After 5 nights in Ludington we finally had a calm day to make it the 50 miles south to Muskegon.  We were on our way to see Karen and Scott DeVoll from Last Call when we arrived.  We hadn’t seen them since the Bahamas and were excited to catch up.  We had a pleasant trip there, pulled in and got fuel for the last time on the loop, and got tied up in our slip.  Shortly after, Karen and Scott arrived at our boat.  They hopped on and we all visited a bit and then headed right down the road to their marina, where they so generously had dinner in the oven for us!

We hung out in the clubhouse, the kids played, and Karen and Scott cooked us a wonderful dinner of lasagna, garlic bread and salad.  We had a great dinner followed by fabulous chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert.  It got late and we needed to get the girls to bed….but not before they mopped the floors.  I managed to not take any pictures with Karen and Scott, but Karen got a couple of the girls cleaning!  They loved the industrial kitchen at their yacht club and had so much fun with the mop.  Go figure!

After hugs and goodbyes we turned in for the night with plans to head to Holland the next day.

I woke up the next morning and checked the forecast.  It was good all around but after Friday it was going to be VERY bad for the weekend.  I suggested we go all the way to St. Joseph instead.  That would make for an easy crossing to Chicago when we got a good weather day.  So, we did.  We got in around dinnertime on Friday just ahead of the rain and wind.  Ben went to a bar to watch the Cubs playoff game and the girls went to bed and I chilled on the boat.

Saturday Fred and Nikki drove up from their house in Lakeside, MI to see us.  We had lunch in downtown St. Joe and walked around a bit.  The Farmer’s Market was going on so we picked up some goodies for dinner.  Another Cubs playoff game was scheduled and with no service to watch it at the marina, we ended up going to Fred and Nikki’s house for the game.  The girls played outside, I worked on a puzzle, and Fred, Nikki and Ben watched the game.  We had dinner and headed back to the boat when the game went downhill and it was clear the Cubs weren’t going to win.

Sunday morning we had another non-boating day.  The forecast was for the gale force winds from Saturday to calm down but the lake was still supposed to be pretty rough.  My mom was throwing a bridal shower for my cousin Sunday in the south suburbs….only about 90 minutes from St. Joseph.  We picked up a rental car on Saturday so that we would be able to go to the shower.  It was great to see everyone.  We hadn’t seen my aunt, uncle or cousin since before we left.  We hadn’t seen my youngest sister Emily since Christmas when she was able to come visit us in Ft. Myers, and we had yet to meet her boyfriend who was joining her for the shower.  My other sister Libby and her family were there as well and we hadn’t seen them since Mother’s Day for about 2 hours.  The girls were thrilled to have the day with their cousins.  The shower was lovely and it was nice to catch up with everyone.

After a great weekend with both sides of our families it looked like Monday would be the day to cross our wake.  The emotions started rolling in for me on Sunday night.  None of us have been happy about going home and having this adventure come to an end, but it was inevitable that it had to happen at some point.  And Monday looked like it would shape up to be a gorgeous day for crossing our wake.