Posted By: rscroope
Bob & MaryAnn's Michigan/Reunion Lighthouse Adventure Days 1 & 2 w/ photos - 09/07/05 03:03 PM
I thought I'd share our trip with you as a way giving those who didn't attend an insight into the event.
PreTrip
Lots of research, emails, website downloads, lighthouse book purchases, Michigan travel brochures, etc. Still very weary of trip. Decided to take two days each way to travel almost 600 miles each way, and stay an extra day on Mackinaw Island before and after the Reunion.
Saturday Day 1
7:20am flight out of Islip to landing in Chicago at 8:40 am. On time, bags arrive, and we get last full size SUV at Alamo. Painless, and we're on our way. We head south to Michigan City for our first lighthouse stop. Traffics good but my MS S&T is not sinking up but the AAA map gets me to Michigan City, and I head towards the water. We arrive at the water and there's a boat show going on. I smooze my way past the event parking fee to take photo of the Lighthouse. I jump out of the car, all excited with my 4 month old Canon 20d to start snapping away. NOTHING! I'm getting CF errors. I spend the next 45 minutes troubleshooting - batteries, 4 CF cards, lenses. Now I'm steaming! This whole trip is predicated on my lighthousing my way around Michigan seeing as many lights as I can. I say to MaryAnn, lets go back to the airport. I see my first pier light off in the distance, and I can't take a picture. We're now way behind schedule, and we stop at KFC for $5 worth of fastfood which takes almost a 1/2 hour. I ask the kid giving us the food "if we're being punked?" He laughs! Now Notre Dame is totally out of the question and I head to our next stop - Frankenmurth. Gotta be in Bay City by the end of the day. 70 mph speed limits, everybody is doing 75-80. I feel I can make up the time. Pass a BestBuy, think about buying another camera, but I'm past it before I can decide.
Get to Frankenmurth about 4:30 pm, go by Bronner's and look for Zanders. Dave has promised me a meal to remember, and it is. The place is packed. We park what seems like a 1/4 mile away. We get in and order the chicken dinner, And the food starts coming. 5 different appetizers. Homemade chicken soup. The the main meal. Fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, dutch noodles, and more. Ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. Boy are we full!
Bronners is the most outrageous Christmas store I ever saw! The size of 4 football fields. If they don't have it, I don't know who would. I was in awe of all the displays. I said to MaryAnn that they should have a tape or dvd of the store - they did at the cash register!
On to Bay City. I followed the directions along the Saginaw River, saw a frieghter in the narrow but I guess a deep channel.
Checked into the Fairfield. 352.2 miles. Long day. Ended better. Bought a bottled of JD at a grocery store, and recharged all my camera batteries.
Sunday Day 2
Up early. Camera still doesn't work. Looks like the pins for the CF card are bent. Off to Target at 8am to find some tools and to buy a few point and shoot disposable cameras. This is a lighthousing day so we're off by 9am heading Tawas Pt. We'll see 10 lhs today. Hope the disposable works?
Quickly get behind schedule but who cares, we're seeing lhs. We're following Route 23.
Tawas Pt is a neat lh on the beach in a state park with a gift shop. Towers not open 'til 12pm but I manage to test the lake and it's not as cold as I was told to expect.
Sturgeon Pt, Harrisville is back in the woods on the water. The inside is restored to original and really gives you a feeling for it's time. There's an old school house on the grounds, and volunteers to talk to in both locations.
Alpena can be seen from the end of a pier not close enough with the disposable but...You can also drive around the channel to get some different views.
Presque Isle is off the beaten path. There's a marina on the way but keep going. There are 4 lights in this location. The range lights are on the way to the Old Light one on the right side. I almost past it. When I backed up I noticed a parking lot across the sreet, where the other range light is in a house just past the parking area. The Old Light is in another wooded area. Parking in the woods, and walking out to the light. It is here that we bumped into our Wacko friends - John & Lorie Roe, John C, Ken Reese, and Byran Acre. We would join them for the rest of the day.
Now off to New Presque where we climbed the light. What a great view! We had a good time catching up with the group.
Forty Mile Point, Rogers City Ken has GPS so he's leading the caravan. I have Terry Pepper's directions from his website which has been leading us the way.
Another woodsy location. Beautiful lighthouse with out building including a very neat foghorn building.
Very helpful volunteers, and we go to climb the tower.
Mackinaw Icebreaker is a bonus in Cheboygan. We pull into restricted parking lot and then retreat to the road for a view.
Cheboygan Lights Front and rear range. The rear is attached to a Keepers house and has two huge red panels on the side. GLLKA has taken on it's upkeep.
We then head down to the beach to see the front range. It's a little tower a the enterance to the inlet. We would later find out that this light will become a very special part of the Reunion.
It's now close to 5:30 so MaryAnn and I say our goodbyes to the crew and head to Mackinaw City to find Schepler's Ferry. We know the ferry runs until 830 but are a little nervous of the unknown.
We arrive at dock; pull our car right next to the ferry; a cast member unloads us; pick up our ferry tickets and car parking tag; and within 10 minutes are on our way to Mackinaw Island.
15 minutes later we arrive at the island and are greeted by our carraige. We bump into Dave Hanum who's making a trip back to Mac City for the Younger's Dinner. We then remeet Sean and Liz Thompson who just arrived from St Ignace. Our horse carraige plods its way through town, past the harbour, fort and mansions, and up the hill towards Mission Point. As we reach Mission Point we see the Brady's eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the grass minature golf course, and Straits.
We're checked into our room by 630, and sit back for a couple of JD's and gingers. Then we go to that outdoor restauraunt for a great meal and strawberry margarita. After dinner, I found the Reunion crew and helped with some setup.
Continued
Bob & MaryAnn Mich/Reunion Days 3-4 Con\'t
PreTrip
Lots of research, emails, website downloads, lighthouse book purchases, Michigan travel brochures, etc. Still very weary of trip. Decided to take two days each way to travel almost 600 miles each way, and stay an extra day on Mackinaw Island before and after the Reunion.
Saturday Day 1
7:20am flight out of Islip to landing in Chicago at 8:40 am. On time, bags arrive, and we get last full size SUV at Alamo. Painless, and we're on our way. We head south to Michigan City for our first lighthouse stop. Traffics good but my MS S&T is not sinking up but the AAA map gets me to Michigan City, and I head towards the water. We arrive at the water and there's a boat show going on. I smooze my way past the event parking fee to take photo of the Lighthouse. I jump out of the car, all excited with my 4 month old Canon 20d to start snapping away. NOTHING! I'm getting CF errors. I spend the next 45 minutes troubleshooting - batteries, 4 CF cards, lenses. Now I'm steaming! This whole trip is predicated on my lighthousing my way around Michigan seeing as many lights as I can. I say to MaryAnn, lets go back to the airport. I see my first pier light off in the distance, and I can't take a picture. We're now way behind schedule, and we stop at KFC for $5 worth of fastfood which takes almost a 1/2 hour. I ask the kid giving us the food "if we're being punked?" He laughs! Now Notre Dame is totally out of the question and I head to our next stop - Frankenmurth. Gotta be in Bay City by the end of the day. 70 mph speed limits, everybody is doing 75-80. I feel I can make up the time. Pass a BestBuy, think about buying another camera, but I'm past it before I can decide.
Get to Frankenmurth about 4:30 pm, go by Bronner's and look for Zanders. Dave has promised me a meal to remember, and it is. The place is packed. We park what seems like a 1/4 mile away. We get in and order the chicken dinner, And the food starts coming. 5 different appetizers. Homemade chicken soup. The the main meal. Fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, dutch noodles, and more. Ice cream with chocolate sauce for dessert. Boy are we full!
Bronners is the most outrageous Christmas store I ever saw! The size of 4 football fields. If they don't have it, I don't know who would. I was in awe of all the displays. I said to MaryAnn that they should have a tape or dvd of the store - they did at the cash register!
On to Bay City. I followed the directions along the Saginaw River, saw a frieghter in the narrow but I guess a deep channel.
Checked into the Fairfield. 352.2 miles. Long day. Ended better. Bought a bottled of JD at a grocery store, and recharged all my camera batteries.
Sunday Day 2
Up early. Camera still doesn't work. Looks like the pins for the CF card are bent. Off to Target at 8am to find some tools and to buy a few point and shoot disposable cameras. This is a lighthousing day so we're off by 9am heading Tawas Pt. We'll see 10 lhs today. Hope the disposable works?
Quickly get behind schedule but who cares, we're seeing lhs. We're following Route 23.
Tawas Pt is a neat lh on the beach in a state park with a gift shop. Towers not open 'til 12pm but I manage to test the lake and it's not as cold as I was told to expect.
Sturgeon Pt, Harrisville is back in the woods on the water. The inside is restored to original and really gives you a feeling for it's time. There's an old school house on the grounds, and volunteers to talk to in both locations.
Alpena can be seen from the end of a pier not close enough with the disposable but...You can also drive around the channel to get some different views.
Presque Isle is off the beaten path. There's a marina on the way but keep going. There are 4 lights in this location. The range lights are on the way to the Old Light one on the right side. I almost past it. When I backed up I noticed a parking lot across the sreet, where the other range light is in a house just past the parking area. The Old Light is in another wooded area. Parking in the woods, and walking out to the light. It is here that we bumped into our Wacko friends - John & Lorie Roe, John C, Ken Reese, and Byran Acre. We would join them for the rest of the day.
Now off to New Presque where we climbed the light. What a great view! We had a good time catching up with the group.
Forty Mile Point, Rogers City Ken has GPS so he's leading the caravan. I have Terry Pepper's directions from his website which has been leading us the way.
Another woodsy location. Beautiful lighthouse with out building including a very neat foghorn building.
Very helpful volunteers, and we go to climb the tower.Mackinaw Icebreaker is a bonus in Cheboygan. We pull into restricted parking lot and then retreat to the road for a view.
Cheboygan Lights Front and rear range. The rear is attached to a Keepers house and has two huge red panels on the side. GLLKA has taken on it's upkeep.
We then head down to the beach to see the front range. It's a little tower a the enterance to the inlet. We would later find out that this light will become a very special part of the Reunion.
It's now close to 5:30 so MaryAnn and I say our goodbyes to the crew and head to Mackinaw City to find Schepler's Ferry. We know the ferry runs until 830 but are a little nervous of the unknown.
We arrive at dock; pull our car right next to the ferry; a cast member unloads us; pick up our ferry tickets and car parking tag; and within 10 minutes are on our way to Mackinaw Island.
15 minutes later we arrive at the island and are greeted by our carraige. We bump into Dave Hanum who's making a trip back to Mac City for the Younger's Dinner. We then remeet Sean and Liz Thompson who just arrived from St Ignace. Our horse carraige plods its way through town, past the harbour, fort and mansions, and up the hill towards Mission Point. As we reach Mission Point we see the Brady's eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant overlooking the grass minature golf course, and Straits.
We're checked into our room by 630, and sit back for a couple of JD's and gingers. Then we go to that outdoor restauraunt for a great meal and strawberry margarita. After dinner, I found the Reunion crew and helped with some setup.
Continued
Bob & MaryAnn Mich/Reunion Days 3-4 Con\'t
Bob 