MACKINAC ISLAND to PETOSKEY

We departed MACKINAC ISLAND earlyThursday morning and buddy boated with four other boats to PETOSKEY. Once docked in PETOSKEY, we stayed for three nights...Visiting the town of PETOSKEY was truly an unexpected pleasure! 

Looper Tip: Most of the Looper guides don't suggest to stop here...it was a favorite port for us :) A great Marina, lots of restaurants and shops, bike trails and even a West Marine!

PETOSKEY  is a nice resort community located in Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. PETOSKEY and the surrounding area are notable for being the setting of several Nick Adams stories by Earnest Hemmingway. Hemmingway spent his childhood summers in this area.

PETOSKEY is also known for a high concentration of Petoskey stones, the state stone of Michigan. 

The name "PETOSKEY" is said to mean "Where the light shines through the clouds", in the language of the Odawa Indians, who were the original inhabitants. Petoskey stone and the city were named after Chief Ignatius Petosega (1787-1885), who founded the community.

Our journey from MACKINAC ISLAND to PETOSKEY - about 40 miles / 8 hours. Pretty polished PETOSKEY stones with the "Big Picture" of where we are in MI.

Crossing under the majestic MACKINAC Bridge. The Brigde connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. It opened in 1957.

We are now officially in Lake Michigan:)

️The PETOSKEY Lighthouse.

There is a beautiful well maintained bike trail connecting towns along this section (Little Traverse Bay) of Lake Michigan. Friday's ride to Bay Harbor, Red Line (10 miles) and Saturday's ride to Harbor Springs, Green Line (20 miles).

Some local history.

The Friday PETOSKEY Farmers Market.

When the sun shines...We are amazed by the beautiful blue clear water of Lake Michigan.

Boating buddy's go to dinner at The Garage. The restaurant chandler was made from spark plugs and the bathroom sink was a tire with water from a gasoline hose (the company was fun, but decorations were much better than the food?).

Some of our favorites in PETOSKEY: Julianne Tomatoes - great lunch, Lake Affect - handmade items from the local area (we purchased a boat table for Thistle), Dripworks - best tea ever and Palette - great early bird specials.

Our bike ride to Harbor Springs (very fancy town). We saw a waterfall on the bike trail. Reenie hurt her toe (Ouch) on the ride and Greg renamed the town PeTOESkey! (It still hurts a day later, but he made me laugh :).

The Private Grounds around Harbor Springs.

A special surprise visit from our "Gold Looper" (finished the Great American Loop) boating buddy's, Vicki & Mark from Blue Willow. 

A wonderful pre Anniversary dinner and toast in the wine cave at Chandler's Restaurant in PETOSKEY.

A pretty sunset followed by a "Super" moon XO.

ST. IGNACE to MACKINAC ISLAND

On Monday, we set our alarm for sunrise... Crossing our fingers to have an early morning weather window to make the quick one hour trip from ST. IGNACE to MACKINAC ISLAND.

Yeah... We made it!!! With wind and rain?

We throughly enjoyed three nights on MACKINAC ISLAND. The weather was very poor for boating... What a "Grand" place to be stranded for a few days :)

Located on Lake Huron, MACKINAC ISLAND was home to Native American settlements before European exploration began in the 17th century. The ISLAND served as a stategic position amidst the commerce of the Great Lakes. 

This led to the establishment of Fort Mackinac by the British, during the American Revolutionary War.

In the late 19th century MACKINAC ISLAND became a popular tourist destination and summer colony. The entire island is listed as a National Historic Landmark.

MACKINAC ISLAND can only be reached by private boat, ferry or small plane (and in the winter by snowmobile, when the Lake freezes over).  Motor vehicles have been prohibited since 1898. Travel on the ISLAND is by foot, bike or horse drawn carriage. 

Looper Tio: This is one of those must stop destinations (Yes, its touristy, but unique and historic).

Monday morning sunrise over MACKINAC ISLAND.

Our journey from ST. IGNACE to MACKINAC ISLAND - one hour.

Picture perfect MACKINAC ISLAND... Has a year round population of 500 residents. In the peek of summer (July) there are as many as 15,000 tourists per day!

MACKINAC ISLAND.

We circumnavigated the Island two times! The M-185 Perimeter Tour is an eight-mile state highway around the shoreline. Rock "Cairns" (stacked mounds of rocks and pebbles) are popular to build as a memorial along the trail. 

Doud's Market is the oldest family run grocery store in America, it opened in 1884. Only horse and bike parking provided while you shop.

MACKINAC ISLAND is nationally known  for its fudge shops. Many of the locals call the tourists "fudges"!

We rode bikes to the Woods Restaurant in the middle of the Island for lunch. It was closed for lunch, but we enjoyed a tour and both knocked down all the pins in the old fashion "Duckpin" bowling alley. 

The view of Fort Mackinac from Thistle on our dock.

Fort Mackinac was the site of the first land engagement in The Was of 1812. The cannon is fired on the hour to welcome visitors to MACKINAC ISLAND.

Grand Hotel (No "The") on MACKINAC ISLAND is 128 years old. The hotel is open from June to October each year with more than 130,000 guests each season. We decided to splurge and stay for one night on a Visit Michigan's Grand Hotel special. (At $128 each including: accommodations, full breakfast, five course Grand Hotel Dinner, Golf (we passed in the rain), Fort Mackinac and Art Museum admission and 10% off and additional purchases.) 

At 660 feet long, Grand Hotel's front porch is the largest in the world. Every one of the 385 guest rooms has unique decor (bottom left was ours for one night :). The lobby is lavishly decorated with all kinds of live music thought the day and night.

There have been two popular movies filmed here: "This Time for Keeps", staring Ester Williams in 1947 and "Somewhere in Time", staring Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour in 1980.  

We both walked the sacred path of the hotel's Labyrinth. Feeling relaxed we followed the hotel's dress code and changed attire for dinner!

Grand Hotel, MACKINAC ISLAND.

DE TOUR to ST. IGNACE

On Saturday we made a long 40 mile Lake Huron crossing. Originally we planned to anchor remotely on Saturday night, but the weather forecast was for very strong wind (25 knots with higher gusts) on Sunday. Therefore we took advantage of ok weather on Saturday. 

The crossing was a long day, but we were happy to dock in ST. IGNACE, safe and sound! Once at the dock we learned that the town has a firework display every Saturday night during the summer :)

ST. IGNACE is now a tourist town (with lots of history) that has ferry boats continuously running trips to Mackinac Island. 

The weather prediction was correct!!! There was lots of wind and rain on Sunday. We decided to stay in ST. IGNACE for two nights and wait for the wind to calm down. 

On Sunday we played tourists and took a ferry boat to Mackinac Island for the afternoon. This will be our next port once we have acceptable departure weather :)

A diesel fill up for Thistle on Saturday morning in DE TOUR. 

Our course from DE TOUR to ST. IGNACE -  7 hours.

Happy to see the ST. IGNACE Lighthouse.

ST. IGNACE history.

Saturday night fireworks!

Our ferry boat trip to Mackinac Island...it poured rain on the way back and we saw a funnel cloud!

😎😎

TURNBULL to BLIND RIVER & DE TOURS

We set our alarm for early on Thursday morning to check for a weather window for travel to BLIND RIVER Marina. Windy and rain...(20 knot gusts), we agreed an 8 AM departure looked OK :) 

We pulled anchor with cloudy skies and a chill in the air. After two hours of bouncy water we were very happy to dock in the BLIND RIVER Marina.

BLIND RIVER is considered "The Heart of the North Channel". French explores named the area because the mouth of the River was very difficult to see from shore. 

Here in BLIND RIVER, Ontario we are at Latitude N 46.1, we can't wait until Key West, Florida at Latitude N 24.5 (The furthest points North and South on the Great American Loop!).

After a good nights sleep Friday morning, we went out to breakfast at A17 in BLIND RIVER...Their toasted homemade rye bread was a treat :) We brought our charts and IPads to decide on our planned journey for the day (A17 has good free wifi :).

Friday morning Lake Huron had a few white caps (nothing like the last two days)  and the wind was predicted to diminish during the day! We decided to make the big crossing to Drummond Island, Michigan and clear US Customs. 

We departed at 9 AM and cleard US Customs by 3:30 PM. We motored another hour and docked at The De Tour Goverment Marina. The Marina is sparkly new with courtesy bikes and unbeknown to us, the town was hosting their first annual summer concert (a nice surprise after a long seven and a half hour day!).

Since early times the Indians and European Explorers traveled around the Upper Michigan Peninsula, carrying their furs, supplies and trade goods. Originally the Chippewa Indians named this area "Giwideonaning" meaning, The Point We Go Around In A Canoe. Later a French Explorer named the area "DE TOUR", The Turn.

Looper Tip: As of today you can now clear US  Customs in DE TOUR!!!!

We were up at sunrise on Thursdsy in TURNBULL to check our weather window.

Thursday's journey from TURNBULL to BLIND RIVER. We departed after the rain cell cleared.

Cloudy skies and bouncy water! 

Jessica our friendly Dockhand at BLIND RIVER Marina. We purchased 100.8 liters of Diesel (did not want to chance running out of fuel).

BLIND RIVER Marina had complementary bikes :) Can you find Thistle in the Marina picture?

The town of BLIND RIVER was hosting a Thursday night concert by the fountain.

Sunset our last night in Canada ... The talk of the town is that summer is over :(

Friday's journey from BLIND RIVER to Drummond Island & DE TOUR  Marina - Red Line. Stopping at US Customs - Blue Star.

Back in the USA 🇺🇸!

Thistle crossing the International Border on our navigation chart.

The water was glistening behind our waving USA Flag.

Clearing US Coustoms at Yacht Haven on Drummond Island, MI. Our Boating Buddy's on Patriot and Blue Willow were there at the same time!

Lots of interesting boat traffic in DE TOUR Harbor.

Great Friday Night...White Fish Dinner at Shipwreck's in DE TOUR.

The First Annual DE TOUR concet. The band had a drone? 

Thistle docked at DE TOUR Marina...can someone please explain these posts?

Beautiful moon tonight XO.