September 10, 2010
An Evening in Grand Haven

After our busy week of everybody's first days of school, and with Saturday and Sunday's weather not looking all that great, we opted to let the trailer take a weekend off. However, Friday night was gorgeous and we couldn't just sit home.
So, we decided it would be a beautiful night to visit Grand Haven. We haven't been there since Allison was a baby.

We headed down to Spring Lake and as we crossed the drawbridge we realized that it was our lucky day. After spending 10 days in Muskegon with no freighters in sight, here one sat just waiting for us.

Upon returning home - we did some research and found out some very interesting information on the St. Mary's Challenger. This veteran of the lakes was launched February 7, 1906 and is one of only two remaining U.S. flagged vessels still active on the Great Lakes to be powered by the classic Skinner Marine Unaflow steam engine. The other vessel is the car ferry Badger. It has undergone many name changes over the years and has quite a history. On July 16, 1916; it's starboard bow struck a concrete dock at Superior, WI. On November 22, 1917; the vessel received “stress of weather” damage in heavy seas while down bound on Lake Huron with iron ore from Duluth, MN for Ashtabula, OH. The vessel struck an underwater obstruction while departing Sandusky, OH with coal on September 5th, 1925. In the fall of 1950, she was involved in a head-on collision with the Enders M. Voorhees during a snowstorm in the Straits of Mackinac. On December 20, 1976; the she was forced aground in Lake St. Clair by winds and shifting ice while at anchor due to heavy fog. She was bound for Detroit at the time of the incident. In 1977, the vessel rescued two people from their capsized boat in Lake Michigan. They had been in the water for over 15 hours; a third person being lost. On October 5, 1997; she was hit by a water spout while passing White Shoal Light on the way to Charlevoix, MI. When the St. Marys Challenger departed her winter lay-up berth in S. Chicago, IL on April 4, 2006, she achieved a major milestone in Great Lakes history by marking her centennial year of continuous operation as a powered carrier.

Eventually, we headed into Grand Haven.
The kids enjoyed checking out the old locomotive near one of the parks.

They then had a great time playing on the playground.

We drove a little further toward the lakeshore and then walked the rest of the way on the boardwalk.
The kids checked out this buoy.

It was a beautiful early fall night and we even caught the glimpse of a sun devil in the sky as the sun started to go down.