After a short drive (5 hours) from Dearborn, we arrived at our next stopping place, Mackinaw City, MI. Mackinaw City sits at the tip of the Lower Michigan Peninsula, at the place where Lake Huron meets Lake Michigan. The Straits of Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw), connect those two Great Lakes. Mackinaw City is the northernmost city on the Lower Peninsula.
On the way, we passed lots of flat farmland, punctuated by Sea Shell City in Cheboygan, home of the Man Killing Giant Clam. What A country!
Our campground sits directly on Lake Huron, with great views of the 5 mile long Mackinac Bridge that connects Mackinaw City with St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula (U.P.). Yesterday, we arrived, set up, walked the campgound, then had a glass of wine (or 2) and dinner. Soooooooo stressful.
Today we woke to thunder and weather predictions for nasty thunderstorms, heavy rain, lightning and potentially damaging hail (there was hail 3" in diameter just south of here). We opted to take the opportunity to go into Cheboygan to do laundry. While thunder, lightning, and pouring rain greeted us on our return, it subsided within an hour, and we then set out to check out Mackinaw City. Mackinaw City is a tourist's heaven: shoppes (as distinguished from shops) galore, restaurants, and hotels-motels, like a thousand other tourist places on the water.
The bridge itself is quite the construction marvel. It is 5 miles long, the longest suspension bridge with two towers between anchorages in the western hemisphere.
Later in the afternoon, as the weather improved somewhat, we drove over to the McGulpin lighthouse, completed in 1869, as a lighthouse on the Straits of Mackinac, and walked down to Lake Huron from the lighthouse. Interesting history.
Since the weather will be improving tomorrow, we will head to Mackinac Island which sits in Lake Huron at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac between the Upper and Lower Michigan Peninsulas.
No comments:
Post a Comment