Oscar Mayer

Just because we’re hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean doesn’t mean the Midwest Team can’t enjoy a day at the beach. We rolled into Holland, Michigan to soak up some sun at the state park on Lake Michigan and stumbled upon a surprise adventure after fortuitously parking right next to the US Coast Guard post and getting an official invite to tour the station.

The seven officers in Holland got a photo for the station wall, and then invited Diggity and I along for a ride to enforce the law on nearby Lake Macatawa.

YUMMY had to stay behind at the station.

I even met the rescue dummy, coincidently named Oscar.  The Coast Guard communicates with 26 international maritime signal flags, one for every letter of the alphabet (FUN FACT!). The Coast Guard also uses the phonetic alphabet of “Alpha, Bravo, Charlie,” so the 15th flag, or “O” flag, is therefore called the “Oscar” flag (MORE FUN FACTS!). The ”Oscar” flag means ”man overboard.” Hence, the dummy used in practice rescue mission earned the name Oscar (SO MANY FUN FACTS!).

Franks a lot to the Coast Guard crew in Holland, Michigan for a great day by the Great Lakes.