South Haven 2019

The view from the bathroom!

Will this be our last vacation in South Haven?   I said that we could come next May; Jim said it was a long trip and maybe we could find another place on the water closer by.  I know we can.  Ocean Grove has been a great place to stay and is 40 miles away from Princeton. 

But South Haven is lovely and being right on Lake Michigan is wonderful any time of day.  Renting before Memorial Day makes a big difference in price and is usually fine with us.  This week has been somewhat cold and rainy but we had two glorious days.  And in the colder days we had great company with Dan and his friend Alexandra.

On Monday evening we had an early supper at Clementine's.  During the summer season that would have meant a long wait with folks lined up along Phoenix Street.  As good as Clementine's is, nothing is worth that to us.  Later in the evening we got ice cream at Sherman's, again a place with long lines in the summer.  Alex and I were both beaten by the size of our portions and took some home for the freezer.

 On Tuesday we went to Taste, a tapas place that was new to us.   With Dan and Alex's guidance, we chose three cold plates and four hot plates and what a feast it was!  Best of all were the Michigan cheese plate and maybe the salmon with jalapeno rice.  The blueberry-pear cobbler was a great dessert to share.

Dan and Alex were pleased to be upgraded at the Old Harbor Inn to a large corner room right on the harbor.  They both had work to do for several hours each day--Dan on the book he is writing and Alex on several conference calls.We watched some NBA semi-finals and enjoyed Fox News' interview with Mayor Pete.  Unfortunately, Dan and Alex had to leave on the first nice day of the week.

Jim golfed once at Hawkshead where he had the course almost to himself on a cold afternoon.  His annual game with John, our brother-in-law, had to be cancelled because of rain.  However, the rain cleared enough for John and Lois to join us for our traditional lunch at Captain Lou's.   The menu has changed-- no Mike's Hard Lemonade available but with more options that were not deep fried which was good for me.

Lake Michigan is at very high levels.  Our condo has beach but Parkman Beach, the city park next to us, has only about six feet of sand before the dune. It is sad for all those who use public access beaches.

It has been a very pleasant five days but now I am ready to go home and tackle the packing and get on to the next stage of this big move.