manitowoc - Dad of Divas

Over the past weekend, I took a trip to Manitowoc, Wisconsin to celebrate the wedding of a close friend. Manitowoc, Wisconsin is a town I have visited a number of years ago, but it is a bit of a hike to get there when coming from my hometown. That being said I was looking for a way that I could bring my family over to Manitowoc without having to deal with the stress of driving through Chicago, which is the normal way I would have to travel. Typically from home, it would take me about 8 hours to drive around the lake through Chicago, Illinois. As I examined new ways to travel, I would either have to travel through the Upper Peninsula and it would take about 10-12 hours, or another option was traveling on the S.S. Badger, a car ferry that travels directly into Manitowoc, Wisconsin from Ludington, Michigan. Looking into the options, I chose to take my family across Lake Michigan on the S.S. Badger.

The S.S. Badger offers the largest cross-lake passenger service on the Great Lakes and an authentic steamship experience. The relaxing four-hour, 60-mile cruise takes passengers, autos, RVs, tour buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and commercial trucks across Lake Michigan between Ludington, Michigan, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

The S.S. Badger is the last coal-fired passenger steamship in operation in the United States. She has provided a fun, reliable and affordable shortcut across beautiful Lake Michigan for more than 60 years and has transported millions of passengers since her re-birth in 1992. In 2016 she received the nation’s highest historic honor when the Department of Interior officially designated the Badger as a National Historic Landmark. (Learn more about the history of the S.S. Badger).

Some interesting facts about the S.S. Badger

Length: 410 feet, 6 inches
Width: 59 feet, 6 inches
Height: 106 feet, 9 inches (7 stories)
Weight: 6650 tons displaced

Now you might be wondering, what is there to do on a 4 hour car ferry ride. Well….. to be honest, a ton! There is a ton going on during this voyage including:

ON BOARD

Famous Badger Bingo
Shopping in the “Boatique”
Staterooms
Enhanced Wi-Fi
Free Movies
Lounging
Open Deck for Walking and Fresh Air
Board Games
Museum
Quiet Areas

KID’S ACTIVITIES

Scavenger Hunt
Coloring Contest
Movie Theatre

DINING

All dining and bar locations feature items made with local Michigan and Wisconsin ingredients

Badger Galley
Full Service Bar

SHOP ON BOARD
The Best store available on the Great Lakes! Their online store features only a sampling of some of the unique finds for their onboard gift shop. You can also check out the small gift shop inside the new Ludington ticket office.

I ended up taking the S.S. Badger both to and from Wisconsin and my family had an amazing time. While 4 hours seems long by time, I will tell you, the time flies by and before you know it you are pulling into your destination. As we traveled, my family LOVED the famous S.S. Badger Bingo. The employees that led this effort made the game fun and funny and the prizes were ones that my kids loved to try to win.

All-in-all, this trip was a trip back in time. My father-in-law was someone that worked on the S.S. Badger sister ship, the Spartan back in the 1960s, and the trip over on this old ship really allowed you to enjoy your time while coming closer as a family.

The S.S. Badger usually ends trips across Lake Michigan in mid-October and starts trips again in the Spring.

If you have never traveled on the S.S. Badger before, I highly recommend you experience this for yourself as it is a memory that you will hold on to for years to come!

Find out more information about the S.S. Badger

Learn some amazing facts about the S.S. Badger

Manitowoc, A Lakeside Town With Hidden Gems

This past weekend my family and I visited Manitowoc, Wisconsin. For those of you that have never been there before, it is about 30 miles south of Green Bay and for us it took about 6.5 hours to drive around the lake to get there.

The Harbor Town Inn in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

We had the opportunity to stay at the Harbor Town Inn while we were here which is one of the Flannery Hotels. We partnered with this great location while we were here, and let me tell you we were really impressed with the facility and the rooms that they offered us. The Harbor Town Inn has a long history in the city of Manitowoc and while it was a Super 8 and a Thrifty Scot over the past years, it was recently renovated and you can tell that the owners put a lot of time and money into the look and feel of the Inn.

The Harbor Town Inn in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

The Harbor Town Inn offers reasonably priced rooms that are well furnished, along with a great breakfast and even some very nice areas for socializing and reconnecting. We found the staff to be very friendly and very willing to offer many suggestions for travelers on things to do, places to eat and more, making the stay even nicer.

The Harbor Town Inn in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

While the Inn is located off of a main road the noise was minimal in the evening and we really found it to be a very comfortable stay and for the price and amenities you cannot go wrong.

The Harbor Town Inn in Manitowoc, Wisconsin

I made a quick video to explore the Harbor Town Inn Even Further. I hope you will give it a glance and see what I am talking about and frequent it when you next come to Manitowoc!

While we were in Manitowoc, we explored the city and found so many amazing things. From the Wisconsin Maritime Museum, which had its own submarine, the USS Cobia, a WWII submarine that you could go in. Just be aware if you do go into this, it is very confined! The museum itself though is so amazing and really allows you to come to a better appreciation of Maritime History.

We also explored the shops and restaurants of downtown Manitowoc. There were a number of great restaurants including the Courthouse Pub (one of our favorites) and a number of others too. We also satisfied our sweet tooth while downtown by visiting Beernsten’s Confectionary, a chocolatier that has been in Manitowoc since 1932. While we did not eat chocolate, we did partake in some ice cream that they are known for as it was a particularly hot day!

Just down the street from Beernsten’s was the Manitowoc Public Library. As many of you know my wife is a librarian, so we had to check out the library. Holy cow, this community must love to read with a library as beautiful as this library was. I can only dream of having a library with so many resources and so many books! The children’s section was so inviting and even my oldest mentioned that she would hang out there instead of in the Teen section! It was such a breath of fresh air to see so much pride being place in a community resource.

The interesting thing that you find when you are visiting the lakeshore on this side of Lake Michigan is that you have a much rockier shore than what you have in Michigan, but it is still a beautiful lake and a beautiful area.

While this town definitely has a blue collar feel, the pride in the town and the friendliness of the people would bring me back in a heartbeat.

This may not be the largest tourist destination in Wisconsin, I would still put it up on a list of places to visit for anyone! Even if you want to have a unique experience, you could drive to Manitowoc and then take the S.S. Badger Car Ferry over to Ludington, Michigan (They have a movie theater on the boat!).