We weren’t prepared to enjoy Manistee as much as we did. This small community isn’t on the “gotta do” list and I’d never even heard of it before we started looking for marina towns south of Frankfort; but it was well worth the stop and we were happy to get weathered in here.
We left Frankfort on Wednesday, July 28 taking advantage of a great weather day.
Manistee is located on the Manistee River and the marina docks line the river as you come in.
On our first day there, we noticed some commotion and people gathering. We heard horn blasts in the distance and asked a neighbor what was going on. We were told that the Calumet was on her way up river. Sure enough, here was this 604’ freighter slowly gliding up river and we had front row seats.
I’m not sure where she went, but up the river and in Manistee Lake is a Morton Salt factory, a cement factory, Martin Marietta Magnesia Chemical plant. Tim may have some input here. The impressive part for us is that in the morning when we were looking at AIS to find her location, she was already half way across Lake Michigan. Some time during the night she silently slinked past us and headed out takin care of business.
Highlights of the trip included dinghy riding along the river.
We would also walk to the beach to check the status of Lake Michigan. Most days we were perfectly content to be tied to a dock rather than rocking and rolling in the rough waters.
Manistee has several historic Victorian era homes to stroll by and admire. So we did that too.
The SS City of Milwaukee is moored in Manistee Lake and daily tours are given. So Tim and I took a dinghy ride over to learn about her and her side kick, USCGC Acacia.
S.S. City of Milwaukee is a Great Lakes train car ferry used to haul train cars across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Mi. She was built in 1930 to replace her predecessor that sunk during a gale in 1929 loosing all crew aboard. She was brought to this location in 2004.
She could hold 28-30 fully loaded rail cars
She has two triple-expansion steam engines.
Besides serving as a museum, The SS City of Milwaukee is also a bed and breakfast. Yup, you can sleep in one of these luxurious rooms and enjoy dining in the officer’s dining hall.
We really enjoyed our stay in Manistee and would recommend it to anyone traveling by boat or road. The only negative I can find is the brewery. Poor Maggie and Tim. The only outside area they had that was dog friendly was in the direct afternoon sun and that just doesn’t work for any of us. Can you believe we actually skipped one. Oh well, we’ll make up for it in Ludington.
The weather gods smiled on us and on our planned leave day of Monday, August 1, the water was once again smooth and inviting. Time to move south to Ludington.
Just a note- we have a “cross the lake” date. As of now, we are looking at Saturday, August 7 to cross over to Manitowoc, Wi. They only have room for us a couple nights and then we’re looking at going south to Sheboygan.
Sounds like another ‘good time!’
The big news here is we are celebrating Marnie’s 3rd year of working for S and R tonight. Marnie’s children who live in town (Reed and Chelsea) will be joining us at ‘Lindsey’s steakhouse.’
If you go to Ludington Bay brewery check out their James Street Brown. We got some when we were in Michigan in May and Walter drank the last one yesterday.
We’ll have to give that a try. I really enjoyed the blueberry wheat at Jamestown Brewery.
Another great story of the Snider travel adventures!
Looking forward to reports on the “cross the lake” date … my rendezvous depends on it! Sounds like lots of charming adventures ahead.
Enjoyed your post. We also it.