had an excellent dune ride.
Our driver, Frosty, was full of jokes and drove the 15-passenger truck quickly through sharp turns, giving us a great roller coaster-like thrill ride. We stopped at several points to learn about the dunes and the local landscape, which was very interesting. We even saw about a half-dozen deer.
St Joseph
When the dune ride was over, we headed back to the trailer and ate some lunch. Since it was a rainy day, we decided to head 30 minutes south to St Joseph and the Heritage Museum.
It was a small museum that only had three exhibits. There was a small exhibit about the city’s boat-building history on the lower level. On the upper level was an exhibit about the local Potawatomi tribe and a small exhibit devoted to Black history in the area.
Afterward, we headed to Tisconia Beach and the north side of the pier to see the lighthouse. We had to pay $7 for parking. The beach was fairly large and sandy, and few people were there. On one end of the beach were some windsurfers, and about a dozen small groups of people scattered about. The temperature was in the low 70s and mostly cloudy, but we decided to get our chairs and sit out on the beach for a while. After I retrieved the chairs and set them up, I left Lisa and walked down the north pier to the lighthouses. I passed the usual signs stating that the pier was not made for pedestrians and that the waves were cresting the dock, but it did not appear to pose any obvious danger. After walking to the end and back, I rejoined Lisa and relaxed, watching the waves and the windsurfers.
After an hour, we googled an interesting place to eat dinner locally. We quickly settled on Henry’s, the only remaining franchise burger joint that used to be bigger than McDonald’s. So we packed up and headed that way.
Henry’s was located in the sister city of Benton Harbor, about 20 minutes away. As soon as we left St Joseph, we thought we had entered a ghetto. I learned later that while St Joseph was over 95% non-black, Benton Harbor was 85% black. As we googled the sad history of Benton Harbor, we learned more about its ties to the Black Migration and its links to the turbulent auto industry.
We discovered it was only a drive-through when we got to Henry’s, so we started googling again and settled on the highly-rated Captain Lou’s in South Haven.
South Haven
When we got to Captain Lou’s, I was surprised it was a dive bar. We even saw a magazine cover on the wall that listed it as one of the Top 10 dive bars in the United States. It was a sprawling, primarily outdoor bar that overlooked the channel and the draw bridge. The stench of stale beer was strong on the wooden plank floor. We found a table in a small indoor area that still gave us a view of the channel and the bridge. The walls and ceiling were decorated with one-dollar bills with markers and sayings. Lisa ordered a wrap sandwich, and I ordered the Fried Lake Perch, which is labeled one of their famous entrees. While there, we enjoyed watching the draw bridge go up and down several times.
After dinner, we walked over the bridge and took pictures before jumping back into the truck to find parking near their downtown shopping area. After driving through the area a few times, we discovered a lot of free and available parking at their farmer’s market area. We walked around the downtown area, looking at the cute shops catering to the tourists, and stopped at Captain Nemo’s for some ice cream.
We then headed back to the trailer and started packing it up for the jump the next day.
July 16, Friday
After we packed up we went to the Walmart in South Haven to buy a Chromebook to take the place of my computer that had gotten soaked back in Michigan.
We left Van Buren and headed north with the trailer at about 11:15.