Vacation in Charlevoix

Yay vacations! They can be fun even if they cause you to miss important exams for your summer classes where you’re significantly penalized for missing them! Er- nevermind that. We came up last Saturday, and will head home this coming Saturday, stopping in Traverse City on the way.

We’re in this giant condo on the south-west corner of Round Lake out here with my mom’s parents and her brother’s family who have two of our cousins, Miles and Tristan. They’re only a few years younger than my brother and I, and we get along quite well. The back/side of their heads can be seen in the first picture there as they sit in our lower level living area. You can see the docks right outside our sliding glass window. On the other side of the room is a full kitchen. There’s another kitchen up 2 levels where the main level is. If you haven’t already figured it out, this place is monsterous: 4 levels, 2 kitchens, and too many bathrooms and bedrooms for me to keep track of. There’s a pool down the docks a few paces, and downtown Charlevoix is right around the corner.

My uncle took our grandad, cousin Miles, and I on a fishing trip. We got on the charter boat only a few hundred feet from our house at about 8am, and went for a 30-45 min ride to the middle of Lake Michigan somewhere where we had some VERY good luck pulling in 4 big fish. I was told that a boat usually only pulls in about 50% of the fish that bite the line because they wiggle free, but we pulled in 4 out of 4. Also, the other charter boat from the company that went out that morning never got a single fish! Their approach was the most economical, and was described to me as the lazy man’s fishing. They had 4 fishing lines off the back of the boat at all times, each at different depths with different lures to get different kinds of fish. The two Ward guys were very knowledgable and took care of most of the work. All we did was reel in the fish once they were caught on the hook—which wasn’t easy! I got the largest of the 4 fish, and it was a bitch to reel in; this king salmon gave a serious fight. (For the record, we came back with 4 king salmons, and 1 trout.)

Charlevoix appears to be a popular vacation spot for families of all sizes. The weather has been very nice if not a bit hot, and we’re ready to enjoy the rest of our time here.

Thursday, July 14th, 2005 General