A Quiet Weekend

As  planned, we stopped over a couple days in Port Washington, WI  while we waited for Lake Michigan to settle down.  It turned out to be a great town.  Downtown was only 1 block from the marina.  Upon arrival on Saturday the farmers market was in full swing so we loaded up on fresh goodies.  In the same area there was an amazing old fashioned meat market called Bernie's Fine Meats which dates back to 1941 and has only three owners (1941 - 1974, 1974-2005 and 2005 to present).  It was really a step back in time and the customer service and products were exceptional.  We visited the meat store both Sat and Sun and got quite a few great cuts to have over the next week.  It felt good to see a local business thriving and being supported.  The lines were long both days with customers, but it was worth the wait to be a part of the experience of the meat market on the weekend.

Bernie's Fine Meats - great place!

Port Washington is very hilly with big flights of steps to get around from place to place.  St. Mary's Catholic Church being one of those places.  Built in 1882 and located at the top of St. Mary's hill near the lighthouse, the church was visible from many miles out on Lake Michigan as we approached the harbor and also from all over town.  The inside is just as ornate and exquisite as the outside.  Surprisingly attendance is low, only about 500 on the weekend and like so many other parishes, they have started clustering plans with two other Catholic parishes nearby.  To attend Mass in such an ornate place was quite different than the cinder block building in Mackinaw City where we attended Mass the prior week.

St Mary's Catholic Church
Port Washington, WI

Inside of St. Mary's

Organ in the balcony of St. Mary's

On Sunday we were happy to host visitors for a few hours, Rose and Jeff, from Oshkosh came to see us after attending a game in Milwaukee.  Rose is Bert's 2nd cousin on his dad's side and we shared a lovely evening visiting and have a meal at a local restaurant.

Bert's Cousin Rose and Jeff

We also started chatting a bit with a two other Looper couples and we are sure we'll see them again as we continue on the trip.  As we continue to move from marina to marina, some boats and faces are becoming familiar since all Loopers are headed pretty much to the same place.

With the first portion of our trip being nearly complete (cruising the Great Lakes) the next post will contain some stats about how far we've come and what the next portion of the trip will be.  We plan to stay here in Kenosha, WI until Friday and then pending good weather and marina availability will move down to Chicago.  Next week we will be in the river.  Hard to believe about 1/3 of the miles have already been covered in just over two weeks.  We didn't make Chicago by Labor Day weekend as originally planned, but we will be off the Great Lakes by Sept 15th which was another one of our milestones.