St Ignace & Mackinaw City

It has been chilly this week in the UP!   While the rest of the country is heating up - I have had to dig out some sweatshirts in the evening.   The days have been mostly sunny and perfect.  Bill found us our 70s!

We spent a day on Mackinac Island - what a fun day full of lots of fun!   I had to make a separate page for that day with all the photos!  

We took a day trip to Saulte Sainte Marie (US side) to visit the Soo Locks.  Very interesting museum and so fun to watch a massive boat come in.  It is hard to scale these.  The green one, Ruddy, was just coming in.  The first picture it is hard to see it is even a ship - it looks like a wall.  By the time it left the brown anchor you see in the 2nd picture was below the wall.  The difference in Lake Superior and Lake Heron is 21 feet through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. If the lock wasn't there it would be a 21' waterfall.  

The second ship which is a Candian vessel called the Frontenac.  We watched it come all the way into the lock -it never hit the side wall once.   :)  It is amazing how they can come in such a narrow area.  This one is heading to Wisconsin - likely for ore.  

We drove over the big bridge and spent time in Mackinaw City.  It is definitely a busier town then St Ignace. It was a cooler rainy day so mostly we did some siteseeing from the truck.  

We drove out to Manistique to see the Big Spring at Kitch-iti-kipi Park.   It is so clear!   There is a 'ferry' that runs on a cable that you can go out to the other end.  A big wheel moves it from one end to the other.  Very fun.   Huge lake trout swimming around and you can see the spring where the spring water bubbles up.  

Our last day we drove out to Castle Rock.  Somehow Bill didn't think I should try this climb in my boot.  It looked a lot bigger than when I first looked at it. We did have to take a pic of Paul Bunyan thought - someone described him on my Roadside App as looking like he is sitting on the toilet and now that is all I can see!  LOL!  I don't know why Babe is sticking his tongue out.   So instead we drove around the city and took one last picture of the big bridge.   Tomorrow we will be crossing it again - trailer in tow - as we head for Traverse City.  

August 2022