September 22, 2006

Mackinaw City and St. Ignace
It took less than five hours to drive from Toledo, Ohio to Michigan’s upper peninsula, where, according to t-shirts for sale everywhere, UP residents refer to themselves as “Yoopers.” We arrived at 4 PM, allowing us to get a good view and some photos of the five-mile long Mackinac Bridge, which spans the distance between Mackinaw City and St. Ignace, with Lake Michigan to the left and Lake Huron to the right. Unfortunately, all the tourist attractions closed at 4, so there wasn’t much to do. We had plans to stay at a Comfort Inn in St. Ignace, so after roaming around a bit in the extremely tourist-oriented Mackinaw City, we navigated the bridge to the other side. St Ignace is a bit larger (although still touristy) than Mackinaw City. After checking into our hotel, we went in search of someplace to eat, and ended up at the Mackinaw Grille, where we had a boiled whitefish dinner (very good if you're fond of Old Bay seasoning). Apparently whitefish is indigenous to this area and prolific. The other lake fish available are trout and herring, both of which taste similar to whitefish, the actual taste varying depending on the seasoning used to prepare the dish. The other claim to fame for this area appears to be homemade fudge. There are fudge shops on every corner.

Our hotel was right on the shore of Lake Huron. We had a room with a view.

September 24, 2006

Mackinac Island
Because we awoke to rain in the morning, we were in a quandary as to what to do—take the ferry over to Mackinac Island for the day, or travel north to Sault Ste. Marie to try and do indoor things. But, by the time we were ready to start out, the rain had stopped and some blue sky was showing through. We decided to take a chance on Mackinac Island. Good decision. The weather improved throughout the day, ending spectacularly.

Mackinac Island put us in mind of Acadia, Maine, in that it was historically a playground of the rich and famous. Since the turn of the century, people of means have been vacationing here, including at least six U.S. presidents. In fact, some of the rooms in the Grand Hotel were decorated by their wives. The Grand Hotel (which apparently was considered an eyesore by year-round residents when it was first built) has attracted tycoons with its 130 uniquely decorated rooms and cliff view of Lake Huron since it was built in the late 1800s. At $400 per night for the broom closet, it was not in our budget. In fact, the $12 fee per person just to set foot on the property to have a look around was also outrageously and by principal not in our budget. They did not charge to take a few photos of the outside from a distance, so that's what we did.

The visit to the island was enjoyable, however we found it to be overall too expensive. The $20 per person fee for a 20-minute each way ferry ride to get there was steep. All the ferry companies charge the same price—no price wars here. There are no cars allowed on the island, and transportation consists of horses-drawn carriages, bicycles, and shank's mare. We signed up for a narrated 1.5 hour carriage ride around the island. The narration turned out to be college students quipping with bad canned jokes—very little of historical value. They dropped us off at Fort Mackinac, which at $9.50 per person, turned out to be the best value of the day. The displays, as well as the park rangers, who gave talks and demonstrated period canon and rifle firing, were informative. We were supposed to catch a return carriage back down to the town, but ended up walking back down as the supposedly scheduled last carriage of the day never appeared. Just as well as we saw most of what we had missed on the way up in the carriage with the yakkety driver. As it turned out, we could have seen everything included on the tour and more by skipping it and saving the outrageous $19 apiece—we noticed once back down the hill again that the fort was only a short, but steep walk up the hill in the opposite direction.

We caught the last ferry off the island at 6 PM and ate dinner in St. Ignace at the tiny Bessie’s Pasties (pronounced pass-ties, not pays-ties), touted as having the best Cornish pasties around. We weren’t disappointed. Often the little dives, though sometimes off-putting in appearance, have the best food (and the best local color).

Our sleeping destination for the night was Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. We crossed over the Canadian border without incident and arrived just after dusk, to be greeted by the smoke stacks that guard the southern entrance to the city. Always one for dramatic photos opps, I was attracted to the plumes of steam (hopefully it wasn't anything more innocuous than that!) rising from the stacks. I had to wait until we were ensconced in our hotel room (a Quality Inn or some such place that was unremarkable enough that I didn't even mention it in my trip notes) to get a shot of the factory our window faced. If nothing else, it's a good shot for an anti-air pollution campaign. Aside from having to miss seeing the Soo Locks, we were glad we had made the decision to spend our time in Mackinaw City instead of Sault Ste. Marie. (Sorry citizens of Sault—maybe next time.)

Note: We never did figure out when and where to use Mackinaw vs. Mackinac as the correct usage for such named sites in the area. They seemed to be used interchangeably.