Wed Aug 30: Mac Island to Mackinaw City

The most important thing about today is that it is Claire's BIRTHDAY!!!  Happy 26 to our favorite daughter - we hope this next trip around the sun brings you joy and happiness...

Now on to our regularly scheduled programming --

While Rick was getting the boat ready to go, I made a quick fudge sortie.  I couldn't decide if it would be a better story if we DIDN'T get fudge in the Fudge Capital, or if we DID.  (I'm all about the story.)  I decided to use the kids' leftover college money, and buy fudge. I bought three pieces, to save money, with the idea that we can give Claire some.  HAHAHAHAHAHA....  As though it will last that long....

It was a gorgeous day - but MAN was it bouncy. And this was a pretty good wave day.  But the waves were ‘disorganized’, meaning there was no real pattern for the boat/us to settle in to. We were grateful to only have 6 miles to go….

The two channel markers as you come past Mackinac Island and into the Straights of Mackinac.  I think the second one looks like a drowned barn.

The downtown area with the fort up on the hill.

The Grand Hotel with well-behaved ferry passing in front.

Uh-oh...  Here comes the ferry-in-a-hurry. You can see why there were so many wakes in the marina.  There are 3 different ferry routes to the island, each coming every 30 mins.

And the Grand Hotel with crazy ferry passing.

This pirate 🏴‍☠️ ship helped distract us from the wave situation, a bit.  Where there are tourists there will be a pirate ship, fudge, an escape room and a tattoo parlor.

Mack City is just before the famous Mackinac Bridge.  I won’t make you look at too many pix of it now, as I’m sure I will get carried away tomorrow, when we cross under it.

Of course I had a list of thing for us to do in little Mack City.  This giant hot dog was NOT on the list.

On the list was a visit to the Wacky Tiny Taxidermy Museum (thanks, Atlas Obscura) where little vignettes are formed from small stuffed animals. Who WOULDN’T want to visit?!  Sadly it was closed so I only got pix of the window displays.  You’re welcome…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But WAIT!  There’s more!! I had a surprised planned for Rick.

Me (earlier in the week): I have a show I want to take us to on Wed. Do you want to know what it is?  Are you in?

Rick: I’m totally in!  I don’t want to know ahead of time-whatever it is I’ll enjoy it, I trust you.

Rick - at 5pm, when he found out we are going to the Jack Pine Lumber Jack Show:  WHAT?!?!? We’re going WHERE???

🙄🔨

But we had a super fun time - even though we had to ride our bikes 15mins to get there (no Uber). We learned some about the timber industry (those of us who grew up with Paul Bunyan know a lot already).  We learned that many schools in the Midwest and NE have a competitive LUMBER JACK TEAM. What??!!  I didn't know that was even a thing....

Don't know if the video will play...

Check out this video: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0d2zc44992sr3ns256cx2/2023-08-30-20.00.35.mov?rlkey=b18vm7v3m6ivmyxrskc0k858i&dl=0

Later we rode our bikes back (in the dark-Rick is SUCH a good sport) and Rick went to get a pizza while I went to see the bridge lit up at night:

Accident - but fun!

The full Blue Super Moon, celebrating Claire's birthday!

 

Tues Aug 29: Mackinac Island

We woke to a rainy day - I'm glad we walked around yesterday... We were eased into the day by a cannon shot, a ferry horn, goose honks, and multiple wakes.  I've taken to calling the early hour 'geese o'clock', since they LOVE to start the day at 5am with a loud salvo.  I think I prefer the cannon fire.

One of the first things you notice about Mac Island is the smell of horses manure.  Having spent my tweens as a horsewoman, I quite like that smell.  But I do realize that it might be an acquired taste.  Given that as many as 600 horses live/work on the island during the summer, it's a big job to keep the place clean.  Everything is scrubbed down during the night (like Disney Land) and during the day the shovelers are hard at work.  Here is a street sweeper - I am not making that up.

All the manure gets composted.  No wonder the flowers are amazing!

Today was a walking day - with the goal to get to the Grand Hotel and Arch Rock, while seeing everything we could in-between.  This little island somehow has 70+ miles of trails.... The whole island has been designated a Historic Site.  It used to be a national park, and was the second one in the US - created 3 years after Yellowstone.  Now 80% of the island is a state park, and listen to me run my mouth.... Off we go.

First stop was the library, of course. How cute is it?! Plaid carpet, a view and comfy chairs in front of the fireplace.  I'd spend a day or several here...

 

 

 

 

Random door - I love doors, as most of you know.

 

Random gorgeous houses.

 

Walking up the sweeping road that leads to the Grand Hotel, you come first to the Little Stone Church.

It's very small and cozy inside, with interesting stained glass.

 

 

 

 

The Grand Hotel is a National Historic Landmark, and you can't go into the hotel or onto its famous 660' long porch (world's largest) without being a guest, or paying $10/person.  I am too cheap for that, so I just skulked around until no one was looking and walked up to take this shot.  Rick hid in the bushes and pretended not to know me...

Horse and wagon topiary!

 

Next we hiked over hill and dale to get to Arch Rock.  We cruised by it yesterday so we could get a pic from the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the more well known aspects of the island is that the movie Somewhere in Time was filmed here. There are many landmarks noted for those who are interested.  Oddly, I recently watched this it.  Rick was out of town and I figured I couldn't go wrong with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour!  

Three-in-hand

This is what a traffic jam looks like on the island!

Late afternoon the rain moved in again, so we quickly took some pictures of the harbor and then booked it for the comfy (albiet bouncy) boat.

You can see Blue Horizon right above the 'x' in this sentence, on the outside of the dock.

 

 

Later we zipped over to 'America's Oldest Grocery Store' to get dinner fixings.  I hope the produce is not America's oldest.

Right before bed we found out that there is one type of vehicle allowed on the island - and thank goodness for it.  An ambulance appeared with EMS to carry away an older woman who fell on the boat across from us and looked to have sustained a head wound.  Blood everywhere.  We felt concern for that couple, and a renewed awareness that we must be careful. This marina bounces like crazy, with the constant flow of ferries - it could easily have been us.

Mon Aug 28: Les Cheneaux to Mackinac Island

Alrighty-let’s just get right to the elephant in the room.  There is a Mackinac Island, a Mackinac Bridge, Mackinac Lighthouse and a Mackinaw City. ALL of them are pronounced mack-in-aw.  The city got sick of mispronunciation, held a referendum and … to hell with history.  The original word was Ojibwa-mishimikinaak=Big Turtle. The French Canadians shortened it to Mackinac. Or that's one of the stories, anyway...

Today we were headed for the Big Turtle, the Island. The fudge capital of the world.  They didn't invent fudge, but they sell more of it than any other place.  Rick doesn't believe this, but the internet says there are 13 fudge shops, selling more than 10,000 lbs daily.  Yikes!  Remember that it's an island - absolutely everything has to be brought in.  My source says 10 tons of sugar is brought in each week.  Don't look at me - we haven't eaten any yet...

 

It was a busy day on the water.  More boats than we have seen in a long time.

 

 

This may look like a PushMe-PullYou, but it's two freighters passing each other.

I tried this in my 20s.  Anyone else?!

Huh - another cruise ship.  This past weekend was the famous Fudge Festival (people who come to visit Mackinac Island used to be called 'fudgies'!) and it was pretty crowded. Hopefully they are all leaving today.

Having had an unfortunate experience with this kind of post in the past, we are pretty skittish around them.  But Rick has learned a lot in 4 years and things were looking smooth until there was this tremendous BOOM -- just as we went past them to tie up.  He almost had a stroke, and I almost fell overboard.  Several possible scenarios flashed through our respective brains - most involving massive insurance claims.  But, after things calmed down, we realized it was a cannon at the fort on the hill right above us firing at 1pm, as it does.  Nothing on the boat was damaged. But the timing was UNCANNY and it took us a long time to once again breath normally.

First up was the 8-mile ride around the perimeter of the island.  There were plenty of people, but it was still very enjoyable. There are about 500 year-round residents, and 14,500 summer visitors.  Cars are banned, making Mackinac Island home to the only carless highway in the US, M-185, which we rode on!

Here is Rick in front of the Mackinac Bridge, which we hope to cross under on Thurs.

The water is stunningly clear (thanks, Zebra Muscles) - too bad it's too cold to swim.  We learned the perfect word for something this clear; pellucid.= translucently clear...

The main drag is a jumble of fudge shops, Victorian detail, bikes and horse-draw conveyances.

Of course there are tour carriages, but the horses are used for everything.There was one horse-drawn cart filled with Amazon boxes!  One carriage was full of people going to the famous Grand Hotel, and attached to the back of the carriage was a luggage cart with all their luggage.

The trash truck.

Your typical propane delivery vehicle.

All those things you order online gotta get to your house somehow!

Fudge!! We are fudgies!!!

Lots more to come - we have tomorrow here as well....

Almost full Super Blue Moon!  Goodnight...