Mackinac City

Mackinac City is a small touristy town that sits at the base of the Mackinac Bridge on the Straits of Mackinac.  It is one of two cities that you leave from to reach Mackinac Island.

The bridge is an amazing 5 miles long and it connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.

Is there a lighthouse you ask?!  Pfffft.....yeah....

Have I told you that I am obsessed with lighthouses?  I am.  This one is no longer active and serves as a museum for Lake Huron.  Lake Huron is on the east side of the bridge and Lake Michigan is on the left.  The straits connect the two.  Guess what we saw tooling around on the lake?!

Indian impersonators!  This is a birch bark canoe that they would have used to bring furs and supplies to the upper part of Michigan long ago.  This group reenacts fur traders coming to the fort, which is on the other side of the bridge.  We'll get there in a sec.....

Here they are paddling their little hearts out.  When they used these boats long ago, they had to make repairs to them on a daily basis.  One of the jobs in the boat was to soak up any water that came in with a large sponge and wring it out while they were travelling.  I don't think I would want that job.

Here is the guard for the fort who would fire this musket when boats were approaching.  I tried to get a pic, but when he shot that thing off it scared the crap out of me and I ended up with this.  Ah well....

Here is a view from one of the watch towers.  You can see in the middle the archaeological dig that is going on.  Fort Michilimackinac is a reconstructed fort.  It has a rather interesting history.  In 1783, the fort was taken over by the British and Native Americans.  The Native Americans, actually the Ojibwae, were right outside the fort playing a game.  The soldiers became very intrigued by the game.  Suddenly the Ojibwae women gave weapons they had hidden in their clothes to the warriors and the fort was overtaken.  The Americans eventually got it back.  They realized though that it was not in the best of spots to be a lookout.  A nearby island across the water looked to be a much better place for a fort.  So, the fort was disassembled and drug over the ice to what is now Mackinac Island and reassembled.  What they couldn't take over was burned.  The fort has been reconstructed according to historical records and findings from the digs that have been going on.  Cool huh?!

After spending the day here, we headed to a campground on Lake Huron for the next two days.

The first night, this rolled in.  It only lasted 15 minutes.  Just enough to cool everything off and lower the humidity.

After the rain, we were treated to this beautiful rainbow over the lake.

As for now, so ends day 3 of our vacation.  Tomorrow we are crossing the big water to Mackinac Island.

Looking forward to spending time on the island, dreading the ferry ride though....