Mackinaw City to Charlevoix

Kim’s Korner:

We made our way on Lake Huron, passing Mackinac Island and arriving at the city marina in Mackinaw City, MI. Mackinaw and Mackinac are pronounced the same – ending sound like naw. We took our bikes on a ferry over to Mackinac Island the following day. This was definitely the tourist stop – people, restaurants and gift shops everywhere! It was almost a culture shock as the last few weeks in Canada were spent in the exact opposite. Only bikes, horses and horse drawn carriages are allowed on the island as forms of transportation. I’ve never seen so many bikes! The Grand Hotel which is known for having the longest covered porch resides on the island – it was impressive. Flowers were planted everywhere – even the private homes took part in planting gorgeous flower gardens. The best part was riding our bikes on the 8-mile path around the island. We climbed 207 steps to see Arch Rock where the views were spectacular! The water was beautiful - colors ranging from green to turquoise to blue and at times, I could see gold flecks in it. It was really interesting to see and experience this island for the day but a day was plenty for me – too many people! The following day, we enjoyed riding our bikes on the Northwestern State Trail to Lake Paradise. Another beautiful lake! And let me just say that we have really enjoyed all these biking/walking trails we have encountered – really nice! They are used by snow mobiles in the winter. We also took in Mackinaw City – gift shops, historical landmarks, restaurants, ICE CREAM! And I have to say – it was sooooo nice to go into a grocery store and be able to find the things I wanted. The grocery stores in Canada were nice but they did carry different products than we do which was surprising to me. We love Wheat Thins and even they had a different shape and slightly different flavor to them – who would have thought?

So… cruising is fun but we all know that there are always things that need fixing on a boat. We now had encountered one of those issues that had to be fixed. Our hot water tank was leaking and of course, the tank is in one of those hard to reach places hidden behind the engine that David can’t really see. We were back in the mode where we would turn the water off at the breaker panel when we weren’t using it which is a real pain but a necessity at this point. We located a marina in Charlevoix which is well respected for their service department and made that our next stop. After having the technician look at it, the hot water heater needs replacing as we had expected. Because of its location, to replace it would require a good part of the engine would have to be removed. David was not in favor of this so the plan is to “retire in place” this water heater (sounds like a nuclear plant) and add a new one which will then have to have pipes and electricity run to it. David is having a few other minor things done as well since it looks like we will be here for 5-7 days while parts are ordered and installed. We expected this and I now have a rental car reserved. Charlevoix has a lot of places within driving distance that I would like to see so we’ll take this opportunity to do just that.

I almost forgot to mention – we left at 6:00 AM from Mackinaw City and the sunrise was stunning! It lasted for quite a while due to the cloud cover and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the Mackinac Bridge!

Pictures!