Mackinac Island-- July 24, 2015

Debbie went to breakfast while I finished up getting all my stuff together.  We loaded the car, checked out and bought tickets for the ferry trip to the island.  The 10 AM ferry goes to the bridge and then to the island.  It is a bit overcast this morning with clouds building.  When we get to the island it is of course packed with people, bicycles and horse drawn carriages.  Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the island…period.  It is a throw back in time and a very quaint and fun place.  The longer we are there the better the weather gets until it is totally sunny and clear….and much warmer than it has been in days.  Mostly when I say it has been cool, it is like our fall weather when it is pleasant during the days and chilly at night.  Today the sun was hot.  We had lunch and shopped until there weren't any stores we hadn’t checked out then we headed back to get the ferry back to St. Ignace and head on to Gaylord which is our stop for tonight.  Luckily we were able to check into the hotel early and I have spent the time catching up on writing the blog and we needed to update our expense spreadsheet.  We had the balance of our lunch salads for dinner and are going to finish the day with some TV.  Tomorrow we will be going to Sleeping Bear Dunes.  Another day in the books.

 

 

St. Agnes or Ignace…July 23, 2015

It was only about 100 miles from Sault St. Marie to St. Ignace.  We hadn’t heard anyone pronounce the name so we had no idea how to say it.  Another boring drive….not even billboards to read.  The scenery in the Upper Peninsula is really bland….not hills or mountains, no billboards, very few houses or farms.  The annual snowfall in this area is 300 inches average.  Who can deal with that and how do you get around?  Snowmobile apparently.  Anyway, the drive in this area was hard and both of us were having to keep the other awake because it was so boring. Just before we got to the St. Ignace exit, we found Castle Rock which has the tale about Paul Bunion coming here with Babe.  Ok then.  It was the only rock in the area so who are we to argue?   We found the hotel and were able to check in early.  It is a Best Western and very old but well maintained.  Actually there are no rooms at any of these places regardless of how they look since this is their high season and all of them are booked solid.  We are grateful they recently added an elevator…yay!  Our room is huge and has a balcony that overlooks Lake Huron…very nice. 

It’s mid afternoon so we head out to explore the town and see what’s here.  It’s not a big place but a picturesque area by the water complete with lighthouse and pretty park area. Just behind the hotel is a residential street and we found this little house.  It was just too cute for words.   We also know that the Indian casino we played at last night has one nearby.  We checked out some stores then headed to find the casino which we did.  We didn’t stay long.  We ate dinner at a place on the downtown water front.  We ate outside on the deck and it was very nice.  When we got back to the room the AC wasn’t working well and was so loud we couldn’t even hear the TV.  We turned it off and opened the door since it was cool outside.  Sadly, neither of us slept well last night.  Debbie’s legs were bothering her so she was up walking and I was just hot since there was no way to move the air around.  Hmmmm…maybe we are getting old?  So ended another day.