Glimpses of Mackinac

Colorful kayaks float just beyond Arch Rock in the waters surrounding Mackinac Island. We enjoyed a carriage tour with a stop at Arch Rock where you look out on the sparkling waters of the Straits of Mackinac.

As a part of the carriage tour there is an option to view the butterflies at a Butterfly Conservatory on Surrey Hill. Hundreds of the colorful insects flutter and float throughout a fairly large indoor space. There are so many that visitors are warned to check their clothing for hitchhiker butterflies before you leave.

August nights that are warm and calm bring beauty to the Straits of Mackinac. This weekend, with an almost full moon, brought magical views of the Big Mac Bridge, including this one of a freighter gliding eastward through the Straits.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

2002 Trip: Straits of Mackinac to Wisconsin Farm

Saturday, October 5, 2002 dawned cloudy and cool. We were camped at Straits State Park in St. Ignace and had a long drive ahead of us that day. It was time to go home and the drive ahead would be across US 2, one of the most scenic highways in the state, if not in the country. The highway parallels the Straits and Lake Michigan for miles. Some of the roadway is level with the lake; some runs along bluffs and beaches. It's a beautiful drive.

Val with Sam the Buck

We stopped at Deer Ranch, just west of St. Ignace. The owners are authorized by the state to keep and display white tail deer. Mom especially enjoyed seeing the animals. Ed and I are less enamored with deer, since we have had multiple car-deer episodes in our Huron County/Eastern Michigan travels.

Birch trees shine in the autumn sun at Cut River in Michigan's UP

We pulled off at Cut River to savor the scenery. The Cut River bridge is high above the lake and the river. There is a staircase that leads to the lakeshore and then a hiking trail that follows the river and circles around to the parking lot. Ed and I often take the trail, a half hour hike, but with Mom and Dad, we enjoyed the sights and pressed on to Wisconsin.

Home looked good to Mom and Dad that night. Ed and I stayed the night. The next morning we took off for Michigan. We had rented the motorhome from a place in Houghton Lake, Michigan, and needed to return the vehicle and pick up our car.

Rainstorm cross the Straits -- View from parking lot at foot of Bridge
St. Ignace side -- October 6, 2002

The weather did not stay in our favor. By the time we crossed the Big Mac Bridge late that day, a rainstorm was sweeping across the Straits. I really don't want to cross the Bridge in that kind of weather in a high riding RV again. As a matter of fact, the Bridge Authority usually closes the Bridge when the weather is bad. We never found out if there was a closure that night, as we were headed for Houghton and the RV place.

So, after ten years, it has been good to look back. Travel gives us memories and experiences that we carry forward into our lives. It brings people together and makes one realize the preciousness of time and life. And travel makes home look better.

I'm glad that we went.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

2002 Trip: The Straits and Mackinac Island

Scrabble scores -- looks like Ed won this game

Friday, October 4, 2002 took us to Mackinac Island. We took the ferry from St. Ignace and spent the day on the island. The weather had turned cool and rainy, so in the morning we holed up in the motorhome, avoiding the rain and playing Scrabble.

By late morning we were on the ferry, bound for Mackinac Island which is situated in the Straits of Mackinac, east of the Big Mac Bridge.

We rode the carriages behind teams of horses and enjoyed the car-free ambiance of the island. Mackinac gets visitors for the fall color season, but by late October the Great Lakes can be a cold and treacherous place to be. The ferries run limited schedules. Many businesses on the island close after fall color.

The north shore of the Straits with Mackinac Island in the distance

Stan and Val had not been back to island since John and Liesl's wedding in 1998, so we had a good time having lunch at Mission Point Resort, the site of their wedding.  Ed and I have been to the island many times. My first visit there was on our honeymoon in 1968. Ed, being a native Michiganian (I refuse to call us "Michiganders"), had visited Mackinac numerous times as a kid.

Val (left) and Wanda with the Mission Point Moose --
I look like I have had one too many days of camping!

The views of the Straits and of the Bridge from the state park in St. Ignace are stunning. Just seeing the Big Mac Bridge is always an uplifting experience for me.

The Mackinac Bridge, from the St. Ignace shore -- October 2002

The Bridge somehow marks Michigan as a place where people work together to get big stuff done, like building a roadway across five miles of water. Michigan, with its Upper Peninsula and Yoopers (think UP-ers, but pronounce it YOU-purrs) and Lower Peninsula (the trolls live below the bridge), became even more of a Great Lakes State when the two peninsulas were united by the Bridge. Even us trolls in the Lower Peninsula defend the Upper Peninsula with vehemence.

We are one state with lots of geography. Period. End of lecture. . .and end of today's blog post.

Tomorrow's post: Straits to Wisconsin Farm

A side note: I planned five blog posts for this week -- one for each day of the work week -- and then discovered that I had taken photographs on the sixth day of the trip, a Saturday. So there will be a final post tomorrow. The posts have not appeared first thing in the morning this week. It has taken me much longer to write and edit than I anticipated. There have been a few tears. And there has been an email/computer/wireless issue. Ah, one perseveres.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Crossing The Big Mac Bridge

We crossed the Mackinac Bridge in very limited visibility last Wednesday on our way to visit my father in Wisconsin. This video gives you an idea of what winter driving is like in Michigan this year and, of course, there is the added drama of being on the Bridge in December's risky weather.