Keeping to the lakeside for some spectacular scenery
This morning was a beautiful clear morning ! You certainly notice the difference with the hour time zone change – it is almost like our summer daylight saving with the sun rising just before 7am and not setting till after 8.30pm.
The marina & bay this morning
As we left this morning, we stopped in to look at a WWII relic – LST 393 – A WWII Landing Tank Ship which saw action around Europe including at Sicily & Normandy. They were developed during World War II to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto shore with no docks or piers. This enabled amphibious assaults on almost any beach . The LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank however the soldiers gave it probably a more realistic tag – Large Sitting Target 😂
LST 393
Our next stop was at Mac Woods Dune Rides, at Mears. With the weather extremes around the lake, certain areas have lost their original vegetation over thousands of years and in this particular area (and further north) there are extensive sand dunes along the coast. Buggies take groups of about 16 – 20 out on the dunes, here situated between Lake Michigan and another lake called Silver Lake. Just further north is a large “pedestrian only” dune area and further north again is a “bring your own” area. Around Silver Lake, the constantly changing dunes have actually swallowed roads and houses !
Nearby was also another lighthouse – Little Sable Point Lighthouse. They are all quite different – and this one we didn’t have to pay for, unless you wanted to climb the stairs to the top !
We then had quite a drive to our next stop – Sleeping Bear Dunes, a National Park area – but stopped at a little town called Beulah – on another lake – for coffee. There are so many lakes and inlets off Lake Michigan itself and many of these are huge in size themselves. It really was a perfect day for the lakes – the different colours of blue from the different depths of the lakes. The drive was very pleasant – this area has a lot more variety of agriculture – but ………
Corn fields ! Who’d have guessed !
The area includes a drive – the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive (off MI109 near Glen Lake – between Empire & Glen Arbor) – which takes in various features of the dunes with the major points signposted along the way. One of the main areas is the dunes right on the edge of the lake which has an incredible drop down to the lake shore. They advise NOT to go down the dune as it can take 2 hours to climb back up – the only other way out is to swim 60 miles across the lake or get rescued – at a cost of $3,000 ! There were still some obviously with a spare 2 hours though !
Sleeping Bear Dunes 
Observation platform over the dune 
These people didn’t move very far up the dune while we watched !
A bit further down the road in another section of the dunes is a more feasible dune climb – near Glen Arbor. The dune is only 110 metres high and a more “flat” climb. We stopped to look but did not partake !
Glen Haven is a small preserved village nearby which has a small maritime museum we stopped at. Parts of the observation station closer to what is now the shoreline was swallowed up by the dune many years ago !
Our next stop was Fishtown, a collection of weathered fishing shanties, smokehouses, overhanging docks, fish tugs and charter boats along the Leland River in Leland which had once been the heart of a commercial fishing village. It is now the base of many fishing charter boats though there still seems to be some commercial fishing boats.
Fishtown 
The river flowing through the town
We then made our way to Traverse City which was our stop for the night. We had booked a room with a lake view so decided to stop at a nice deli and pick up provisions to self-cater tonight. This area around Traverse City has become home to a thriving wine and beer market with wineries and breweries at every turn. So we also collected some of that local produce as well !
Adrienne finally got to dip her toes in the lake ! 
We had been wondering if there was much movement in the height of the lake as there was certainly no “tide” to speak of. Well a bit of googling bought up the fact that the level of the lake is in fact at record highs. We can now believe it as the bottom picture above is at the back of our hotel and just behind the two trees are a couple of white strips you can see. This is actually the net for the beach volleyball court at the back of an adjoining hotel – totally underwater !
At one point late in the day we crossed the 45th Parallel so we are certainly getting further north. Tomorrow we make our way to Mackinac Island for a couple of nights.
Another fabulour sunset !
Today’s Tour Trivia – In 2008, the city of Flint, MI passed a law that gave police the authority to arrest anyone whose pants sagged so low as to expose their undies or bare butts. The local tradies union has evidently declined to comment (or comply) !