Singapore to Saugatuck, MI

June 11-14, 2024

The big day finally came for us to leave South Haven and head north to Saugatuck, Michigan. The day of departure was beautiful with a nearly flat sea on Lake Michigan. The approach to Saugatuck was past a dredge and up a long channel about 2 1/half to 3 miles long lined with beautiful homes, restaurants and downtown Saugatuck. We stayed at the Sergeant Marina and there were two very helpful gentlemen on the dock, including the dockmaster, Kyle, there to help us tie up. We found that our slip was mere footsteps away from the main drag of Saugatuck. What a beautiful, small town filled with shops and restaurants and a lot of historical sites. We discovered an interurban bus system that allowed us to call for a small commuter bus to pick us up and take us to our destination, somewhat like a taxi, all for the grand senior citizen price of $.50 per trip. Using the bus, we also discovered Douglas Michigan, which is located on the other side of the Kalamazoo river.

Douglas, Michigan with something of a revelation. It's a smaller town, but they have preserved their Townhall, single large school building and a host of other historic sites. One of the most interesting things we saw in this part of the journey was a display of a preserved antique metallic lifeboat behind the Douglas house.

The same area behind the schoolhouse included a small park with a historical display regarding the religious summer camps which had been established in the area in past century. The display was interesting and well worth reading, even with an unhappy ending.

As we explored downtown, we found an old ballpark, which had been present for well over 100 years situated in the heart of this little Michigan town. The history of the ballpark was also quite interesting and is included in these photographs. Finally, we moved onto a local cultural icon, a giant root beer barrel. This root beer dispensing stand had previously been located on one of the popular tourist beaches nearby. The city had relocated it and on the day of our visit we were able to purchase hotdogs and ice cold root beer on our bike ride.