Days 2-274-275 a sad start to 2 days in Traverse City, MI

     Unfortunately after 12 days (11 nights), it was time for Seaman 3rd Class Ann to return home (and even worse for her, to return to work next week). We had come to Traverse City a day early, not to get rid of Ann, but to extend her adventure on the water by a few miles.

While she was with us, we travelled 243.2 miles on Lucky Us from Alpena in northeast Michigan through the Straits of Mackinac to Traverse City on the northwest side.

Before she departed, we held an impromptu promotion ceremony, where the Admiral promoted her to Chief Petty Officer and presented her with an official "Lucky Us" cap. It really was a fun time with her aboard, and who knows, maybe she will come back again some day???

   The second picture is the congratulatory hug from the Captain (that's me in case you had forgotten).

     Then it was off for a 1.5 hour drive to Gaylord in the center of the state where she had left her vehicle. Befitting the sad occasion, we had rain during much of the drive.






     We went to two more movies over the next day and a half:
    1. Sex Tape - funny, but...   We stopped at the mall theater on the way back from Gaylord, MI. Remember the rain? Well, I think that the entire populace of Traverse City decided to go to a movie on a gloomy, rainy day. We had planned to see this movie "sometime", but the other movies that we wanted to see were all sold out. Hard to believe since there were at least 6 other people in the theater with us (?).
    2. The Hundred-Foot Journey - This completed our trifecta of "chef" movies and was really enjoyable. We had dropped the rent car off at the Traverse City Airport on the way to the movie. Then we took a city bus to the mall theater and later took another bus back to downtown (and Lucky Us). The weather was good so we had no trouble getting tickets this time.

    We got back to Lucky Us about 6:00 pm. After a little rest, we decided that "we" would rather walk the short distance to a downtown restaurant rather than eat on the boat. Well, another long but fun day in Traverse City. The weather forecast for tomorrow looks acceptable to head north to Northport just at the mouth of Traverse Bay. We will not be going any further than Northport tomorrow since the winds (15-20 mph) and waves (3-5 feet) forecast for Lake Michigan are at the top end of our comfort range. However, we will check again in the morning to see whether we depart or go back to sleep.