Our Trip to Pure Michigan......

Gofirstclass

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,698
Tri Cities, WA
Boat Info
Boatless in WA
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No motor
As some of you know, my philosophy about people posting about trips isif it’s not accompanied by photos, it didn’t happen. I say that in jest because we all like to see photos of where people go on their vacations, especially if boats were involved.

Well GW and I just got back from 2 weeks in MI so I thought I’d share some of the photos of the trip with you. We flew into Detroit on 8/1 and drove to my brother’s cottage at Point Lookout, about 15 miles south of Tawas. His cottage is right on Lake Huron and it’s a great place to sponge off him for a few days.

Here’s his view from their front porch….
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And a shot of a lake freighter passing by about 7 miles offshore and a sailboat a couple of miles offshore…
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We took a drive up to Tawas to tour the harbor and had a good time. Here are some of the boat names we spotted in the harbor, plus a Customs boat. Check out the engines on the back of that cop boat…
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Then we took a ride up to Mackinac Island. We took a round about route through Grayling, Traverse City, Harbor Springs and ended up in St. Ignace where we stayed two nights. Here are some pics of the bridge and the island.

For those of you not familiar with Mackinac Island, you can only get there by boat or plane. No vehicles are allowed on the island except a couple of maintenance vehicles and emergency vehicles. Touring is done via your hush puppies or a bicycle or on a horse drawn carriage. We choose the carriage and had a very nice tour of the island.
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Much to Tina’s chagrin, I took several photos as we were driving over the bridge. She doesn’t care much for heights and was sure I was going to drive off the bridge and we’d all end up in the drink.
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Here are a few shots of the island….
The Grand Hotel
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Fort Michilimackinac…
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The Governor’s Mansion. It’s a summer home for whatever governor is in office at the time.
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Downtown….
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And for a parting shot….a sunset photo…
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That pretty much captures a good part of the trip. We had planned on going from MI to Delaware to see a friend, then back to IL to see my sister. A bit of a medical emergency at home necessitated us cutting the trip short so we ended up coming home a week early. That early return also kept us from meeting up with a bunch of CSR regulars that live near the south end of Lake Michigan. Sorry gang, maybe next time.

We were there 13 days, got caught up in the flooding in Detroit that closed many of the roads and freeways, and still managed to put 1500 miles on the rental car we had.
 
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If you were on the tawas dock friday-sunday i was the 370 with no name in slip 65 two slips north of the dea boat.I saw that boat in harrisville a couple days earlier at night running at 50-60 mph.The 27 pachanga cirrosis of the river belongs to a friend of mine ,he runs pier7 marina in baycity.
 
Wonderful pics, thanks for posting!
 
The picture of the fort is Fort Mackinac. Fort Michlimackinac is at the foot of the bridge in Mackinaw City (my home port). In that picture, the governor's mansion is the house immediately to the left of the fort on the bluff. What you describe as the governor's mansion is the Tea Room restaurant in the officer's quarters at Fort Mackinac. Judging by the lake conditions in the photos, we were likely slipped at the island marina during your visit there.
 
Now that's what I like to see.

Thank you, great photo's


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 
Great pics. I'm sure it was tough to be around all that beautiful fresh water and not have your boat with you, but it sounds like you had a great trip.

Really jealous of your brothers view & lakefront, thats an awesome setup to enjoy every day.

Thanks for posting about a trip to the Murder Mitten, we get a lot of bad press but its not ALL bad! The rain last week was unfrickin real, altho being a PNW guy you're probably kind of used to it.
 
Great pics. I'm sure it was tough to be around all that beautiful fresh water and not have your boat with you, but it sounds like you had a great trip.
It absolutely was tough. I was standing there at the top of Arch Rock thinking how nice it would be to be cruising out there and feeling kind of lost without a boat to do it on.

Really jealous of your brothers view & lakefront, thats an awesome setup to enjoy every day.
They bought that place several years ago when they were living and working in Detroit. He and I both grew up on Point Lookout and it's nice for them to be there every day in the summer months now that he's retired. It's also nice for me to have a place where I can sponge off of them when I go back there.

Thanks for posting about a trip to the Murder Mitten, we get a lot of bad press but its not ALL bad! The rain last week was unfrickin real, altho being a PNW guy you're probably kind of used to it.

Actually, the part of WA we live in is a desert. We get less rain all year than Detroit got in a day. Freeways closed, vehicles stranded in deep water, trucks stranded because they aren't supposed to drive on the 'surface' streets. We were at a hotel in Warrenton. At one point I looked out and couldn't see the end of the parking lot which was about 100 yards away. It was an awesome rain storm to watch, but not one to experience if your basement flooded.

If you were on the tawas dock friday-sunday i was the 370 with no name in slip 65 two slips north of the dea boat.
We were. I wish I'd known it was you sitting there. I recall seeing the boat (Hey, it's a Sea Ray--I always notice those).

PlayDough, thanks for setting me straight on that.

AMFM3---Done. And "hello" back to you and J.
 
No shortage of searays in tawas thats for sure.Now you will have to come back next year because all the docks are being torn out this winter and they are building a additional breakwall out from the north side of the boat launch .Then they are going to make the docks east to west starting from shore,its supposed to add 50 slips and keep the boats from rocking in a north west wind.
 
Nice shots, thanks for sharing your trip. I really need to take a trip up there to experience the area!
 
With the exception of having to cut our trip short because of a medical condition happening at home, this trip was great. We experienced some of the best scenery and weather that MI has to offer and also the torrential rains that the Detroit area got just before we left home.

I've seen it rain that hard before, but only for a few minutes as a real heavy cloud passed over. I've NEVER seen it rain that hard for hours. There were areas of Detroit that got over 8" of rain in 6 hours. That's flat coming down by anyone's measure.
 

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