9/17/22

September 18, 2022

9/17/22

We walked down town Mackinaw City. There's a bunch of neat little shops to look at and there's an outside mall. We didn't care much for that. A lot of people, but that's expected on a Saturday. We ended up at the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum. It's $12 an adult and a self-guided tour. This was a former 290-foot Coast Guard icebreaker. The ship was actually made in Toledo, OH. Used until 2006 and one of the employees on the tour was also an employee on the ship while it was running. The tour was with arrows guiding you through roped off areas, up and down stairs, on the deck, and into some of the ship rooms. There's a few videos that you can watch throughout the tour. A lot of information as you go through everything. We probably spent one hour in here. Very neat.

We went to get dinner at Key Hole Bar. This restaurant had keys all over the place. From antique old ones to new ones. On the ceiling, walls, bar, and floors in the bathroom. The food was just regular food you'd get at a bar like place. Wasn't bad though.

On our way back to the car we saw that Mama Mia's pizza had a museum. We went inside to go check it out. The museum was all about the ironworkers on the Mackinac Bridge. A lot of the guys on the job were from Ohio. This is also where the ironworker festival originated and where it is held. We missed the festival by three weeks. Joe would have loved that lol. There is also a movie you can watch that explains every step along the way of creating the bridge. This was about 45 minutes long and very interesting. We also found out that you get 20% off your entire bill with your ironworker membership card. So we will be going back another day to check it out!

Went further downtown to check out the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. On our way there was so many people all set up on lawn chairs. I looked into this further and found out they were having the Annual Richard Crane Memorial Big Rig Truck Show. Basically a bunch of semis with artwork and neon lights cross the bridge from St. Ignace to Mackinaw City and back. So, why not check that out too?

We wanted to get a walk in so we went to check out Wilderness State Park. There's a few side parks where you can get out and go on the beach. There's a lot of trails as well. But we went all the way down the dirt road until you couldn't go anymore and found a trail that goes all the way out to a different lake. Walked a little bit of this trail (looks like it hasn't been used in awhile) and came across one of the cabins that we kept passing on the way in. They're definitely primitive cabins and I feel like hunters come out here in the winter and hangout for a week or two. Looks nice and cozy and I think it'd be super cool to do something like that with your buddies. Not the hunting part, but yeah lol. Decided that we will come back and do the whole trail on our bikes since we didn't want to miss the trucks.

When we went to McGulpin Point we found a small beach with a great view of the bridge. So we went there to watch the trucks because we knew almost no one would be over there. And there wasn't. I wish it had been a bit darker out so we could see more. But it was still cool to watch. On the way back to the campsite we were able to see the end tail of them going back to St. Ignace. Blaring their horns and flying the flag! Got back to the campsite and caught the end of the fireworks over the bridge as well.

Finished the night with a movie called The Deep House. 8/10 recommend.

Oh, I also used whatever we had laying around to make dinner.