Our U.P.Vacation-Day 4

Wednesday July 24th

I'm so glad there is a small coffee maker in our room here at Comfort Inn Beachside so I can take my first cup of coffee with me as I quietly, (so as not to disturb my Sweetie who is still sleeping), open the sliding glass door onto the patio and walk outside to enjoy the early morning sunshine on Lake Huron.  There aren't quite as many seagulls on the lawn this morning as there was yesterday evening when we arrived here, however quite a few of their feathers are fluttering on the grass!  I walk out to the "beach", while thinking I am about to put my toes in the waters of Lake Huron, my 3rd Great Lake!  It is not to be though because this area of the beach is slimy rocks and mud!  I'll have to wait until I get over onto Mackinac Island later today.

We chose the Star Line Ferry (the only Hydro-Jet Ferries) for our trip over to the Island of Mackinac, and had went online before we left home to purchase our tickets.  We got an early start this morning to be on the 8:20 a.m. Ferry.

This is just a portion of the St. Ignace, Mi. harbor.

After we boarded the Ferry at the St. Ignace Main Dock, the Star Line Ferry makes its way over to the Railroad Dock to pick up more passengers.  Even then, there is very few people on this early morning crossing.  

This is the remnants of the old Railroad Dock, a serene setting in the early morning sun.

We went by the St. Ignace Lighthouse.

We can see the famous 5-mile long Mackinac Bridge in the distance behind the lighthouse.

And there is that cool 30-foot tall jet spray of water behind our ferry!

And this is the famous old Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.  We will be riding our bikes right by it later this morning.

Can you tell that our weather today is sunny but rather cool!
(BooBoo doesn't seem to mind!  She is just happy to go for another boat ride!)

This is the harbor on Mackinac Island.  Such a beautiful setting!

 

The streets of Mackinac Island are filled with walkers, bikers, and horse-drawn carriages and buggies--no motorized vehicles.

 

 

We have rented a couple of bicycles and have begun our ride around the perimeter of Mackinac Island on Lake Shore Road, and there is Tom looking back to see if I am still behind him.  "Hi Sweetie, I just took your picture"!  The road narrows a little as we leave the busy waterfront surrounding the harbor with all the shops, hotels, cafes, and tourists.

 

We pass by some old hotels along the way, and if you are a guest there, they have these couriers that will pedal your luggage from the dock to your hotel for you if you wish.  (for a fee, I'm sure)

 

 These guys work hard, biking with a trailer full of luggage.  One guy we saw had a rack built onto the front of his bicycle and had the pieces of luggage piled so high in front of himself he had trouble seeing over the top and was basically having to walk his bike along on the sidewalk calling out "Excuse me, Excuse me, coming thru".

 

 

There are a few other bike riders going along on this narrow road that completely encircles the Island.  We pass by some beautiful old churches!

 

 

We go by Mission Point.

 

We get some fellow tourist/bikers to snap our photo at Arch Rock.

What an incredible day for a bike ride and such awesome scenery along the way!

 Look at all the little "rock cairns" going up along this beach!

 

This place was on the far side of the Island, all by itself, no sign, or anything, so we do not know what it was, but it sure looked cool and had a commanding view of Lake Huron!

 

 

I finally get to put my feet in my 3rd Great Lake, Lake Huron!

 

 

 

We pass by Point St. Clair, then Point aux Pins, before reaching the British Landing Historical Site.

 

We pedal up the steep hill to the historic battlefield site and then enjoy the thrilling downhill back to the beach!

 

I think I heard BooBoo screaming "Weeeeeee" all the way down the hill!

 

Here are a couple of interesting fact signs we saw along our way.  Mackinac Island State Park covers most of the surface of the Island.

 

Remember our to-go box of pizza and cheesy/parmesan garlic bread that we carried out from Java Joe's Restaurant last night, well when we made it back to the harbor area and after returning our bikes, we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed our lunch!

That is a statue of Father Marquette in the middle of Marquette Park with Fort Mackinac in the background.  We went thru the Fort Mackinac Visitors Center/museum and read a lot about it and looked at a lot of large mounted photos depicting the historical events, so we opted not to go into the Fort itself.

 

Instead we took a walk around town and made a big loop that took us right by the Grand Hotel. ($10 just to walk inside to look)  No thank you.  The grounds surrounding the Hotel are gorgeous!  It was quite hectic there with lots of tourists milling about!

 

After passing by the oldest house on the Island, the Biddle House, we stopped in a small Ice Cream/Candy Shop so I could get a Mackinac Island Peanut Butter Fudge ice cream cone!  Simply delicious!

 

Lots of churches on the Island!

 

We saw a nice view of the ferry that would soon take us back to St. Ignace.  We are so glad we were up early this morning and came to the Island early before it got so crowded with tourists in the afternoon!

 

In my next post I will tell you about the rest of our Day 4 as we go to Drummond Island and arrive at Greenstone and Thimbleberry's house that evening!