I knew you were coming so I baked a cake!

We spent a couple of peaceful nights in Petoskey (after the rolling in the Mackinac Island marina anything would have been better). Petoskey has a great downtown within walking distance from the marina. The waterfront park is lovely and the bikepaths are wonderful! The "crew" from Sunshine: Bud, Muriel and Shelly, joined us one day as we explored the quaint shops and ate lunch together at The City Grill. The flowers in Petoskey are beautiful. We miss the "crew" from The Blue Max already...they ventured on past us, but as is often the case on this trip, we keep catching up to or passing by familiar loopers at every stop. One of the best parts of this trip has been the friendships we have made...the companionship with fellow loopers, folks all sharing the same dream...It really is amazing how many loopers we have met this summer. During last year's leg of the trip we ran into so few loopers, but we realize it was mainly because we pulled out of Naples about 30 days behind the more usual timeframe that the Great Loop guide recommends...This year however, we are right in speed with about a dozen or more loopers and we cross each others wakes often...I always get a kick out of seeing that burgee flying from a distance, then looking to see where their boat is from. Right now there is a couple from Ft. Myers in the pack!

Anyway, we arrived in Charleviox yesterday and this morning we are getting ready for our company: Gil (Chip's favorite brother) and wife, Pam! They are driving up from Clarkston Michigan to spend the weekend with us and we are so excited that we ended up in such a cute town for their visit. The marina is fabulous...close to everything, located on Round Lake, a short river ride in from Lake Michigan. We took the dinghy out to Lake Charleviox yesterday, but decided to wait for Gil and Pam check it out further...There are so many amazing antique wooden boats here...and a "pirate" ship, several mega yachts and sailboats and trawlers of every size, make and color! (Ithaka is the only red boat in the marina, which is not unusual)...She always stands out even when docked next to one of the "big girls"!

Well, I better get going...I've got a cake in the oven!