Day 2-257 in Port Austin - farmer's market and more

     The Farmer's Market did not open until 9:00 am, and the Admiral kindly waited for me to wake up so that I could go along. She did let me sleep in, but it was awfully noisy in the galley (kitchen) as I woke up ??? As I said yesterday, Port Austin claims to have the largest Farmer's Market in Michigan. I do not know about that claim, but it did have a quite large section that actually sold produce. Some other markets that we have been to are mainly vendors selling all sorts of "stuff" rather than actual produce. There were Georgia Peaches from Georgia, but much of the produce was home grown by the sellers.

     One of the best parts was that the market was in a large empty area right downtown so it was only a 10 minute walk, and much of that time was just walking down the dock and through the marina. We stayed here for two nights because the weather today was supposed to be rainy with a chance of thunderstorms. Well, light rain/mist began to fall after we had been at the market for only a half hour. The forecast turned out to be accurate since the light rain continued on/off for much of the morning and afternoon. Also, the waves on Lake Huron were reportedly up to 2 feet so our decision to stay in port was a good one. We could have travelled safely, but we would not have been really having an enjoyable trip.

     The Admiral stocked up on fruit and vegetables, and then we hit the "other" part of the market. "Go jump in the lake" seems to be a common theme on t-shirts, signs, etc. One of my favorite pieces of "art" was this lovely pig, but the Admiral said that we did not have room for it on the boat.

    We visited several shops as well as the Do-it-Best Hardware on the way back to Lucky Us. Much of the afternoon was spent in the engine room. I cleaned the PCV valves on one main engine and the generator. I also replaced the rubber hoses and clamps on the valves. Several of the hoses and clamps had obviously never been replaced (ever). I got started on that project because the generator is pumping some oil out of the dip stick tube, and one possible cause is a plugged PCV valve. However, that was not the solution for the generator so more will be forth coming. The good news is that the evenings have been so cool lately that we have been able to use, for example, the mooring ball at Put-In-Bay without running the generator to power the air conditioning.

   We went to a funky little diner in town for dinner. Of course, I had the perch dinner. The perch were without a doubt the largest and tastiest that I have had. That plus the dinner of a salad, fries and 4 whole perch fillets was only $8.95. Super deal!