We found a huge family campground at the tip of Michigan, right on Lake Huron to spend the Independence Day Holiday and we can see the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula.  It is beautiful here and the bugs are not too bad!  I spent several afternoons sitting on the banks of the lake reading a book!

Today Kip joined me for an hour or so and brought his binoculars.  We have a great view of Mackinac Island and enjoy watching the boats come and go and the occasional para-sail.  We are sitting there, Kip looking through his binoculars and I reading a fascinating book when he says “quick look a humpback at 11 o’clock”  Of course I drop my book and look towards 11 o’clock and he says “no look through here” and hands me the binoculars!  I look and look, thinking why would he give up the glasses so quickly when there is a whale to be watching!!! And then he says “this is fresh water there are no whales!!”  Thanks!  When you are sitting here looking at this water it feels like the ocean it is so big and there are waves splashing onto the beach so I guess for a few minutes I thought I was on the beach.  Or, it just went over my head!

We have been busy this week with visiting Mackinac Island or is it Mackinaw Island!  There seems to be a bit of confusion here but the local paper knows it is confusing so they had a nice little article this week about why it is spelled two ways and pronounced one.  It has to do with the Indians and the French!  I found the article even more confusing but figured out everything is Mackinac except for the Mackinaw City which is where we are camping.  – Anyway!

We rode to the island on the ferry and when you disembark you could be back in the 1800’s except for all the people, fudge shops, tour companies and souvenir shops!  The streets are lined with bicycles and horses because that is the only mode of transportation.  It was fun watching the horse drawn carriages towing supplies to the Grand Hotel on the hill.  The hotel is the gem of this island for the day tourist.  You can step onto the grounds and step back to the “good ole days!”  Very grand!  I loved the veranda where you could take your drink and sit in a rocking chair overlooking the grounds to the lake.  We enjoyed a cocktail at the rooftop bar which was very beach like with a 360 degree view.  Pat was hoping for something more “grand”  but we voted for the view!

Paul made us ride the ferry to the Island that went under the bridge!  Not sure why but we went along!

I also decided enough with this lazing on the beach and took a tour of the lake in a Para-sail. The view from above is spectacular.  I swam in my second Great Lake.  So far that is 2 swims and one toe touch!

We spent the afternoon driving to some of the most beautiful beaches and lakes in Michigan along the Gold Coast where we stopped in to visit a good friends brother!  He was surprised – especially since he really didn’t know who we were!  He gave us a few suggestions of places to go and shared a few laughs about our friend Theron and his antics growing up here and we were off!  One of the places he recommended was an Inn called Legs Inn in Coast Village.  It didn’t look very grand but when you walked inside it is a very special place.  We had patio seating among the most beautiful gardens and watched the beginnings of a beautiful sunset.

Michigan is a beautiful state, right up there with many of my favorites

This entry was posted on Friday, July 6th, 2012 at 9:05 pm and is filed under Michigan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.