10/1/2021
We started off this morning going to the stadium and checking out downtown. We drove by this little theme park and the harbor area before leaving.
On our way up North we were deciding to go to Mackinaw City or Sault St Marie. After some Googling we decided that Mackinaw City was the place to be. It would also give us a little more daylight to see the sights. We stopped in Escanaba, MI for lunch. We parked at this park on the beach and made some sandwiches.
The drive to Mackinaw City was another beautiful drive. Lots of views of Lake Michigan and fall colors. Once we got to St. Ignace, MI, we got to one of the highlights of this part of the trip. We got to drive across the Mackinac Bridge. This bridge is huge! It’s the longest suspension bridge, five miles, in North America. On the Mackinaw City side there is a museum dedicated to it.
After the museum we Colonial Michilimackinac. This was a park with a lot of buildings from the 1800’s including a fort and lighthouse. It was a really nice day to walkaround the park and then the city.
There was an outdoor mall downtown that we walked though next. There are a ton of places that sell fudge here. There’s also a giant hot dog!!
Next, we grabbed some supper at Audie’s Restaurant. It got rave reviews, but as soon as we got there it was a bit of a disaster. The place is about half full and it took five to ten minutes for a hostess to even talk to us. She brought us over to a table made up of two two tops pushed together. There is a group on one side and two more empty tables on the other side. She splits the tables and puts us right next to the group. This was weird, so I pushed the tables back together and sat away from the group. We now sit here for 15 minutes. A waitress comes over and tells us this isn’t her table, but offers to get us water. Our waiter finally comes over and takes our order. They are supposed to bring bread to the table according to the menu, but we have none. He doesn’t come back until bringing out the food. Ashley asks about the bread and he says that they only bring it if we ask. I ordered the Cajun whitefish, mashed potatoes, and a cup of clam chowder. Ashley got the parmesan encrusted whitefish, salad, and a veggie. The fish was good, I’ll give them that. The mashed potatoes were a blop of cafeteria potatoes though. Overall very meh. Our waiter never came back to check on us or give us refills. To top it off, they have the gall to charge $1.50 for hot water. That blew my mind.
There are a couple breweries here, The Dixie Saloon and Rusted Spoke. We went to the Dixie first and found out they were the only place open past 11PM. After a beer we went to the Rusted Spoke to check that out while we could. The Rusted Spoke had some good beers and their menu looked really good. We only had time for a flight though. When we got back to Dixie a fireworks show started in the bay. After that we headed inside and sat at the bar. Right after us a group of people sat next to me and one of the guys started chatting me up after a few minutes. This guy needed to tell me his whole life story. To be fair, it was fairly interesting.
We stayed at Dixie until bar close then went to park at Headlands International Dark Sky Park for the night. This is a park that is away from all city lights and is meant to see the stars, sky, and whatnot. All of the paths at only lit with red lights so it doesn’t mess with your night vision. We went to the seating area for a while to see what there was to see and then went back to the van for the night.