The Trip: Our trip from DeTour Village to St. Ignace Village Marina was an interesting day. We left early and the first two hours were kind of "lumpy" with leftover wind swells from the day before, but after 2 hours they disappeared. We encountered two large ships, one going in each direction. They are big, but the wake is not that bad - no worse than some of the power boats. At one point we were watching two sailboats in the far distance - after noticing they did not move, Judie discovered they were the towers on the Mackinac Bridge 20 miles away! As we passed Mackinac Harbor on the south side of the island we spent 45 minutes dodging the tour boats and trying to escape their wakes. We swear they aimed for us and veered away at the last minute - playing chicken! Kind of a boaters nightmare. We chose to stay at St. Ignace (three miles away) because the Chicago-Mac race had just finished and the place was packed with sailboats and we needed some of the landside services offered in St. Ignace.
Mackinac Island: The next morning we took a 2 minute walk to the neighboring ferry dock and caught the 8:30 boat to the Island. A short 20 minute ride and we were in another world. We walked the main street to the carriage rides and caught the 9:05 trip. It is a nice ride around town and into the sparsely populated interior of the island. We stopped at the carriage museum, Arch Rock, the Fort, and the Grand Hotel. Since there are no cars/trucks on the Island, the carriage museum offered a chance to see the many different types of carriages used - Funeral, work, party, wedding, and fire. Arch rock is a neat "Hole" that shows the power of glaciers and the beauty of the area (see photo). We hopped off the carriage at the fort and took a leisurely self-guided tour. This is, by far, the nicest assignment any military person could get. Nice accommodations, a recreation building, fully equipped hospital, schoolhouse for children and enlisted men, and a small jail; not to mention the views, but a little chili in the winter. Anyway, a well restored fort well worth the time. We also had lunch on the patio overlooking the harbor! Next stop was the grand hotel - where the only access for non-guests is the main lobby and concourse for a small fee of $10. We felt overcharged and under impressed. When we left, we gave our tickets to another couple in line so as not to waste their money also. (the views expressed herein about the hotel are those of the author and may not represent the entire crew). Walked around town, bought some fudge from one of the 16 fudge shops, got T-shirts, stopped for a margarita, and caught the 4:00 ferry home. Nice day!
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| Sailboats after finishing the race. |
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| the Grand Hotel. |
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| Fire engine! |
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| View of the harbor from the fort. |
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| Arch Rock. |
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| Funeral Carriage. |
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| Ferry with a "tail". One without. |
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| Carriage house for the Grand Hotel. |
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| No riding allowed. |
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| "Private residence!" |
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| Petoskey Steel Drum Band in concert at our marina. |
The Soo: AKA Sault Sainte Marie Michigan. In planning our trip, we transferred our medical prescriptions to Walmart as they are easy to find just about anywhere - except St. Ignace, where you have to rent a car and drive an hour north to a "big" city. So we did and arrived at in town and started with a visit to the locks to Lake Superior just as a large freighter was locking thru. There is a very nice visitors center and a good film on the history of the locks, and a viewing platform that gives lots of folks room to see what is happening. Down-bound ships (headed east out of Lake Superior) drop 21 feet in one of four parallel locks. Judie had never been here and Ger was here as a small boy on family vacations. After lunch, we picked up our prescriptions and stocked up on food and drinks. Did some sight-seeing on the way back and after arriving in St. Ignace before turning in the car.
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| Veiwing platform at the locks. |
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| Empty lock and ship entering a lock. |
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| Tour boat in a lock |
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| Hard to see the ship after it is lowered the 21 feet. Look close! |
The next few days we spent on getting this blog caught up, cleaning the boat and, most importantly, waiting for our friends Mike and Lois to catch up. We plan to cruise to Chicago with them and on to their home port of Pickwick Lake in northern Mississippi where they will complete their "Loop".
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