Welcome back! I can't believe we have hit the first day of summer already! It has been a very busy year so far. Summer is coming in HOT, literally! It is so hot out right now! I hope everyone is staying cool this season, finding lots of time to do all of the things that you love the most!
Speaking of we have been doing a bit of traveling! June 1st meant a weekend trip on the boat to Middle Bass Island; this was our first outing to this lovely little location. Middle bass sits just west of Put in Bay a long narrow island, with year-round residents, a few restaurants and bars, and the historic Lonz winery, which is no longer in operation, but the tours are awesome and the patio that they built there is gorgeous! This trip was also Eli's first official cruise out, he did so good! The boat when underway puts him right to sleep lol! I'll go through the details here in moment, but I wanted to share some other kind of exciting news, we have started our own YouTube channel! It's called "Travel Loop" and can be found on YouTube by searching for Travel Loop or @greatlakestogreatloop! The first video from our Middle Bass Island adventure is up, and we will try to continue to post our adventures along the way! We didn't narrate the first video, but we will start to chat more as we get the hang of the video editing process, and over some of my own shyness about talking on camera lol! We're hoping that the channel will provide a diary of sorts of our lives leading up to our biggest adventure yet, completing America's Great Loop! Check it out and be sure to like, subscribe, and follow so you won't miss out on any of our updates or trips as we go from the Mountains out west to the Marinas of the Great Lakes and beyond!
Now back to Middle Bass Island! We took off Saturday morning with our buddy boat, "The Nauti List" our friends Patrick and Jodi Coley and their daughters, it's always nice to travel with friends! And this trip was full of that as our Yacht club had 15 boats in harbor at Middle Bass this weekend, it was so much fun!
Eli as I mentioned travels really well on the boat, the fresh air, movement, and engine noises lull him right to sleep. We put a snuggle onesie on him, because he does have some anxiety and his jammies seem to help with that. It was a gorgeous day on the water, with mild winds and lots of sunshine. We arrived at Middle Bass Island in about 30 minutes.
Only being in port for one day we decided to bring our bike's along and really get out and see what the island is like. It is so pretty here! We explored the Lonz Winery grounds, there is a self-guided tour there where you can see the enormous wine barrels that they used, as well as how they produced, and stored the wine there. It is such a beautifully unique property, if you go be sure to check it out! There is also a nearby coffee shop called the Daily Grind, that includes a speakeasy open in the evenings. We travelled along past the airport and found a gorgeous area with nesting swans busy tending to their eggs. We continued past a more residential area with amazing views, and then turned back to explore some more and find some food! Of note there are campgrounds, and air bnb locations around the island, but no big resorts here like you'll find in Put-In-Bay. The campground area known as St Hazards also has some park model trailer homes, nicely decorated and appointed, these are also available for rent. We had a nice lunch here at the restaurant/ tiki bar, this is a fun environment, good service, and the burgers were huge! After lunch we continue back to the marina, walked the dog, and later on enjoyed a steak dinner picnic with our friends from the yacht club, a few docktails (stories and drinks at the docks) before we headed out for the night with our friends Patrick, and Jodi, as well as Ryan and Meg.
We attempted to visit the speak easy, but the weather had other plans, and that meant that the murder mystery dinner on the island that weekend got moved indoors into the speak easy space! Of course, not being a part of that we walked right in on the plot line! lol!! We were promptly shushed and realizing what we had walked in on we giggled our way back out and decided to take our good time elsewhere! It was pretty funny at the moment though!
So, in a light drizzle of rain, we made our way over to JF Walleye's restaurant and bar, this is a very popular destination on the island, and is in close walking distance to the marina! We had a few drinks, chatted and laughed the night away! It was a really great time!
The next day we went for a long morning walk with Eli, cleaned up after the may fly invasion from the night before, and then decided lunch was in order so we headed back to JF Walleye's I have a fantastic Chicken Pesto Sandwich, and we walked around the wading pool area of the restaurant. This is a fantastic indoor outdoor, family friendly, venue, with so much to do! They had yard games like cornhole, and jenga outside, a fire pit area, and lots of seating!
We headed back to the boat to throw lines and make our way back to home port, it was a great weekend, we highly recommend a visit to Middle Bass Island, we will be going back again and I will do a more in depth post on some of the restaurants on the island. It was a great stay!
I will give an update on Park house next time, as this was a pretty lengthy conversation lol, and I should have plenty to share! Thank you all for following along and don't forget to find us on YouTube! Thanks, till next trip!
Courtney
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