8/2 By Land, by sea, by air

This morning, we cruised to Manistee, MI.  It was a beautiful day and the cruising was lovely.  John had checked out what there is to do in Manistee.  We signed up for an airplane tour of the area.  It was so neat.  Here we are next to the plane we took. 

The tour was great.  It took us out over Manistee Lake, where we could see the Morton Salt factory and the paper factory.  Both are powered by coal.  There are huge vessels that deliver the coal.  We didn't see it but some other loopers who were here did.

Then we flew out to see the Manistee Inlet and the dunes.  The colors of the water on Lake Michigan were so vibrant.  The pilot told us that sometimes she can see schools of fish from the air.

There are 4 other looper boats here with us tonight.   The pilot was kind enough to take us over the marina so we could get pictures of all the looper boats.  The boat on the far right is Yesterday's Dream, they are Gold Loopers.  Gold Loopers are doing the loop for the second time.  The next little boat is the Wildlife Conservation Boat.  The next boat is the Hydrophilic.  The boat after that is Bee Haven.  That is the boat that is pointed out into the river.  They are from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  The next boat is Su Sueno.  They live aboard and we have seen them a lot.  The last boat is Ocean Commotion, they are originally from Connecticut and live in Florida now.

We have met them all before.  It is fun to hop scotch with such nice people.  Tonight, we walked to dinner as a group and celebrated with ice cream for dessert.

We will stay here another day and take the town tour.  Some will move on and some will stay another day, too.

Lat 44 degrees 14.86 North
Long 86 degrees 19.70 West