So the wife wanted to see the beaches and we ended up here instead of Amish country in Ohio and now not the 2nd week of October because it worked out better with my daughter's school break to keep an eye on the boys for us. wife said there are Amish areas an hour and half from here in Indiana we can stop at. Are there any other must see or interesting things to do within an hour or two.

the lake is very calm nice breeze cloudy and over cast. more Harris signs in the last 20 miles than I have see in the state of Indiana. I need to buy a Trump hat.

What not to do is cross the River and end up on other side of town!!!!

friendly area I'm guessing? theses light houses are much smaller then I thought they would be when I think of light houses.

And not being familiar with the area guess I need to look at a map to see what may be the wrong side of the River. the wife may have booked us in the wrong area. At least I have 14 loud friends on my hip and 13 more in my pocket.

Are you still thinking of buying your wife a flour mill?

Are you going to get to do any fishing?

I hope you have a nice trip.

Keith

she has been wishy-washy on things lately but if she shows interest yes.

Looks dark in the distant like a storm may be moving in. May get a good show I love storms.

St Joe is on the south side. It’s a fairly typical lake side resort city. Area should be fine. Don’t go on north side of river to Benton Harbor. It has distinction of being most violent city in state. If you compared it by population density likely is every bit as bad as Chicago


FYI—-you’ll find smaller communities along lake even without driving way north that may find more pleasing. But the lake shore area is generally filled with Chicago transplants who came with their money and their liberal city culture. We have special name for them lol. Be prepared for no shortage of woke Harris supporters in the communities but way less so if you travel off beaten path. You might follow Blue Star highway north if you just wanna look around and not have to be in expressway

thanks blackbirds.

just pulled up to our hotel for the night it looks fine. Saw two black squirrels so far. They looked like fox squirrel size and much larger than any blog the few black squirrel I have seen before. so I'm guessing both fox and gray have color faze. It makes since I had a pie ball fox squirrel on the farm once . it's just not something I really thought about before.

Anywhere good for dinner down here or places to avoid?

What birds said. Just met a couple brothers there for a charter fishing trip. One lives in Chicago area thus the reason I went there so he did not have to travel far for once. Stayed on the south side and hotel was great. Warned by many about the north side. Local walmart confirmed the demographic shift between the two sides. Chicago brother wanted to find a local eat place after fishing (unlike me they needed to refill their stomaches lol). I told him I saw a steak house near by. He opted to google feedback about local joints. To save detail it was diverse artsy but fair food. I joke when he is in a strange area he googles "gay waiter" to find a place. He is not gay but still funny. I enjoyed the town overall. Enjoy the time with her.

I can’t help much in the food department. Don’t go out to eat very often

Once you’re out traveling might hit up some of orchards for fruit if it’s not available where you live. There will still be blueberries. Apples are in full swing. Try to get farther off main routes though as the markets catering to Chicago clientele have corresponding big city prices

thanks again fellows. I'm going to finish this coffee then head to a park she just found to look at rocks. After that drive and look for a place to eat. She just said something about a place that has something with bourbon cream ( one of the few alcoholic things she will consume) This may be an interesting evening.

Was at st joe as a kid...swam there. Was thinking of heading there with son for an overnighter.

My cousins live on St. Joe, haven't seen them in years, they own Wolf's Marine. Stop and say hi for me. BTW, my cousin Bill Wolf was the mayor of Benton Harbor for years; I think he may have given up on the place.

being used to the Ohio River and other muddy water I was impressed with how clear the water looks. My wife waded out maybe to her knees. I waited with the seagulls other beach.

I should have planed better, the drive is not bad so bring the boys up for a fishing charter would be fun.

Looking at my wife now at dinner she looks wiped out. Will likely be an early evening.

Until today Ihad only seen a black squirrel twice. Up here I have only seen one gray the rest have been black. kind of neat.

PF, stop posting and eat. Your food is gonna get cold!

We go to St Joe several times each summer love it.
Very last trip about a month ago, was critical low on gas and stopped in Benton Harbor. HUGE mistake. Only the second time in my life I have put my hand on my gun due to human interaction. Trash all over the ground around the pumps, wife and 7 year old in the van, some guy comes up looking us over, gets about 20 feet and I said “whats up?” He says he normally pumps gas for anyone who stops at that pump in some sort of jive talk, starts walking right toward me, I say “thats alright man I got it”. He ignored me and starting mumbling something unintelligible and took two more steps getting close to wifes door, I had the keys and hit the door lock and with my other hand pulled my shirt tail up over my holstered revolver and rested my hand in the grip. He stopped, mumbled something else I couldn’t make out and turned the other way. I immediately put the nozzle back in the pump, and started back for the drivers door. At that moment yet another dreadlocked wierdo came running across the lot in front of the store screaming something at a car with a rather large white girl in it, something about “you gonna pay now, you such and such”. She yelled something back at him, and about that time I slammed my door, hit the lock, started the van and got the heck outa there.
Worst part is that my wife said “I dont like the looks of this place, lets go somewhere else” as we pulled in there. My reply was “we need gas! Its fine!” She reminded me of that exchange several times while we ate Silver Beach pizza….
Stay away from Benton Harbor, thats my advice.

North up the shoreline is a fruit belt area.
I'm over there every weekend.purchasing seasonal fruits and veggies.
Stocking up for the winter.
Mostly roadside farm stands for me.
Rivers on that side are full of salmon.
Fun to watch the fisherman.
If you do fish.
Fair chance you may catch a nice German Brown trout.
They are a fall spawner , also.

I've spent a lot of time just North of where you are at , South Haven. Blueberry capital, go to one of the farms to buy. Also the highway that goes East to Kalamazoo has lots of fruit orchards to buy at. Caught tons of salmon out of South Haven fishing on my cousin's boat. You can fish off the piers on the Black river where it runs into the lake with the lighthouse at the end. When I first was up there South Haven was a laid back kinda sleepy resort town, mainly Chicago Jews was the clientele. Now every available piece of land got a condo on it and prices are thru the roof.I liked it better 60 years ago. If you want to see Black squirrels that town is full of them.

When I was a kid (mid 60's) I used to fish for perch off the south jetty with my grandpa and cousins. We caught stringers of big fat perch.
I've often wondered if that perch fishery still exists. This was before the days of salmon in the great lakes.

We stopped today and picked some concord grapes. Drove a lot of back roads swung by 3 rivers to look at where my wife's grandmother was born. While there on the down town main street a place has the window blocked with pride flags and the name of the place or maybe it was the next store business was Useless creatures. I took a picture but it didn't save as a jeg file and won't post.

Now one of the funniest and also cutest things I have ever seen and heard my wife say was today. We were driving through a small town nice looking area not run down at all when she said "man I sure wouldn't want to break down here" like we were in a bad part of Detroit or Chicago and she was as serious as a heart attack. Why? well, and I kid you not I looked around and all the houses on both sides of the road had Harris signs In the yard and two one on each side had pride flags. Yes I married the right woman and she just keeps getting better.