Kamikaze birds (day 8)

Today, we made it off of Leelenau State Park and paddled 24 miles to the far end of Good Harbor Bay. Along the way we paddled through Cathead Bay and by ancient steep cliffs. The conditions were breezy with an unusual SE wind, but even more unusual were the white bodied, black headed, and tropical orange beaked birds that flew above us. All of us sudden they would turn vertical, towards the water, and dive straight in. It was really neat to watch them dive bomb from 40 feet, I am assuming, for small fish. These birds were all along the cost and I have not seen them before, nor do I know what they are, but they were exciting to watch!

Something even greater transpired as we were setting up camp. I pulled out my phone to listen to my messages and there was one from our friend Martin Korson from the Chippewa County Rotary. He said that he was going to be in the area and that we could stay at his parents house if we would like. I hurriedly called him back to let him know that we would gladly accept the invitation and we gave him coordinates to where we were at. He found us with his GPS and we we on our way to a warm meal and shelter for the evening.

Once we got to his parents we met his family and chatted as they prepared a hot meal. Over dinner we told stories, laughed, and ate lots of tasty food. Martin's dad even broke out there very own, home-grown pickles, onions, and potatoes that were out of this world juicy delicious. Afterwards we slept in the spare room in the luxury of warmth.

In the morning we woke up to rain and wind outside. So I turned on the weather radio and confirmed our doubts about paddling as the forecast called for gail force warnings until late the next day-Sunday. So we took our time moving along and ate a warm hearty breakfast with Martin and his brother Tim. Afterwards, Martin took us to historic and quain "Fishtown" in Leeland. Then we made our way to Glen Arbor to check out the situation of the waves and wind and it didn't look so good, but we were going to give it a shot anyway. So Martin took us back to the lakeshore.

Thank you Korson family for your welcoming us into your home and for treating us so well! We really needed it!