Dinner With Friends, And My 63 Birthday

                                                    September 16, 2017

We had some friends invite us to go with them to North Port, by boat, which takes about a hour on Lake Michigan. It was a really hot day, a great day for boating,( but almost too hot). As soon as we got about 10 minutes out, I realized I forgot my phone, so no pictures. Unfortunately, about 5 miles out on Lake Michigan, Jim said he could hear something not good in one of his engine. We turned back and got back into Lake Charlevoix, and called some other friends to tow us back home. After getting home, we went to the Red Mesa for dinner. The Red Mesa was having some special event with lots of music and dancing, as we walked into the door.

Jim and Joe. Jim reminds me so much of my bother in law Jim in looks and personality.

His wife Chris. We met them when they came to our garage sale. I guess garage sales are good for many reasons. Chris has invited me to join her with her bike club that meats once a week in the summer, and her knitting club that gets together in the fall, but I never seem to have the time. One of these days when we get done with painting furniture, garage sales, and boat shopping or boating, I am going to take her up on it.

The next morning it was hot already at 10 am. 

First thing in the morning we took our boat over to Jim's dock and towed him to the marina down the street so he could pull it out to be worked on.

A few days later I got this cute Birthday snapchat from my daughter Tiffany.

For dinner we went to the Grey Gables Inn in Charlevoix.

Jim and Chris had told us that they had a birthday deal of  percentage off your age. Joe called the business prior to our drive to Charlevoix and they said, yes they still had the birthday deal.

If you live in Charlevoix, the little cart car will pick you up. We live too far, so we drove our self.

We were served our rolls and Joe mentioned it being my birthday. At that time we were told their birthday deal was 25 % off for the birthday person, but you must sign up for it for the following year. Whoever Joe talked to, didn't understand Joe or didn't know the change in the birthday deal. Joe wanted to leave, but I said no, I am not leaving and driving back home another 1/2 hour to eat at another restaurant in Boyne City. It was already past my dinner time and I was hunger.

I am not crazy about pictures these days, like my mom, but I guess 10 years from know, I'll think I looked great at 63.

I got a goat cheese beet salad,

and scallops with creamy parmesan polenta and bacon gastrique (sweet and sour) sauce and chive oil.

Joe got the BBQ Baby Back Ribs.

My Hot Fudge Cream Puff was free, but not that good!

We decided to go back and take a ride in the 2001 33 ft Formula Day Cruiser.

This boat is at the Bay Harbor Marina in Petoskey.We had never been on Little Traverse Bay waters, so we also got to see views from these waters. The houses around this marina are mega million dollar homes as seen in this picture. Joe really wants a boat like the one that sits in front of this mansion. It just is not in our budget. He wants a hard top cabin cruiser. The hard top boats are not affordable until I win the powerball!

A closer up picture of his dream boat.

Or he would take this one too. On the boat ride of the 33 ft Formula, we were impressed on how well the boat handled, plus it is below Kelly Blue Book prices. So it is a great deal. The only down side, it has 2 450 twin engines (which will cost us a ton to gas up. It would be better if they were 350 engines). Second, it is not tow- able. There are a ton of lakes around here and it would need a permit to tow it to other lakes.

A few days later, we were sitting on our deck with a neighbor having happy hour. Out of nowhere, came a wind that was like 45 miles per hour. In about 4 minutes it was gone. A few days later, we went for a wave runner ride, and we saw a ton of docks, and boat lifts flipped from those winds. We were Blessed everything was untouched for us.

On September 23rd, we drove down to Aldon to see yet another boat. This one was in a marina on Torch Lake. It was a 2004 31 foot Regal Cabin Cruiser with 220 twin engines. It was a nice boatwith a wide 10 ft beam, but probably a little under powered for the size of the boat. It did have a really nice 3 foot swim platform off the back side.

It was in the 90's this day. Almost too hot to do a test ride. We enjoyed taking our first ride on the beautiful Torch Lake though. We left still confused which boat was right for us. Like all things, if we could take parts of this boat, and parts of another boat, and part of yet another boat, we would have the boat we want. We either haven't found the right boat, or we have to give up on some of our wants.

On the way home we stopped at the new restaurant, Blue Smoke, in East Jordon for a late lunch,

Since it was like 3:00, it was pretty much emptied being between lunch and dinner crowds, plus most seasonal residence have left for the year.

I really liked the decor and feel of the restaurant.

I got the green tomato cheese sandwich and

Joe got the BBQ sandwich.

When it is busy, the second floor is open with it's views of the South arm of Lake Charlevoix.

A few days later we drove back to East Jordon to walk the small down town area. After checking out a few shops, we then walked the docks of the East Jordon Municipal Harbor (looking at boats of course)! The weather had finally cooled off and it was jacket weather on September 28.

There was a sign that said, "For Boat Owners Only", with a chain across the entrance. I said to Joe, "it's says for boat owners only" Joe said, "I am a boat owner"! I thought to myself, "Oh Joe"!