The big event for the day was experiencing Mackinac Island. We bought ferry tickets online from the Mackinac Island Ferry Company and also had them come right to the campground to pick us up. Very easy strategy, since then we didn’t have to deal with parking and we could leave our vehicle right at the campsite so it looked like it was occupied.
The ferry ride was beautiful. Our boat’s name was Cadillac. We sat on top and had a great view of the Mackinac Bridge with a freighter just getting ready to go under it. We also had a great view of the grand hotel and “cottages” along the island coastline.
Since our main goal was to visit Fort Mackinac, we did not rent bikes or the horse carriage tours this time. At some point Jeff and I will go back for a weekend to do those things and explore the rest of the island trails.
We walked up the long pathway to enter the fort and toured all the buildings. It was very interesting! I didn’t know (or don’t remember ) that there was an actual battle between the British and the Americans on the island. It was the first battle of the War of 1812. The island also was later designated the 2nd National Park (1st was Yellowstone). As the fort got decommissioned, the park became Michigan’s State Park. Motor vehicles got banned in the 1890’s because they spooked the horses that were already used to transport tons of tourists around the island. The horse drivers lobbied and won and to this day, there are no vehicles beyond emergency vehicles allowed on the island.
Even though we were there on a weekday, there were so many tourists, but we waded through them in the town area and got some Murdick’s fudge, which we immediately gobbled up while standing on the sidewalk. It was delicious! Then we walked to another place to get ice cream, I got Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream of course!
Spencer and I peeked in to the library for a minute -very cute! Then we were just about to walk up to the Grand Hotel, when we saw some dark clouds to the north, heading our way. It was already 4:30 and we were not planning to stay on the island for dinner so we went back to the ferry.
Jeff and I decided to sit on top again, while the boys sat inside. Well, the boys made the better choice on that one! The water was very choppy and we were going against the wind, plus it started sprinkling as we crossed the Straits of Mackinac. It was a long 15 minutes, but thankfully the storm never really hit. I wonder what the boat people would do if it started lightning?
We got back to the campsite, had a light supper-cheese, sausage, etc then sat relaxing until it got dark and we went to bed.
Kline Road Trips 