Monday, September 11: We took the Shepler’s Ferry to Mackinac Island. It’s a fascinating place to visit again and again. There are no motor vehicles allowed on the island, and so you have to walk, ride a bike or rent a carriage to get anywhere. We opted to rent bikes first and ride around the 8-mile island (another tradition). It was a fun but tiring adventure. It had been years since I had ridden a bike period. No crashes to report, but we all had TBS or Tired Butt Syndrome (as my Dad calls it). You ride alongside the water almost the entire ride, and it is incredibly beautiful.
Once we finished our ride, we had a picnic lunch and then Mom and I went to Fort Mackinac while Dad opted to check out the shops. It’s a long walk up the hill to the fort especially after an 8-mile bike ride. I had never been inside the fort before, and it was rather fascinating to walk through. Lots of old historic buildings to tour, guides demonstrating guns and cannons, spectacular views from the hilltop of the Mackinac scenes below, etc. It was well worth the cost.
Afterwards, we visited a few shops and of course, made our traditional purchases of ice cream and fudge. After all, you can’t visit Mackinac Island without getting some delicious fudge. There are at least a dozen fudge shops along the strip along with oodles of tourist shops.
Tuesday, September 12: It rained most of the day, but that wasn’t going to keep us from our schedule. We spent a great portion of the day driving anyway, and this day was also full of first-time visits to new sites. We drove to the Fayette Historic Townsite and toured it for FREE with our umbrellas armed and ready. Fayette was once home to a bustling iron ore industry in the 1870-1890’s. It’s a ghost town now—complete with abandoned buildings, remnants of production, etc. The splendid thing about Fayette was the view. The town was built along the Bay de Noc, and the lovely water is on all sides of the town. On one side, the incredible Dolomite Cliffs reminded me of what I picture the Cliffs of Dover in England to be like. [Sigh!] They are probably nothing alike, but it tingled my imagination anyway…
Our 2nd stop of the day was to Kitch-Iti-Kipi or “The Big Spring.” This was another free place to visit! It was this fantastic out-of-the-way spring with transparent green water filled and large fish everywhere. You maneuver this small boat across the water on cables, and along the way, you can see through the bottom of the boat and glimpse the large fish in the 45 foot bubbling spring beneath you. We encountered a strange looking bird on the shoreline, too. He just sat there, pooping in the water. It was bit odd, but we just couldn’t look away. It was one of those odd moments, where you catch yourself just staring!
My Mom spent the whole rest of the week trying to say the name of the spring correctly. It is properly said as “Kitchety-kippi,” but she comically didn’t say it that way! My Dad and I correcter her at first, but eventually we gave up and tried to stop grimacing each time she told yet another “perfect stranger” about our visits to “Kipi-Ippi” or something like that. I love my Mom! Never a dull moment with her…
Our 3rd stop on our driving tour was the Seul Choix Lighthouse near Gulliver. The Seul Choix Lighthouse (pronounced “Sis-schwa” meaning “only choice”) was already partially closed up when we arrived for our tour, but my Mom boldly approached the buildings and found one unlocked door and proceeded to get our group in for a quick FREE tour.
After finishing up our FREE adventures for the day, we headed to Manistique for dinner at the Wolf Den. This was one of several places we stopped that took “cash or check only.” This place was also a hotel, and I found it odd that they didn’t take credit cards at all. Hmmmm…
On the way back to our cabin, we stopped at the Manistique Harbor so that I could take pictures of the lighthouse and walk the boardwalk. It was another beautiful coastline.
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