jiversen

Good Morning America - Travel Mom named Grand Haven beaches one of the top five beaches in the United States after Hilton Head - South Carolina, Turtle Bay - Oahu Hawaii, Carlsbad - California and St. John - Virgin Islands. I believe it! I love this place. The water gets into the 70's during the summer. The bright red Grand Haven light house sits perched at the end of the pier off the beach. You can even camp out on the beach in the summer time. This is a great spot for families.

This town was settled by Swiss pioneers in 1845 from the Canton of Glarus, Switzerland.
New Glarus has two nice festivals during the summer that I would not miss. The first one is the Heidi festival. It is the last weekend in June and it coincides with the "Taste Of New Glarus." The second one is the William Tell Festival at the end of August.

There are plenty of great places to stay while you are in New Glarus. If you are looking for a Swiss hotel experience I would highly recommend the Chalet Landhaus Inn. Especially good on weekends since they have a live band on Fridays and Saturdays and a wonderful Sunday Brunch.

This restaurant is very Spanish (not Mexican). The specialty here are foods that are popular in Spain like Tapas and Paella. Named after the famed Spanish wine making province in northern Spain, La Rioja delivers not only a fine wine selection, but also an extensive menu featuring specialties from the entire Iberian Peninsula.

Built in 1873 by lumberman James Brayton, The Khardoma Lodge has been part of the tourism industry of Grand Haven for the last 79 years. I stayed at the Khardomah Lodge once in the late fall. We had the place all to ourselves. It is quite busy during the summer months with groups of people renting the place out for the week. 200 yards from Lake Michigan and the beach. I call Khardoma my home away from homa!

Grand Haven' Musical Fountain is one of the largest of it's kind. It is 250 feet long and 100 feet wide. Although it is only a foot deep, it contains about 40,000 gallons of water. During the summer months, they put on quite a sound and light show as the fountain is programmed to put on some spectacular sound and light shows. The Musical Fountain is situated across the Grand River Channel from it primary viewing site at Waterfront Stadium, carefully aligned with the center of the central business district - Washington Street. Located about one-third of the distance up the sand dune known as Dewey Hill, the fountain site is nearly the size of a football field as seen from the air. When the fountain is not in operation it’s inconspicuous and it presents as a wildlife area across the river to the casual viewer.

I went here a few years back to do some snowboarding. It is near the Canadian border and Glacier national Park. This is the Rocky Mountains with over 400 inches of snow so far this year. Since it is on the western side of the Rockies, the temps are milder because of the warm Pacific air currents.

The beach along the Outer banks goes on for mile after mile. I visited the town of Avon a few times and did some fishing off the pier. The water is warm as it comes up from the Gulf. The Pamlico sound on the other side of the island is brackish water where you can find people who like to wind surf. When a hurricane comes through, people build things back up bigger and better. I'm afraid man has intruded on nature too often here and this area may not be with us in the next hundred years. Visit while you still can.

This is the Fox River trail that starts in Oswego and travels north along the river for over 30 miles to Crystal Lake. I have biked and skated the whole length at one time or another. It passes through at least a dozen towns and sometimes has paths on both sides of the river. It is mostly paved with a few areas of crushed limestone. There are plenty of parks and places to eat and drink along the way. I especially like the area between Dundee and Crystal Lake as there is less traffic and congestion.

This is where I'm at right now.

This is where my honey lives. This is where I'm bound.