8/20/15 – 8/24/15        Back to the USA         Drummond Island and Mackinac Island

8/20/15                                    Drummond Island, Michigan

The trip to Drummond Island was cloudy and it rained some, but there was not much in the way of waves. Thank you God!

This is Sequatious following us into port

 Before we could get fuel, we were boarded by a U S Customs Agent. He checked our paperwork and asked some questions about items on board and any customs to declare. We had a very nice agent and it didn’t take long.

There wasn’t much here and the weather wasn’t real nice so we stayed on board, had dinner and called it a night.

We woke the next morning to a beautiful day and were anxious to get to our next stop. The waters are really this blue.

 

8/21/15 – 8/24/15        Mackinac Island, Michigan

This trip took us through the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Straits. It was a gorgeous day for the 47 mile trip. We passed some really cool lighthouses on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we neared our destination the sights were so magnificent we knew we would need more than 2 days to really check this place out, so we booked for 4 days. We actually wound up having to wait for the weather to improve and stayed another day. As it turned out we only had sun for the first 2 days.



Fort Mackinac



 

Mackinac Island is not connected to land in any way. You can only get to the island by boat or airplane. They allow no automotive vehicles except emergency vehicles, like fire trucks and ambulances. The major means of transportation is bicycles and horse drawn carriages. It is absolutely amazing to see all of the streets occupied by bikes. There are at least 6 bike rental places and they have a little bit of everything. We also found out that they allow golf carts, but not on the roads.

Below are some shots of the downtown area.

 

This is a truly spectacular port. And it is State Maintained. There is a constant stream of ferry boats into port.

Pic 1589 1591 1590

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The port has its own little Lady Liberty.

 

We did a carriage tour of the island and a tour of the fort.  The carriage tour was of course a horse drawn carriage. We actually stayed aboard and watched as they swapped out horses.

 

A spotlight on the tour was the Arch Rock. This is a natural geological wonder.

View through arch of paddleboarders

View through Arch of shore line

 

 



Arch Rock from the shore



This is a shot of Little Arch which can only be seen from below

Fort Mackinac is maintained in its original state from when it was deactivated. They actually shoot the cannon repeatedly throughout the day. You can see the tourists jump!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another highlight of the Island is the Grand Hotel. It was built in 1887 and it has reputedly the longest continuous porch on record, 660 feet. We stopped in, for a fee, and walked around. It is truly spectacular. There are shops along the lower floor and at the very top there is a copula with wonderful views of the island. The grounds are spectacular also. It also includes a two story lounge where we enjoyed a taste of their hospitality. There is also no tipping aloud in the hotel. Jackets and ties are still required for dinner. They also have an 18 hole golf course and we enjoyed lunch in the Jockey Club. They no longer have horse racing or steeple chases, but they have golf.

 
 

 

Yes they are playing crocket

The weather was cloudy and cool almost every day that we were here. Temperatures only went into the 70’s. Of course they were expecting it to get back into the 80’s when we left.

 Come back next week for our next stops along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

 Happy Birthday on the 30^th to Ken’s daughter Denise!

 

 

 

8/7/15 – 8/17/15          Georgian Bay and North Channel

8/7/15 – 8/12/15          Midland, Ontario – Wye Heritage Marina

Once we entered the Georgian Bay from the last lock on the Trent-Severn, we went right around the corner and into the Wye Heritage Marina, in Midland. We elected this spot because it had all types of maintenance available, and we needed to get the refrigerator serviced. The marina was huge and it was unique in that it had actual roads between the each dock. It was very convenient if you had a car.

 

These are some shots of the area waterways and nature.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The marina provided transportation to and from town, but we had them just drop us of to spend the afternoon at the downtown Midland Marina. The following shots are from downtown.

We found this place back in an alley.

There were murals such as this one all over town, all depicting some element of the heritage of the area.

We finally got the fridge fixed and headed out for our next destination.

8/13/15                                    Sans Souci on Frying Pan Island

Georgian Bay is the home of 30,000 islands. It is also a totally rocky terrain.  We headed through the small craft channel which is an inside route to Frying Pan Island. It does not go out into the bay itself. This route wound around islands and rocks and was very exacting. There is no sandy bottom here. It is gorgeous green waters and rocks. I can’t believe the number of islands that are inhabited.

The shadow you see is the actual rocks formation under the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had to sneak in a lighthouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed into Henry’s. This is a favorite stop on the route. This is not just a marina and restaurant, but it also provides dockage for floatplanes. The fish is always fresh!

 

8/14/15                        St Amant’s Waterfornt Marina in Brit                     

We headed out into Georgian Bay planning to run across the bay and it got a little rough so we went back to the small craft route. Here are some shots along our way.



Point Au Baril Lighthouse is open for tours

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed into St. Amant’s Marina, had dinner, and spent a quiet night.

 

8/15/15                        Sportsman Inn in Kilarney

We headed out to take a straight shot across Georgian Bay in a soupy fog which we expected to lift. It finally did, about ¾ of the way to into the trip. We had very limited visibility for the first 3 -4 hours. Thank God for electronics and a smooth sea, oops that is a smooth  bay! I didn’t get many pictures along the way, but this was like travelling in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, so there wasn’t a lot to take pictures of anyway. The below picture is of a remaining fog bank at the foot of the area we were heading into.

 

We stop for the night in Kilarney, Ontario. Sportsman Inn was a very pretty place and the hospitality was wonderful. They even had their own Spa across the river on the island.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they had the first Boat In Theatre I have ever seen. Yep, you pull your boat in along the docks and you tune in to an FM station for the audio. I was really disappointed that they weren’t having a show the night we were there. Especially since the shot was taken from our back deck.

 

Here is another new sight. I don’t know who it belongs to, but it was just across the river also.

 

And this was our last stop on the Georgian Bay.

 8/16/15-8/17/15                       Little Current on Manitoulin Island

 On leaving Kilarney, we entered the North Channel. And made the short trip to Little Current.
 



This will be a jigsaw puzzle also

This was a cute little town centered around the waterfront.
 

We seem to have finally caught up with a lot of the other loopers. There were about 8 others here.

8/18/15 – 8/19/15        Blind River

The North Channel is actually the North Channel of Lake Huron. Once again this is some really rocky water. We left in very cloudy weather and it never really cleared up. At least the water was rather calm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chop picked up a little as we pulled into Little River. The wind was also coming up as a storm was coming in. We woke up to find a Coast Guard boat had snuck in during the night to shelter from the storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The actual town is a short distance away, so we biked in along with our fellow loopers from the ‘Sequatious’.

 

John, Katie, Allie, John Jr and April (lt to rt)

There was also a nice little park where we met up with other loopers. Allen and Jean are from the ‘2 IF BY C’.

 

This is the end of our time in Canada. We had a marvelous time and met some really wonderful, friendly and interesting people during our stay.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son Kenny!

 Tomorrow we return to the USA.