Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City

We had a great run on Lake Huron from De Tour, MI to Mackinaw Island. Lake Huron was calm! What? How can that be? Water does not get calm – Wow, we actually saw it. We were nervous about getting a spot at Mackinaw as the ones not reservable are first come, first served. We arrived around 10 am and there were plenty available. They put us in a 30 foot dock on the far side away from the ferries. The folks along the dock closest to the ferry boats felt they had it worse. You see, the ferry boats come in every 15 minutes from both St. Ignace and Mackinaw City. They don’t believe is slowing down coming into the harbor and their wake follows them in . . . right to the city docks where all the pleasure craft are moored. Oh, and the docks are fixed at a height of about 5 feet above the water. Each dock had a solid ladder attached so boaters could climb up onto the dock.

Aside from the boat rocking from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. from the ferries, Mackinaw was a lot of fun. There were sounds of horses clopping along the main street to the combined smell of manure and sugar. Yes, it was an odd combination. Mackinaw Island is known for fudge and Ice Cream shops and no cars are allowed on the island. There are bikes and horses available for rental. They are very good at sweeping all the manure off the streets all day long. Hopefully, the sweepers are paid a good wage. At times it was difficult to walk on the sidewalks as they were filled with people, almost all brought over from the mainland for the day. After 5 p.m. the crowds did start to thin and restaurants had tables available.

There was a fort located on the bluff overlooking the marina. We often heard the bugle calls, muskets and cannon during the day. It is now a Michigan state park with demonstrations of life at the fort during the 1800’s. We took the carriage tour during the day, visited the fort then walked down to the Grand Hotel which is a major tourist thing to do on the Island. Remember the movie “Somewhere in Time” with Christopher Reeves? That was filmed at the Grand Hotel.

We paid our ‘$12.00 for admittance and had a drink on the famous porch overlooking the gardens, bocce ball courts and swimming pool. Hotel rooms there are $1,000 a night during the tourist season. The hotel was built in 93 days. Afterwards, we walked back to the other side of town to where the marina was located.

After a couple of days taking the abuse from the ferries, we headed over to Mackinaw City for the American Tug Rendezvous. There are about ten tugs in attendance. Everyone seems to have a tug in common with each other. Kevin was putting up the rear canvas on the boat deck and had plenty of offers of assistance. Meanwhile, Bev was waxing the front of the flybridge. Surprisingly, there were no offers of help. (tee hee). Everyone in attendance has been very nice and welcoming. Almost all of the owners of the 34/36 foot tugs have been admiring the larger 41/43 foot tugs. Hmmm, wonder how long it will be before there are more of the larger tugs coming to the rendezvous.

The rendezvous came to an end and we headed out on Sunday morning for Petoskey.
As usual, it was a bouncy, lumpy trip. You know, beam seas. Why Petoskey . . . it is known for shopping. Kevin’s phone died and we needed a T-mobile store. Petoskey is one of the few towns that has one. Nearby is a Fred Meyer’s type of grocery store called Meijers. It is pronounced the same as Meyer. Go figure. Anyway, Kevin has a new phone and we have resupplied the boat with everything as we were fairly low on all our provisions. Petoskey is also known as having a lot of high end stores from both Rodeo Drive in California and Fort Lauderdale. Tomorrow, August 5, we head to Leland Mi, near the Michigan dunes. The weather looks good for the trip.