A Welcomed Visitor (William!)

We have been planning this rendezvous for months, not knowing if it would work given the unpredictable nature of our traveling, but everything worked out perfectly to meet our son William at the Grand Rapids Airport and bring him onboard Viridian for a few days.  We picked West Basin Marina in St. Joseph, MI since it was half way between the airport and Chicago.  If we were not able to take William to Chicago on Viridian, we could rent a car and drive over.  However, there is a small window of opportunity on Thursday and looks like we will be able to carry out our original plan.

We rented a Ford F-150 quad cab pickup and drove to meet William when he got off his plane.  We stopped off at an Indian restaurant before driving back to St. James and got a bite to eat and started catching up on what all William had been up to since we saw him last in March of this year.

The drive back to the marina was through a line of strong thunderstorm with wind and heavy rain, but it was mostly Interstate and we were onboard Viridian in no time.  The next day (Wednesday) we did some grocery shopping while we had transportation.  We also stopped by a microbrewery for lunch and afterwards we returned the vehicle and were taken back to the marina in the rain.  The sky finally cleared up and we took a walk down to the shore to check out the lake.  It was very rough, with waves breaking over the seawall.  The forecast for Thursday called for a break in the wind and smaller waves, so our plan was to take advantage of that and head for Chicago tomorrow.

That's the news and here's some views:

Viridian sleeping at West Basin Marina on the St. Joseph River, MI

A Cheoy Lee Sloop

And a Cheoy Lee Ketch, Side by Side

Our excellent ride

William meets us in the terminal

Momma's Happy!

Happy to be with our son

Birthday celebration!

Time for lunch

 

And a sample at the Silver Harbor Brewery

Walking along the inlet to St. Joseph

The "catwalk" out to the lighthouse

What do you see?

William taking it in