Exploring the South Haven Area

We spent a few days in South Haven, Michigan, July 12-14, staying two nights in a B&B. Usually, we make daytrips, but we wanted to explore the surrounding area with the idea we might in a few years rent summer lodging for a week to ten days. Since we had already visited Saugatuck and Fennville, we skipped them this trip though we would enjoy returning. South Haven is about 2 hours from us.

We started our trip by having breakfast at Uptown Kitchen in Granger, Indiana, north of South Bend and near the Michigan state line. The food was tasty, but the acoustics were bad for chatting because of the hard surfaces of ceiling, floor, and furniture.

We mostly stayed on rural roads to get to Bridgman, Michigan. Weko Beach was almost deserted at 10 a.m. We paid $10 for a day pass. We soon learned that Warren Dunes abuts Weko and as we headed south from the Pavilion we were quickly in Warren Dunes as indicated by the signage.

Uh, oh, if we wanted to continue we needed to wade the inlet water.

I'm glad we did as we soon came to some logs where we could sit and enjoy the scenery and listen to the waves.

The beach crowd at Weko started arriving around noon.

After an unmemorable lunch, we made two more stops before heading for South Haven. Our check-in time was 3 p.m. at the earliest at the B&B.

We stopped at Bit of Swiss Bakery in Stevensville. I thought this would be in a strip mall. It was next to a restaurant in a tony residential area. I had seen ads and read a feature story in Edible Michiana magazine that I pick up from time to time. We bought two almond horns for Friday morning as the B&B didn't serve breakfast until 9 a.m. The free samples worked as I loved the cranberry-pistachio biscotti and bought a bag. Usually biscotti is so hard that to eat it you have to dunk it in a hot beverage. This biscotti was crisp but easily eaten out of the bag.

Our second stop was at Great Lakes Antiques in Coloma. A couple of years ago I had success in finding items to buy, but this time we found nothing. When we entered the store, there were plastic containers of blueberries for sale. My husband asked if they were antique blueberries. It is definitely blueberry season in Michigan. We plan to pick some locally toward the end of the week here in our area. I was sorry we were about two weeks too early for peach season.

Martha's Vineyard B&B has a large guest house but also some more modern suites in a separate building for those who want more privacy. The B&B is north of South Haven on the Blue Star Highway, less than ten minutes from downtown South Haven.

We stayed in Martha's Garden, the only main floor room. I didn't feel like lugging bags up a flight of stairs and, more importantly, this room though smallish had its own screened-in porch. The guests in the house ate breakfast on the verandah. Those in the suites had a basket of breakfast delivered to their doors.

The verandah ceiling was covered with Boston ivy.

There were hammocks and benches and chairs on the grounds to relax in.

Those in the suites (above) were welcome to spend time in the guest house, but I didn't see anybody do that. At 4 p.m. lemonade and cookies/brownies are set on the dining room buffet. Granola and a pretzel mix are always available. I appreciated the small fridge on the verandah where we could keep our water bottles cool. I saw somebody had stored some cherries there as well.

We went to Subway on Broadway in South Haven to pick up a sub to share along with drinks and chips. Parking was hard to find. We had to carry our folding chairs several blocks to the park where the Thursday evening concert took place. We enjoyed sitting next to the Black River watching the boats come and go while we ate our small supper. The sound system for the concert wasn't very good and it wasn't our type of music so we left a little before 8 p.m.

We nibbled on another cookie sitting on our porch reading our books. We found the queen bed to be comfortable.

The breakfasts were served in three courses. The first morning we had a dish of grapes, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries; followed by a cinnamon roll baked in an individual ceramic cup; then eggs, potatoes, sausage mixture.

The second day we were served fresh pineapple with strawberries; a creamy parfait (yogurt or yogurt mixed with sour cream?) with fruit in it and topped by granola crumbles; then a scrumptious blueberry strata with sausage patties.

This picture from the internet will give you some idea of what the strata was like. Bread soaked overnight in egg and milk mixture with berries and seasonings, then baked and topped with more blueberries.

Friday after breakfast we headed for Pilgrim Haven south of the town. This had its grand opening in May of this year. There had been work putting in a gravel parking lot and making a wide cement walkway to the beach so handicapped people could also enjoy the lake. We hiked the trails a little bit before going to the 700-800 foot beach. The chimney from the dining hall of the summer camp that had stood here originally was in a clearing.

There were maybe a dozen people at the beach unlike the hordes at the beaches in South Haven. We set up our folding chairs and relaxed to the sound of the breaking waves. One lady was collecting small rocks and fossils to make jewelry. She told me that sometimes she found beach glass (like sea glass), but not much this year.

I found just three itty pieces. The rocks were interesting though. This was the kind of place we were hoping to discover.

After some time cleaning up a bit and sitting on our porch to rest and read our books, we left for ice cream at Captain Nemo's. I had chocomania. Delicious. We walked out to the lighthouse, then returned to our car which was parked under the farmers' market shed (Wednesday and Saturday) in the shade. It is nice to become familiar enough with a place to navigate smoothly.

We played a round of Upwords sitting on our porch, then perused the menus in the lobby of the B&B. On our way to Everyday People Café in Douglas we passed an interesting park that looked like it edged the lake. We decided to check it out on the way back.

Casco Township Nature Preserve was a lovely area with paved trails to picnic tables and scattered benches in the forested part, a meadow to observe wildlife, and steep stairs to the lake below.
A local couple on the bench at the top of the stairs told us the park is about 4 years old. When asked where we were from, I said Winona Lake, Indiana, expecting them to know nothing about it. The wife said her family had gone there for Bible conferences when she was young. They were both graduates of Wheaton College. When I mentioned Pilgrim Haven and my lack of success at finding beach glass, the husband reached into the pocket of his swim trunks withdrawing a handful of nice glass. He said he finds quite a bit on the beach below. Another treasure to add to our discoveries of the South Haven area.

I had selected this past weekend because I wanted to stop at the Krasl Art Fair in St. Joseph on the way home. We had gone to this arts and crafts market a few times in previous years. We found the shuttle parking easily using GPS. I took my umbrella as it looked stormy. We had a few sprinkles, but no serious rain until just when we had arrived at our car again to head home. 
I bought some pottery from a woman who lives in Indiana. She had been at the Winona Lake Art Festival in June she said, but I don't remember seeing her pottery. I wasn't shopping that day like this time. 

Blue of course, my favorite color. I liked the raised texture, too. I have several places I might display it, but for now it is on the lamp etagere. 

We had a successful outing in many ways, but especially glad for the new discoveries. I see on Airbnb some places near our B&B that though listed as single rooms are actually B&B type setups for half the cost of Martha's Vineyard. Maybe next summer we will stay for 4 nights instead of 2 for the same cost. We have to go during peach season though.