Today is also a short one, so we all took advantage of showers and enjoyed latte's and fresh blueberry muffins from the nearby coffee shop before departing. There were 15+ "taxis" lined up waiting for all those tourists arriving for the finale of Lilac Festival as we left the dock.
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| Ready for action! |
We had a great day at Mackinac, but we're ready for a different scene. Leaving the Island behind we passed Mission Point on our way out.
Next stop, Hessel Marina, the polar opposite of Mackinac Island! It is a small sleepy town at the west entrance to the Les Cheneaux Islands, a chain small island along the northern coast of Lake Huron. We have officially arrived in the 'U-P' (upper peninsula)! We were greeted by enthusiastic, if not highly skilled, harbormaster and dockhand and secured by 1 pm. Note to fellow boaters ----- if offered free pump out to train new staff, DECLINE!!! Enough said.
We walked the 2 blocks to "town" (I use the term loosely) and discovered a little bakery claiming the best pasties (pronounced with a short "a") around. Pasties are a kind of meat or veggie filled turnover -- a specialty of the UP. So we got 4 for dinner and also ordered cinnamon buns and a pie for pickup in the morning.
Time for a dinghy cruise through the small boat channel to Cedarville -- a 3 hour cruise round trip. Cedarville is the "bigger" town. We tied the dinghies up at the "shopping" dock and went into town to explore. We found a nice gift shop, grocery, up north style furniture store, etc. The real treat was seeing the beautiful homes/cottages along the way. We were back at the dock in Hessel by 6:30 for cocktails up on the bridge --- beautiful! We enjoyed the pasties for dinner aboad Waterford while Jan and I did a couple of loads of laundry. They were darn good -- we're on a mission to find the best.
We'll be moving on tomorrow, getting close to the St. Mary's river and Sault Ste. Marie, our gateway into Lake Superior. Lake Huron has been really kind to us, we hope for the same on Superior.
If your next stop is Detour could you please let me know how the new marina is laid out, we may be going up there and I am curious about the new layout. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteChris and Vicky