By Brian E. Clark
Special to Channel3000.com

I love boats of all kinds, from the small whitewater kayak that hangs in my garage to my best friend’s ketch on which I occasionally get to sail with him on San Francisco Bay to the big Princess cruise ship my family did a Caribbean trip on a few years back.

So, in my humble opinion, there’s no better way to get from Wisconsin to mainland Michigan than hopping on the S.S. Badger, a 400-foot-long vehicle and passenger ferry that has been plying the waters of Lake Michigan for more than 50 years.

It sails daily between Manitowoc, Wis. and Ludington, Mich. The crossing takes about four hours. It sure beats the heck out of driving through Chicagoland and is much shorter than going north through the Upper Peninsula.

Besides, it’s a lot of fun. There is plenty to explore on this big ship, tasty food and bingo and other games for kids and adults alike. You can also watch a movie in the ship’s small theater. Or, if you’d like to take a snooze, you can rent a state room for the passage.

But one of the things I liked most was talking to friendly passengers. When my family traveled on the Badger this summer, I met a bicyclist who was riding -- solo and self-supported -- all the way to Wyoming. On another trip, I spent part of the voyage chatting with a music professor from a college in Minnesota while our small boys played on the deck.

Once in Michigan, we drove north to Traverse City on Grand Traverse Bay in the heart of the state’s cherry universe and our base for the next three days. Not only does the town have an attractive center with many renovated buildings, but it’s filled with artsy shops, bookstores and good restaurants. Not to be missed is the Cherry Republic, a store on Front Street that champions the region’s main fruit and sells everything -- you guessed it -- cherryish.

If you like wine, you love this corner of Michigan for it has more than 18 wineries. The region also has a passel of golf courses for those who like whacking little white balls.

One of the best things about Traverse City is its proximity to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The big park has giant sand dunes, restored, 19th Century farmstead, one exceptionally cool blacksmith shop, light houses and rescue boats from the old life-saving service that plucked thousands of sailors and passengers from the cold waters of Lake Michigan.

My kids, ages 7 and 9, especially liked the monstrous sand dunes, which were more than 400 feet tall in some places. They climbed them and then raced back down as fast as they could, sometimes tumbling spectacularly in the -- fortunately -- soft sand.

Though we didn’t make it out to the two offshore islands that are part of the park, I’d one day like to return and take the small ferry out to either North or South Manitou Island for a few days of sea kayaking and camping.

This story wouldn’t be complete, however, without mentioning Neal Hughes, who once worked at a Detroit steel mill and now volunteers as a blacksmith during the summer months at the park. (His wife volunteers at one of the lighthouses.)

Neal showed us how to work the old forged, explained how the different tools in the smithy’s shopped were used and even made wrought iron hooks for my kids to hang their hats back home in Madison. Living history doesn’t get much better than that.

If you go:

For more information on the S.S. Badger, go to www.ssbadger.com

For details on Traverse City and things to do in the area, go to www.cisittraversecity.com