Day 277 - A nice bright day with low winds and waves to start our day. As we got closer to our final destination--Macinaw City --the winds picked up and so did the seas. We had a little trouble finding the entrance of the marina, while we were dodging the ferries on their way to and from Macinaw Island. We backed tracked a little and entered the narrow and rocky entrance while being being pushed around by the current and waves. Kevin, as usual, handled it all masterfully. We didn't get settled until around 4:30pm so we opted to stay for the rest of the day in the marina and research what to do the next day.
Day 278 - We had a lazy AM and headed over on our bikes to the ferry dock. We were able to catch the 10AM ferry. We landed at Macinwac Island around 10:25AM with about 100 other passengers from various ferries. Although there are about 2 ferries arriving every 15 minutes, it wasn't too chaotic. We vistied Fort Macinac first and learned a lot about the history of the island. The exhibits at the fort were really well done and they had some live re-enactments that were also entertaining. The thing I found most interesting was a book that they had with the bios of every soldier that had served at the fort. There were many violations for drinking and not showing up for duty. The fort did end up having a tavern on-site, so they could limit alcohol consumption and keep the soldiers within the fort. I'm not sure how effective that was.
There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island, so there were a lot of bikes, horse drawn carriages and a electric scooters for the handicapped. (I guess they aren't considered mototrized vehicles). We biked the 8 mile perimeter path and then went inland and visited some of the other sites (cemetery, skull cave, arch rock, and Grand Hotel) We finished our tour with a drink on the porch of the Grand Hotel.
Fun facts: the Grand Hotel was built in 93 days, has 170 rooms, and the world's longest porch.
Day 279- Was a wet and cool day.We took advantage of the iffy weather and changed: the engine oil and filters, the generator oil and filter, the transmission oil and filters, filled the water tanks, and laundry:(