CHARLEVOIX: OUR LEAST DOCUMENTED ONE-NIGHT STAND

August 29-30, 2026

We headed down the Michigan eastern coastline toward Charleviox, MI today. Many of the cities along the eastern coast of Michigan have a couple of smaller lighthouses highlighting their channel into the city proper. Charlevoix has a small lake that the city surrounds called Round Lake. There is a bridge into the lake that opens on the hour and half-hour. It is a quaint spot and I wish we had more time to investigate the area.

Would you want to live in this home?

Charlevoix is known for their 28 whimsical homes built by Earl A. Young. He had no formal architectural training and used nature and the Arts and Crafts movement as his inspiration. They are known as “gnome homes” or “hobbit houses” with wavy, sweeping cedar-share roofs, low-slung eaves, and irregular shapes. They remind me of the Lord of the Ring’s homes.

The one issue with anchoring is that you say you are going to get off the boat and do things, but you rarely do. We did take the tender out and looked at all of the large homes which were pretty amazing, but we didn’t go into the town.

We got there on a Saturday afternoon, so it was busy. We drove around a bit in Lake Charlevoix trying to find a good anchorage and finally settled on a spot that didn’t have many homes around it. Not a good idea to take Bella to tinkle and have an owner ask, “What the $%^& are you doing?”

Pretty laid back day, hence really no pictures. Ate all of our meals on board and headed to bed. VERY exciting!

One other boat anchoring near us as evening sets.

Headed out early the next morning for Leland Township Harbor. Little did we know that we would be “wet” essentially all the way there.