Rise and shine, 7 am, we're on the road heading North. 3 1/2 hours later, we're at St. Ignace, and on the ferry heading over to Mackinac Island. So we're clear, that's pronounced Mack-i-naw.
Weather on Saturday was picture-perfect; high about 70 degrees, bright sunshine all day. Started our time on the island by picking up lunch, and then we took a horse carriage tour of the island (Mackinac Island does not have any motorized vehicles). Ended the tour at Fort Mackinac, where we paid the admission and went inside this refurbished post. They've done a nice job of showing the way the post looked in the late 1800's, and, the highlight was the rifle firing demonstration.
Matthew, particularly, was very taken with the demonstration and was the first one over to talk with the soldiers afterwards.
We concluded our time on the Island by renting some bikes and taking what turns out to be the first Family Bike Ride....we did the 8-mile circuit around the perimeter of the island. Christopher and Matthew did fairly well, no falls, no spills, but, didn't really stay on the right side of the road and, in Matthew's case, wasn't paying attention once and ran his bike through a pile of horse manure. Oops.
Took the ferry back over to St. Ignace, and, by mutual consent, agreed to an easy dinner of pizza delivery. Took the boys to the pool, came back and had dinner, watched the Penguins, went out for the bonfire the hotel has every night, and ended the night watching the Penguins play like minor leaguers.
Hotel is two rooms, king bed in one room, double bed on the other side. Choosing which two boys have to sleep together could be a tricky parental task, but, thankfully, Christopher makes this easy for us. He's the only boy that sleeps "au natural" and the other two want nothing to do with THAT, so, problem solved.
Sunday
Leave St. Ignace after having breakfast and head north to Sault Ste. Marie. Get there at 10:30 just in time to hop on the boat tour. Big mistake, 2 hours of our lives we'll never get back. I mean, going through the Soo Locks was cool (it's the set of locks that makes transport of goods from Lake Superior to Lake Huron possible), but, the there must be a real lack of things to see around Sault Ste. Marie since one of the highlights of the tour was 20 minutes in and around the Algoma Steel Mill. Which, I guess is cool for some people, but, if I wanted a mill tour, I'd head down the Mon.
After St. Ignace we headed west to Whitefish Point and the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Here you can find the bell from the Edmund Fitzerald. Again, the museum and lighthouse were really well done, the boys enjoyed walking through the museum and having Mom explain what the exhibits were and the ships they were talking about and enjoyed seeing how the lighthouse keepers lived. Suzanne kept referring to the Big Fitz as the Ella Fitzgerald, so, I had to point out at one point the difference between jazz legends and subjects of Gordon Lightfoot songs.....
Last stop on the tour of the Upper Peninsula was Tahquamenon Falls. Two sets of waterfalls, Upper and Lower, and the Upper Falls are the largest east of the Mississippi outside of that big set on the Niagara River.
From Wikipedia...."the water is notably brown in color from the tannins leached from the cedar swamps which the river drains"
At some point, Suzanne and I had the idea that the hike from the Upper to the Lower falls was only 2 miles, so, me and the boys agreed to do the hike and meet Mom and the car down at the Lower Falls. Turns out, it's 4 miles, and by the time I figured that out (the sign at the trail head) it was too late to go back. Four miles of medium difficulty trail. So, it took us about 90 minutes to make the hike, up and down hills, along the river edge. Boys did really well on the hike, but, were very happy to see Mom when we got to the Lower Falls.
Weather on Sunday was mostly cloudy; very cloudy and just starting to rain at Whitefish point, but, sunny at Tahq falls and then slowly clouding over as we walked to the Lower Falls. Right as we began to leave the park the rain began, and, it rained all the way back to St. Ignace with thunder and lightning. A good trip though, Kevin's been studying Mars and had a field trip recently to the space museum in Kalamazoo as part of a "mission to Mars", so, it was cool to listen live to CNN as we drove back to the hotel as the Phoenix Mars Lander arrived and landed on Mars.
Another trip to the swimming pool that night (through the wind and the rain to get from the hotel building to the pool building...brrrr!) and that was that.
Monday was pretty boring...very foggy; but, went over to Mackinaw City (yes, this time it has the 'w' at the end. Mackinaw City is the city on the Lower Peninsula side of the bridge; St. Ignace is the Upper Peninsula city). Did some light shopping, and then loaded up and headed home.
