South Haven

South Haven's Old Harbor Inn probably dates from the 1980s, but it's designed to look older. The hotel lives in four separate buildings, arranged around this little alleyway of commercial storefronts. 40 or so very different rooms are scattered around the place. Those that face a boardwalk or the street have outside doors, while the upper-level rooms are up stairways. (Wheelchair accommodations are not a strength, here, though I expect some of the rooms are accessible.) All the guest rooms in the buildings to the right in this photo overlook South Haven's harbor, which is the hotel's best feature. Downtown South Haven's excellent restaurant selection is a couple blocks away, and it's about a half-mile to the beach. A great location. It's quaint, but there's a catch. There are two nightclubs in the complex. The one at the end of this road, named York's Landing, runs year-round. The other, a seasonal operation called Magnolia Grille, lives on a riverboat and is just a few feet off the alley. This nightclub density is, obviously, not a problem for everyone. And since our stays have been off-season we've not had to deal with the riverboat partiers. But the place does have a reputation for rowdiness during the summer. In fact, the hotel's invoice warned us about it. Our room--straight up from where I shot the picture--is probably far enough from the action that we'd not have been bothered. The rooms that directly face the riverboat, on the other hand, can only be attractive to folks who've come for the party. That said: The Inn's a fine hotel, and we've been pleased with the rooms and the service. The location cannot be beat. A similar view , seven years ago.

In the window of Flamingo Island, one of the Old Harbor Village shops. South Haven, Michigan.

We spent three days in South Haven. It rained, it snowed, it sleeted. On Lake Michigan the waves were breaking over the North Pier. And always-- always --there were folks out fishing in the harbor. Dedication, folks.

We could see two retired fish tugs from our room in South Haven: Evelyn S, which has been restored on the grounds of the Michigan Maritime Museum, and Elsie J, which was moored by the museum's dock. Elsie J's now doing tourist work --she hosts sunset cruises, ferries divers out to wrecks, and is available for charters. South Haven had a commercial fishing community into the 1970s, but there seems to be no website which explicitly discusses that; instead, many websites mention specific boats or incidents. I'll not try to fill that gap, here, but it would be a fine project for someone. These days the only commercial fishing out of the port seems to be fishing charters, which is a very different business.

South Haven's harbor used to be a conventional port. It had open areas where self-unloading freighters could dump their bulk cargoes, and warehouses which protected incoming package freight and outgoing blueberries. At the end of our hotel's pretty alleyway is a tiny jewelry shop named "The Perfect Setting." The shop lives in an apparently ancient brick building which likely began as some sort of harbor office. Perfect Setting's wall shows an old (1960ish) aerial photograph of South Haven. Of the harborfront buildings shown in that photo, only two seem to have survived into the 21st century: Perfect Setting itself, and this large, also repurposed, structure.

These days South Haven's a tourist and retiree town, mostly, and during the season the harbor's full of sailboats. Of course, most are out of the water by November. But the empty docks have their attractions.

South Haven's harbor, again.

I told you we had bad weather in South Haven, then posted a bunch of photos from our one fairweather day. Most of the time Lake Michigan looked like this.... I'm not real happy with this shot, which was the second in the sequence just as I stepped on the walkway. By the time I got a better angle, the waves had diminished and those pix are pretty boring. This one at least shows the waves pounding against the north pier.

A recrop of the photo I posted earlier today....

Joan looks up from reading her Kindle. Room 12, Old Harbor Inn, South Haven, Michigan. There's also a monochrome version ; each seems to have merit. And me, sitting at the same table , reading my Sony Reader.

Joan looks up from reading her Kindle. Room 12, Old Harbor Inn, South Haven, Michigan. There's also a color version ; each seems to have merit. And me, sitting at the same table , reading my Sony Reader.

Why we stay at South Haven's Old Harbor Inn....

My grown-skinny brother, setting up to shoot a photo of the South Haven pier, on Veterans Day in 2009. I need to get out of the way....

South Haven.

The light's actually red. Blame the haze....

The South Haven light again....