Exploring Mackinac Island

This blog will chronicle our (Pat and Patty Anderson's)

cruising adventures on the Great Loop!

DAY 122 - July 31, 2017

When I woke up and took Baxter up to the dog run, I noticed there was a vessel in port that had not been there last evening - the Road Scholar's Victory I! 

Road Scholar's Victory I cruise ship

We started the day with coffee in the cockpit on Daydream, but at 9:30 a.m., we walked two slips over to Mother Ocean on the invitation of Loopers Dennis and Jan Taylor to join them for breakfast. Dennis fixed some wicked Bloody Marys and Jan outdid herself, with blueberry pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs. Mother Ocean is a Great Habour 47, an the interior is elegant luxury to the highest degree. The best analogy for our Looping styles is that they are Looping in a new Lamborghini, we are Looping in a '61 VW bug! 

After breakfast (and recovery from two Bloody Marys each!), I went to the marina office and extended for an additional night. We both felt we wanted another day here! Then I took the bikes down and got them unfolded and ready to go for the Mackinac Island perimeter road ride. This is an eight mile, nearly flat circumnavigation of Mackinac Island. The entire road has many historical marker signs and other signs explaining the significance of features along the ride, including the stairway UP to Arch Rock! We passed on that climb!

Our bikes are AMC Back Bay folding bikes that live in bags tied under the radar arch on the roof! We have carried them the whole trip and not ridden them nearly enough. We are making good use of them here!

Patty on AMC Back Bay folding bike on Mackinac Island perimeter road

Along the first part of the ride on the northeast corner and north side, the adjacent water was crystal clear and aqua blue. There were lots of people out swimming, kayaking and paddle boarding.

Kayakers and paddle boarders on north side of Mackinac Island

There were numerous cairns alongside the road. This was one of the more interesting ones.

Very cool cairn by road along north shoreline of Mackinac Island

And I am a sucker for seagull pictures! 

Seagulls on cairn on rock

About halfway around the perimeter road, we came to a historical marker sign identifying the site as the location of the landing site of the British, Canadian and Native American forces for the invasion of Mackinac Island in the War of 1812.  There is a cannon there, and I like pictures of cannons!

Pat by cannon at British landing site in War of 1812

We rested frequently and drank lots of water on the ride, since it was a warm day, this was more exertion than we have experienced for a long time, and Patty is very prone to dehydration! Soon enough, however, we found ourselves at mile marker six, then seven, and pretty soon we had returned to "downtown" Mackinac Island! Coming into town there were some pretty good examples of houses here. We don't know if they were private residences or something else, but they are very nice houses!

Mackinac Island house coming back into "downtown"

House next door to green house

We knew we were back "downtown" when the Mackinac Island fog signal came into view!

Mackinac Harbor fog signal

Eight miles is not a long bike ride, especially on a mostly flat road. But we were both toasted when we got back to the boat! After a little nap, we enjoyed our sundowners in the cockpit as we sat and let our leg muscles recuperate! 

At 6:30 p.m., the Victory I cruise ship departed! I am pretty sure the passengers will wake up in Chicago in the morning. Their cruise will be over, because we heard the loudspeaker invite the passengers to the Compass Lounge for the Captain's farewell cocktail party!

Patty had looked at the menus of many of the restaurants in "downtown" Mackinac Island (sorry, but I have to put "downtown" in quotation marks!), and was underwhelmed with all of them - ordinary entrees at outrageous prices. On the other hand, after our strenuous day, cooking on board did not appeal much either! On our horse carriage tour, we had passed a sushi restaurant, and decided to ride our bikes back there for dinner. It turned out to be an excellent choice! We share a Firecracker Roll and an Unagi Roll, which were excellent. We will probably go back there for dinner tomorrow.

Today was a great day on Mackinac Island, and we are looking forward to more tomorrow!