Red Pearl

No, we didn’t go to the Netherlands, but we did make our longest trip of the Summer so far to Holland, Michigan!

Holland, Michigan is a beautiful town on the west coast of the state. It’s only 55 miles north of our home marina in Benton Harbor. But remember, the Red Pearl is a slow, fat boat, and she likes to take her time and average 8-9 mph. So it took us about 6 ½ hours journeying north on Lake Michigan before we arrived at our overnight marina: Eldeans Shipyard, located in Macatawa Bay.

With each trip, we learn something. This time, we learned that we were having a problem with our electrical cord, and we were fortunate that the awesome marina staff got us a spare cord to borrow for the night so we could run our AC!

All along the Michigan coast, there are amazing lighthouses, and Holland is no exception, with it’s famous red lighthouse!

We got folding bikes for our Great Loop trip. Today was the first time we were going to be able to use them. It was a 6-mile ride into town from the marina. About 2 miles in, Larry got a flat! So we walked the bikes the 2 miles back, and took an Uber into town instead.

Downtown Holland is adorable–Flowers everywhere, great restaurants, and darling shops! We had dinner at an Irish Pub and wandered the shops after dinner.

After dinner, we Ubered back to Red Pearl, and we took the dinghy out for an evening cruise on Lake Macatawa, where there was a river boat also out for an evening sunset cruise. It was a beautiful evening and we saw amazing homes with attached docks that were a boater’s dream!

We spent the night on the boat and then made our way back to Pier 1000 the next day. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we stopped the boat and jumped in the lake and floated on our float mats. It was the perfect way to end the weekend!