Mackinaw City and Macinac Island

We drove from Traverse City to Mackinaw City on Monday, August 3 to stay three  nights at Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground.  This is a huge place with over 600 camp sites.  It sits on Lake Michigan with 1 mile of shore line and can accommodate any size rig.  Roads are mostly paved and sites are gravel.  Some have full hook ups.  We lucked up and got one of the larger sites but saw others that were packed in pretty close.  Its a nice place to stay, just be aware when you pick your spot.
They offer discount tickets to the Star Line Jet Boat Ferries to Mackinac Island and there is a free shuttle that picks up and drops off in the camp ground.  They pull a small trailer for those that want to take their bikes over.  Here is a link Star Line Ferry
The morning we went to the island, we caught the 10:30 am shuttle in the campground.  we arrived at the dock just before 11:00 but for some reason the 11:00 am ferry did not show up.  Ferries run every 30 minutes and long story short, we had to wait for the THIRD ferry to pickup before we could board,  finally arriving at the island a little after 1pm.

Part of the line waiting to catch a ferry - about 500 people.

#1 order of business when we got there was food!  No breakfast and it was after lunch so we did a quick search on Trip Advisor and settled on The Chuckwagon.  This place is small and we had to wait a bit but the tables turn pretty quickly.  They have a small menu featuring burgers.  They do just a few things and do them well.  I had a Rattlesnake burger and Diane had the Blue Cheese Burger.  Hand partied and cooked to perfection on a flat top.  For a quick bite, you won't go wrong here.

The Island is your typical mix of gift stores, fudge shops, ice cream, tee shirts, shoes, jewelry, restaurants, bars,  etc. etc.  The thing that makes the island unique is that no motor vehicles are allowed.  Everything is bicycles, foot, and horses in the summer.  The residents do use snow mobiles in the winter and kids ride them to school!

Bicycles are EVERYWHERE!

Supplies for local businesses are delivered by horse and wagon.

We took a tour of the island using Mackinac Island Carriage Tours

This is a large outfit operating several carriages at any given time.  It cost $28 per adult for a "2 hour" tour. While it was interesting, I was somewhat underwhelmed.  There was a ride through one street of town, a pull up the hill to see the Grand Hotel, a stop at a gift shop where you change carriages,  a ride through the woods to the rock arch where you get 5 whole minutes to get off and take pictures, then 5 minutes more ride where you are encouraged to get off and walk 5 minutes back to town or endure another 45 minute carriage ride to get back to the same place.  After listening to the cranky driver Gene tell BS stories for 30 minutes, I was ready to walk most anywhere.  I wouldn't do this again.  In fact the entire Mackinac Island thing is just a big tourist trap. Glad I did it once, but don't plan to go back.

The ride to the island and back was on a jet boat and the 6:30pm ferry we caught makes a slight detour and actually goes under the Mackinac Bridge.   This was the highlight of the day for me! The boat shoots up a huge rooster tail while under way.

One last thing.  Our Campground was in Mackinaw (with a "w") City.  We took a ferry to Mackinac (with a "c") Island and went under the Mackinac Bridge.  They are pronounced the same, (as in Mackinaw) so what's up with the spelling?   It seems that the French across the river in Canada got the name from the native Indians and spelled it with a "c".  The English on the southern shore spelled it with a "w" as its pronounced.  So in the US its "w" and across the water its "c".  That was really driving me crazy until I found out the reason!

Following is some pics I took.  Hope you enjoy!

The harbor area.

The founder!

Church

Newer Church

The Grand Hotel. ($$$$$!)

Natural stone arch.

Original buildings of the fur trade 1814.

Not sure why the flag is at half staff.

The Island Fort

Bar Harbor and Acadia

After leaving Boothbay Harbor, we continued further north to our ultimate destination of Bar Harbor Maine and Acadia National Park. We actually stayed about 12 miles form Bar Harbor in the small town of Trenton, Maine at Timberland Campground. The CG is nice with large, level pull through sites and the campground wifi worked great. We were parked in the open so satellite tv was not a problem. We also had fairly strong Verizon 4G for our hot spot but didn't really need it.  http://www.timberlandacresrvpark.com

Bar Harbor is a great little town that got its name because of a sandbar between the mainland and an island that is exposed during low tide. People walk over there and hopefully make it back before the tide comes back in, but if not, they don't attempt a "rescue" because a few hours later, they can walk back. Our guide of the Acadia tour we took told us about an empty kayak that was in the water near the sandbar that was just sitting in the same spot for a couple hours. After the tide went out a little, they saw that it was strapped to the roof of an SUV! Uh oh! 

You can see the sand bar exposed here at low tide.

In Bar Harbor there is the West Street Cafe. If you like blueberry pie, (or as it turns out, even if you don't), go there. Order pie with vanilla ice cream. Eat it. I am not a fan of blueberries but I had to sample Diane's piece. I have to say, that was some of the best pie I have ever eaten. Turns out Maine blueberries ( and they grow a bunch of them), are a little different form southern blueberries. Smaller and sweeter. Good stuff!

The aforementioned guide worked for Ollie's Trolleys. http://www.olistrolley.com They charged us $30 each for a 2.5 hour tour of Bar Harbor and Acadia. It was a great way to get the lay of the land and decide what we wanted to explore further. (I highly recommend this approach if you've never been to the area.) This turned out to be a double blessing because of the weather. We had scheduled 4 days at Timberland but after a couple days of rain, decided to extend for 4 more. Out of the 8 days, we had 2 days of sunshine, 4 days of rain, and 2 days of cloudy, windy, and cool. But you can't control the weather so no point in getting bent out of shape about it.
Acadia is an awesome National Park. If you are in the area, make time to spend a couple days here. Following are some pictures we took to document the trip. Hope you enjoy.

Bar harbor is filled with quaint summer "cottages" that the
rich and famous of the day built in the area.  

Views from the top of Cadillac Mountain.

Trees are a bit stunted up here!

Only 1500 feet in elevation.

The glaciers left this behind when they retreated.

The wind was unbelievable on top!

Mile after mile of rocky coast line.

Frenchman's Bay

One of several lakes on the island.  Notice the beaver
huts at the far side.

Sand Beach.  A rarity due to cold water and currents which
normally dissolve the shells that make up this "sand".

One of several stone bridges in the park.  the Rockefellers, Morgans,
and other well to do people of the day built much of the park.
They did a great job of creating the roads, carriage roads, and bridges
that give access to the park without impacting the natural beauty.