Certainly any of the major cities on the Great Lakes (Toronto ONT, Buffalo NY, Cleveland OH, Toledo OH, Detroit MI, Chicago IL, Milwaukee WI, and maybe Hamilton ONT) would have adequate facilities. Since Kim mentioned difficulties in finding a site, I assume a town closer to more lighthouses than any of these are is the goal.

Mackinaw City MI certainly has plenty of motel rooms, if you count all of the establishments in the area. I see two problems here: 1) People would have to be spread out among quite a few different motels. (There are only 2 hotels with more than 100 rooms.) and 2) I am not sure it has the convention facilities. The Ramada Inn (the largest motel at 154 rooms) has banquet space for only 250. None of the references I have checked indicate that the town has a convention center. Does it? And if so, how many people can it handle for a dinner function?

I think the best candidate as a site in the vicinity of the Straights of Mackinac is Sault Ste. Marie ONT. The three largest hotels have almost 600 rooms between them (Ramada Inn - 211, Holiday Inn - 195, Algoma's Water Tower Inn - 180). The Ramada can handle meals for up to 1,400 people in its ballroom. Plus, the city also has a convention center (the 90,000 square foot Civic Centre) and an outdoor tented facility called the Bondar Pavilion.

Traverse City would certainly be a nice location and people would not have to be split up among as many different motels as at Mackinac City (more 100+ room facilities). The largest would not be able to handle a dinner for the whole group and, like Mackinac City, I have no convention center info for Traverse City.

Another city with good facilities is Duluth MN. (Bigger hotels, but not as large banquet space as Sault Ste. Marie.) The two largest downtown hotels have over 600 rooms between them (Holiday Inn Downtown Waterfront - 353 and Radisson Harborview - 268). Also, the Best Western Edgewater East on the north side of downtown has 282 rooms. The city has a skywalk which connects to many of the buildings in the downtown area and also to the Waterfront Canal Park. Both the Holiday Inn and the Radisson are connected to the skywalk. The Holiday Inn's ballroom will handle up to 600 for meals, which might not be enough. The city does have a convention center, but I have no info on its capacity. Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, with its numerous lighthouses is within 2 hours to the east and Two Harbors & Split Rock Lighthouses are both within 1 1/4 hours to the north.

P.S. Both Mackinac City and Duluth feature a lighthouse on their visitor guiudes.

[This message has been edited by FrankB (edited 06-29-99).]

[This message has been edited by FrankB (edited 06-29-99).]