Lake Charlevoix - The Michigan Riviera

[Tao of Wake]

I just had a great weekend on the lake. I had 4 friends up for 3 solid days of wakesurfing, wakeboarding and boat watching. Here are some highlights:

- Followed Cracker Bay yacht out of the Lake Charlevoix harbor into Lake Michigan. This yacht is registered at The Cayman Islands and is chartered out. We couldn't see any celebrities on deck, though. The next day, we spotted it down our end of the lake.

- Plenty of other beautiful yachts, offshore boats, houses and people. We saw a few yachts for sale and were dreaming of living on the water. There was a 1987 60-foot Chris Craft on sale for only $59,000. The one we wanted, though, was a 58-foot almost brand new for $499,000.

- Met Jerry Springer at the local on-lake restaurant. One of the guys in our crew grew up with Jerry's producer, so we had that to break the ice. Once we started talking to him, others started getting pictures and talking to him. When he was finished with lunch, he got into a 26-foot runabout and drove it over to the fill station to get some gas. He was with his wife and another couple. When we were leaving in the Bu, he was checking it out probably thinking of a new show: "Husbands that leave their wives and kids at home to wakesurf and wakeboard". We're expecting a call soon.

- There are a few water planes on the lake. The largest is about a 12-passenger. We were coming up the lake at about 40 and found ourselves playing chicken with this plane taking off. Needless to say, he won. I pulled right to let him go past and take off. I do have video of this. I'll get it on YouTube so I can post it here.

I'll post some pics soon. Unfortunately, I don't have any of Jerry or of the Cracker Bay yacht (too busy gawking). We just can't get over all of the $ on the lake. We spent most of one day just driving around the entire lake (56 miles of shoreline).

Edited August 27, 2010 by kernaltao

[Tao of Wake]

Here are a couple of vids: