Schroeder Vacation, Part 1 -- Western Michigan: Muskegon

The end of June took some of the Schroeder family to western Michigan for a week of vacation.  We had hoped for a longer trek, but COVID-19 restrictions and concerns kept us close to home.  And while we did not get to travel far, we did get to explore parts of the state that we had not really visited before.  Having lived in Michigan now for only 24 years, we finally got to visit something new in such places as Muskegon, Holland, and South Haven.  

Our trip could be summed up in one blog post, but photographs demand that I break this up into 3 or 4 entries.  The first entry will focus on Muskegon and, in particular, the USS Silversides Museum.  Besides touring the submarine USS Silversides, there is a WWII museum.  If you go, plan on taking a few hours to read through all the history of WWII documented there.  It focuses mainly on action in the Pacific Theater, but there is a timeline that covers everything leading up to WWII and in more detail from events from 1941-1945.  

In addition to touring the USS Silversides submarine, they also had a Coast Guard vessel to walk through.

Muskegon has more to offer, but we limited ourselves to the museum for one day.  While it was worth the visit, we found it pretty hard to find.  The signs directing us were somewhat sparse, and we often wondered if we were on the right track.  Once we failed to decipher a particular direction and took a wrong turn (we blamed an arrow which pointed neither straight nor to the left, but in between those directions, and we guessed wrong).

For the particularly adventurous, you are able to sleep overnight on the USS Silversides.  We were not that adventurous, opting for a much more comfortable night's sleep at Hoffmaster State Park.  Here are some photos.