We came over Wednesday morning without reservations at the marina in hopes of snagging a transient slip. The marina reserves 80% of its capacity so there is 20% up for grabs on any given day. We had no problems getting a slip at 9:00 am although only for two days. We had front row seats to the dog run in slip #10.
Day 1 we roamed around town and enjoyed the island foliage.
It's amazing that they get these gardens to this level, given the length of the growing season here. We shopped our way through town and turned in for the evening.
Day 2 was action packed. Of course the required 8.2 mile bike ride was first on the agenda followed by a hike UP the stairs to the East Bluff for an elevated view of downtown...
...and the Round Island Passage with the classic Star Line Ferry from St. Ignace.
Since we were half way there...at least that's what Kathy said...we started off down the road to Arch Rock.
No, that's not us, we would never travel here in any way that didn't require physical stamina.
After a mile walk we viewed the world famous Arch Rock with a couple hundred Carriage Tour customers.
We walked DOWN the 207 steps to the shoreline road for the walk back to town.
The riders of the dozens of bicycles at the foot of the stairs, didn't get the memo about the 207 steps UP to see the Rock. We saw a lot of stressed faces on our way down. Actually, pedaling another 1/8 mile on the shore road will get you the view of Arch Rock from the shore level. Same view in reverse.
We did another lap of the island in the evening then hit the sack.
Day 3 required us to request an extension to our stay. Since we were transient, we were kind of on a day by day status. We did get the right to extend, but had to change slips so a reservation could be filled. Because of the ferry boat wakes here in the harbor, setting up a boat in the slip is no small task and we spent until noon settling into slip #24 on the outer dock.
Once the boat was secured, we headed up the fort hill and over to the West Bluff.
There's probably not much argument that the West Bluff has the superior view vs. East Bluff cottages.
The cottages of the West Bluff are nothing to sneeze at either.
This is how they get the perfect gardens...it isn't Mom and the kids out pulling weeds.
It's all hired help.
Continuing down the road...
This one is currently on the market for $2,995,000 but I bet they'd jump all over $2,990,000.
So the little known feature of this route, is that the West Bluff sidewalk...
...becomes the porch of the Grand Hotel. Of course, we had to rest by this point in the hike.
The Grand is a magnificent place. It was built in only 93 days. Takes that long today just to get a building permit.
So one more day here, then back to Mackinaw City for another week and who knows what adventures we may take.
On a side note, I have accomplished a small upgrade. I bought the boat with the original TV/VCR combo.
That TV even had the original new stickers on it but of course in today's digital world, actually using the thing required a converter and lots of extra wiring. So out with the old in in with the new.
The TV was on a pullout shelf so I took advantage of that feature as well and built in some galley storage.
I may trim it out with a faceplate eventually after I get all the antenna and cable wiring updated.
So that's the update to the inaugural season on the Final Edition.
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