Day 93 enjoying Mackinaw City, MI

       The Admiral was up early walking Lucky, and she caught this sunrise  over Mackinac Island with the bridge lights still on (photo at right). We had a leisurely morning that included another nice long walk with the dog.  

       We ate lunch out at a fast food style joint that served fish and chips.  The perch were lightly battered the way they are suppose to be and were delicious. We had thought that we were headed to more of a restaurant, but they had plenty of seating with tables where you could people watch at all of the shoppers. The photo at left shows kind of a typical view of the main street shopping. It was sort of t-shirt shop then a fudge shop and then something else like an ice cream shop. So, of course, we stopped for ice cream on the way home. I had my usual black cherry in a cup.

      After feeding the dog we headed to another movie, "Legend of Tarzan".  It was interesting, but once again I was thankful that the popcorn was better. On the way to the mall area across the street we passed this human statue (photo at right). We remembered seeing him on our stop here during the first Loop. When the Admiral dropped a dollar in the donation pot, he made a quick swipe to give her his business card and then hardly before anyone could notice, he was back frozen in his pose. It was not very warm so he had it easy, but when it gets hot, I think that it would be a very tough way to earn a living.

      At this dock we are right across from four go fast cigarette style boats.  Each day they go cruising for several hours, and then would congregate on the dock for several hours in the evenings and morning while they cooked dinner and breakfast for the group. They usually had lunch in another town on one of their cruises.  It has been fun visiting with them each day as they were nice folks who were seriously having fun on the water. We had been initially afraid that they would party late, but the groups broke up about 9:00 pm each evening.

      The retired US Coast Guard Ice breaker Mackinaw is moored on the pier adjacent to the marina to the east. Since she was retired, the U.S. has not had a true icebreaker on the Great Lakes, and they have had to rely on there large tugs and buoy tenders to break ice and escort ships. In a relatively mild winter this is not a problem, and fortunately, Canada often diverts one of its icebreakers from the Arctic in the winter to help on the Great Lakes. The photo at the left shows her propeller that is on display near the street side ticket booth. The photo was taken at sunset during Lucky's final walk of the day.

      The photo at the left shows a view of the Mackinaw from the stern that was actually taken as we pulled into the marina yesterday. She is decorated with lots of flags probably in honor of the Fourth of July, which is tomorrow. You can see how the sides slope fairly steeply inward. The bow is also kind of spoon shaped so that she rides up over the ice. The weight of the ship pushes the brittle ice down and breaks it. She was designed to do this in a continuous motion so that icebreakers are rated by the thickness of ice that they can break while slowly steaming. The smaller tugs and buoy tenders often have to ram the ice to break it, and then they have to back up in order to repeat the process, which is not very efficient.

     Well, another fun day, and of course, once again we go to bed early and tired... Speaking of tired, Lucky has taken to sleeping in her kennel that is built in underneath the chart table. She knows that we cannot reach in there to try and drag her out for another walk. If you even look like you are going to try, she will start with a very soft growl just to let you know...