St. Ignace Michigan to Frankenmuth Michigan, The End of THE Trip, THE Encore'

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

AUGUST 17, 2013

Five years to the day, I am presenting the last post of the THE Trip, THE Encore'.  We will have one more day on the road, a 100 mile drive from Frankenmuth to our stick built home in SE Michigan.  This however, was our last "vaca" day, as it was not all about driving, we managed to add a bit of "being a tourist in our own state" into the day/evening.  Yes, it took me 5 years to finish these tour reports. Seems life keeps happening and interfering with my blogging time.  LOL . That's my story and I am sticking to it!  Snicker.

So, we are going to drive from St. Ignace, over the Mackinaw Bridge and south to Frankenmuth where we will stay for the night before the last trudge home.  This day is a 210 mile day.  That will get us to about 100 miles from home.

Here is my trusty iPad, I love knowing where I am supposed to be and where I think I am and where the GPS thinks I am. I use several different mapping apps, one for campgrounds, another for truck friendly situations, several for services available along our routes.  And, yes, I have been known to have them all open at the same time. This shows us as we approach the Big Mac Bridge - - 

This was taken just seconds later, shows the view out the front windshield.

More views as we cross the Big Mac:

There is one of the jet ferries with it's rooster tail:

This is Fort Michilimackinac, a fort and trading post.  You can take tours and we highly recommend them for friends that are history buffs.

No drive through Michigan's farm land would be complete without a few farm photos:

We arrived in Frankenmuth, unhooked and drove to town for a "evening" visit and some "famous" chicken dinner. Here are a few photos taken in early evening:

Chickens everywhere:

The last photo of the trip, flowers, fountain and a bit of the moon up there - - 

Thanks for coming along.  Here is a map, drawn backwards (if you follow the numbers, we started at 65 and ended up at 1!  LOL) . More maps can be found in three pages at the top of this blog.

There is a retrospective of the trip, written in September 2013 here.  I posted 288 posts to cover this trip, and that is IF I managed to label each and every one and did not muss that labeling stuff up.  Oh, ya, I am pretty sure I missed a label or two.   LOL

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Mackinaw Island, A Michigan Crown Jewel

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

AUGUST 2013

We spent the entire day at the Island.  Since it was not our first trip, we had no agenda, other than to just enjoy the day.  So, we did.   The weather was fabulous.  Flowers, houses, horses, bikes, fudge, walking around to repeat, flowers, houses, horses and bikes.  

(For those not in the know about this magnificent island, here is a tourism page about it.  The Cliff Notes version - - no automobiles, you walk, bike or are transported about the island via horse power.  It is a historical site, there is a fort. There is the Grand Hotel - - think - - setting for the 1980 film "Somewhere in Time" with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. There are lovely gardens and Victorian homes.  So, start there and enjoy.)

Take a tour of with us, we took the jet ferry over from St. Ignace. Of course there was that lovely light house in St. Ignace to see us off.

Once underway, I was able to catch the rooster tail from our ferry:

Our Big Mac bridge, almost 5 miles, suspension, it opened in 1957.

The Grand Hotel, from the water as we approach the island by ferry.  They serve fantastic meals there, pricy tho.  One time we splurged and had the luncheon buffet. There are not enough oooohs and ahhhhs, and OMGoodnesses to express how wonderful it was.  We sat on that long porch too.  If you ever have the opportunity, we can highly recommend the splurge.  Indeed!!

Just minutes after debarking our ferry, flowers worthy of a capture:

Structures/buoys in the water, always delight, this one is of significant size:

This is the Round Island Lighthouse, registered Michigan historic site, built in 1895.

And, the Victorian homes and flora, sighhhh:

So much to see, so much for Sony to capture.  One of the ferries, rooster tail and all, the buoy, a sea gull and - - - - 

This is the gate to a local home, yea, really!

Another Victorian home and flora:

Quite the view, the Big Mac is out in the distance.  I really could have stood or sat nearby for hours, it was seriously that great:

Lovely:

Oooohhh, time to stop for fuel, err, fudge.  It is said they will not allow guests/visitors to the island to re-board the ferry if they have not purchased fudge.  We have never needed to test that premise, we always buy fudge. Yes, they make it right there.

Bikes, pedestrians and a horse and buggy (with fringe on top too), it's how you get around here:

In all the times we have visited the island, we have never seen this, a UPS truck. (Remember, no motorized vehicles permitted on the island.) Brought in by ferry, driven off the ferry to unload on the dock.  Loaded back on the ferry and taken back to the "mainland", probably Mackinaw Island, although that is a educated guestimate on my part.  That driver has a great route, just saying - - 30 minutes or so each way on the ferry, forced to relax while he rides back and forth to the mainland.  Tough job. 

This taxi will take you to the Grand Hotel:

Want to see the island by horse back, no problem, guided tours available.

More flowers, are we smiling yet??  Of course, we are:

Another spot we could have enjoyed for hours and hours:

Rooster tails and old historic light houses, nice:

Parasailing anyone?

Our day on the island ends with this capture, sweet children, innocently enjoying the water's edge.

The following day we will head over the Big Mac and head south.  We have two more nights and two more days of our trip, THE Trip, THE Encore'.  We will have been on the road for about 10 months, and nope, I was not ready to go home.  It was a fab 10 months!

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A Stroll Around St. Ignace, Michigan

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

AUGUST 2013

We spent the day slowly sightseeing around St. Ignace.  We had never spent a day just lazying around the town, we found it to be quite delightful.  First stop was the Father Marquette National Park where we enjoyed a lovely walk and the grounds, and of course, reviewing our knowledge, or lack thereof, of Father Marquette.

One of the best parts of the park is the walk down to view the Big Mac bridge.

Zoom:

Back in town proper we parked Jolly and walked around town, there were some pretty flowers:

We walked along the shoreline, people watching and boat watching, the following day we would take one of these over to Mackinaw Island.  These are smaller versions of the ferries we usually ride from the Mackinaw City side of the bridge. When the "jet boats" get moving fast they show off with great rooster tails of water.  I believe it is all a show fun thing, those rooster tails, they do make for a great photo tho.  LOL . For the record, unless it is horribly hot, I prefer to sit inside, not on top, it is "breezy" up there, which translates to cool, besides that keeps my hat on my head as well. 

Then, I looked up, neat eh?  No, I have no idea why. 

And, yes, there was a lighthouse here too, sorta like prairie dog photos, one simply cannot take too many.  (Yes, Sony and the zoom at work here.)

As I said, the following day we would visit Mackinaw Island, a sure fire favorite of ours. Even though we have been any number of times, I still managed to take over 200 photos.  Yes, it really is that lovely.



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Ishpeming Michigan to St. Ignace Michigan

Copyright 2018, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

AUGUST 2013

Another day of travel, approximately 180 miles.

Those who have traveled in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan may remember that there are a few "speciality" foods we enjoy.  

So, what are pasties?  THESE, yummy delights, no they are not that other thing (if you web search you will know what I am referring to!  LOL).  The miners in the UP carried these into the mines for a hearty and easy to eat meal.  These can be topped with gravy, or other condiments such as ketchup, purists however will frown on topping them with anything.  The really good ones have rutabagas and potatoes in them (my opinion.)  

You know me, I snap photos of things I find interesting while Man drives. Such as:

We have some lovely waterfalls, this one is along the roadside.  We have hiked to others, all different, all delightful:

Man is particularly fond of, smoked foods, and yes, fish will easily do.

We are driving US 2 along Lake Michigan for many miles.  It's a lovely ride.  This was taken just southeast of Brevort, heading southeasterly.

We have sand dunes along this section of 2:

Big lakes demand a light house or two - - 

Soon we will arrive in the St. Ignace area where we will stay for a few nights.  We have only stayed on that side of the Big Mac bridge a time or two, at least one time the campground was less than acceptable in our opinion. So, we picked a new to us place to stay and it turned out to be very nice, just what we like in a campground.  We will spend three nights and ride over to Mackinaw Island from St. Ignace, another new experience as we have always left from Mackinaw City. 

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