Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan Aug 17-21, 2025

We left Monocle Lake State Park at 11:45 am on Tuesday, August 17th, just before the noon check-out time, to drive 53 miles south to Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan for a 4-night stay and visit with our friends Kirk, Laura and Laura’s mom, Royda.

But first, we needed to “eat up” some time because we could not check into Straits until 2 pm and it was only an hour’s drive to get there. So we stopped at Brickyard Pub and Grill which, on Google Maps, looked like it had a large enough parking lot to accommodate our truck and trailer. It also advertised burgers, which I was in the mood for.

The parking lot was JUST big enough if very few other customers arrived, and fortunately they did not. Unfortunately, the menu was quite different than what was advertised so I settled for a pizza sub while Cindy got a club sub and we split an order of fries covered in cheese and bacon. None of it was bad, it just wasn’t what my taste buds were set for.

Straits State Park

We arrived at Straits State Park just after the 2 pm check-in time and were set up by 3 pm. The park is located at the southern tip of the upper peninsula of Michigan.

The sites were VERY close together, as you can see in the photos, gravel (though fairly level) with 50-amp electric hook ups, no water. We were in site 177, directly across from the showers/restrooms which is good because we only have the fresh water in our tank for the stay and we’ll need several showers while we’re here, lol.

There are 270 campsites in the campground and about a mile of hiking trails, including a lookout view of Mackinac Bridge.

Since we were still recovering from the hiking and stairs at Tahquamenon Falls a couple of days earlier, we took a nap then strolled over to the bathhouse and enjoyed nice, hot showers.

That evening we had a light dinner, because those subs and fries were still sitting like bricks in our stomachs. Then we watched the two latest episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and read our books for a while before hitting the sack as we had an early morning planned for the next day.

Shepler’s Ferry

Monday morning, August 18th, we were up at 6 am. we fed and walked Bella, ate a light breakfast ourselves and then headed for the Shepler’s Ferry Boat dock in St. Ignace which was only an 8-minute drive from the campground. The ferry ride was how were were getting to Mackinac Island for our visit that day. The email they send with your reservation confirmation AND their website both advise you to arrive an hour before your departure time. Our departure time was 8:30 am so we dutifully arrived at 7:30 am. Well, we could have slept another hour because there was absolutely NO reason to be there an hour early. We watched people walk up and board 2 minutes before the ferry departed. These were probably locals who knew they didn’t have to be there until the ferry left.

Oh well, better safe than sorry I guess.

The ferry boat ride (people and bicycles only because most motorized vehicles are not allowed on Mackinac Island) took about 16 minutes and was not nearly as rough as we expected (which was why we ate a light breakfast, lol). We arrived at the dock on Mackinac Island and met Kirk, Laura and Laura’s mom Royda fresh from their ferry ride over from Mackinaw City (on the northern tip of the lower peninsula in Michigan) where they were staying.

Mackinac Island

After joining up with our friends the first place we went was the bike rental business where Kirk had reserved vehicles for each of us. Two-wheel bikes for Kirk, Laura and myself, a three-wheeler for Cindy and a scooter (the only motorized vehicle allowed on the island) for Royda.

I have not ridden a bicycle in probably 55 years, but as they say about most skills you learn, “It’s like riding a bike.” I got on my bike and we rode down about a half of a block then turned left onto the busy Main Street filled with pedestrians, horse-drawn carriages (fun fact, there are over 500 horses on the island) and other bicyclists. I decided to stop for a moment so I pulled over to the right side of the street next to the curb, stuck my right leg out to brace on the curb…and missed it!

The immutable laws of gravity and physics took over and I tumbled onto the sidewalk on my right side and then rolled onto my back, laughing the whole time. While I was falling in what felt like slow-motion I was thinking to myself, “You’re falling in front of your wife, your friends and a few hundred strangers.” I wasn’t hurt at all (other than my pride) because, like riding a bike, my years of gymnastics and wrestling taught me how to safely fall if I was conscious.

Or, to paraphrase the gamer, “Tuck and roll, Granddad, tuck and roll!”

Two amazing things about our bike ride: first, we biked the entire perimeter of the island, a distance of 8.1 miles and had a lot of fun doing it. Second, my left knee did NOT hurt while pedaling the bike. It still hurt like heck when standing, walking and sitting, but not while pedaling. Very weird but also a very welcome weirdness because I expected constant agony.

The trip around the island took about 2 hours since we stopped several times for photos. We returned our bikes and then hopped in a horse-drawn carriage for a ride up to The Grand Hotel.

The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel opened on July 10, 1887 and comprises 332,500 square feet of guest facilities. The Grand Hotel’s Front Porch, at 660 feet, is the world’s largest and, as you can see in our photo album, is visible as you approach the island from Lake Huron. The Grand Hotel is also designated as a National Historic Landmark site.

In a typical season, more than 150,000 overnight guests will stay at The Grand Hotel. They welcomed their 5 millionth guest on June 26, 2006.

Presidents Biden, Clinton, Bush, Ford, Kennedy and Truman have visited The Grand Hotel.

Three feature film movies have been filmed at The Grand Hotel:

1. 1947 – This Time for Keeps starring Esther Williams. The Grand’s swimming pool was named for her and holds a half-million gallons of water.
2. 1980 – Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. The movie has a huge fan base and a fan club that meets yearly at The Grand Hotel in late October.
3. 2007 – Mr. Art Critic starring Bronson Pinchot

CIndy and I saw Somewhere in Time years ago, shortly after we were married and have wanted to visit The Grand Hotel ever since. It turned out to be even more fun with good friends.

The Grand Hotel Lunch Experience

It was close to lunch time and we were hungry when we arrived after pedaling 8 miles. We mistakenly thought there were smaller cafes and restaurants nearby, but it turned out they were all down the hill and none of us felt like walking down and back up the hill, so we decided that, expensive though it might be, we would take part in The Grand Hotel Lunch Experience.

You only live once, right? And the memory would be ours forever.

The Grand Hotel Lunch Experience takes place in the main dining room and is as upscale as you might expect it to be. The Experience is a buffet of various meats, vegetables, salads and desserts, with table service for drinks.

We all ate our money’s worth, and perhaps a bit more.

By the way, The Grand Hotel has a minimum kitchen staff of 100 and prepares as many as 4,000 meals per day. During the 2019 season (the last the hotel has released numbers for) they used 9,000 pounds of prime rib, 102,500 pounds of potatoes, 5,500 pounds of rack of lamb, 6,400 pounds of bacon, 42,500 pounds of strawberries and 6,000 pounds of pecans.

Part of the pecan usage is to make 60,000 Pecan Balls, the hotel’s most popular dessert. We all ate several of those ourselves following lunch.

Then we walked off our lunches by doing a little touring of the hotel, at least the parts our passes allowed access to. We enjoyed the world famous porch with its beautiful floral arrangements, various shops in the hotel and, of course, the Somewhere in Time Room.

Our time at The Grand Hotel was drawing to an end. We took a horse-drawn carriage back to the “downtown” part of the island where we purchased some world-famous Mackinac Island fudge before going our separate ways at the ferry dock. We boarded our ferry back to St. Ignace while they boarded theirs back to Mackinaw City. We were tired, but happy that we had such a fun day with friends.

The Mackinac Bridge

Tuesday morning, August 19, 2025 The Wandering Wetheringtons crossed the Mackinac Bridge (The Mighty Mac) for the very first time. Cindy was concerned, but we made it across, driving south into Mackinaw City to meet up with Kirk, Laura and Royda.

The Mackinac Bridge spans the Mackinac Straits and connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. Construction began on May 7, 1954 and the bridge opened to traffic on November 1, 1957. It is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere with 7,400 feet of roadway suspended in the air over the water. Total length of the bridge, including its approaches, is approximately five miles.

The Mighty Mac is the third-longest suspension bridge in the United States, behind the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Heavy pier foundations, the deepest 210 feet into bedrock below the surface of the water, were necessary to resist the ice masses that accumulate every winter in the Mackinac Straits. It is considered one of the strongest suspension bridges in the world.

The bridge measures 8,344 feet between the main anchorages. Its 3,800-foot main span is stiffened by a truss 38 feet deep, with open spaces on either side of the roadway and grid construction of the deck to permit the passage of wind gusts. That grid deck, by the way, was a bit disconcerting to drive on, even for me. You also have to keep in mind that Cindy will not walk across a sewer grate at ground level and here we were driving on a grate elevated 199 feet above the water at midspan, so you can imagine her consternation. For those who decide that driving across the bridge is just too much, there is a Drivers Assistance Program available that offers free drivers.

But we toughed it out, lol.

Colonial Fort Michilimackinac

We drove down to meet up with our friends at the Colonial Fort Michilimackinac, right on the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Because the previous day had been a long one and the day we visited the fort was cold and damp, Royda waited in the warmth of the car while we toured the outdoor facility.

Unfortunately for us, the entire visit we were also joined by some kind of documentary team touring the fort. They apparently had preference on getting the video footage they needed so that is their cameraman you will see in some of my videos.

The first thing we saw was a demonstration of mortar firing by re-enactors compete in British uniforms outside the fort on the shore of the lake. The main re-enactor was very good at explaining the history and the processes. Then we went inside the fort. The fort and its contents were all rebuilt to original specifications because the original was burned to the ground a couple of centuries ago. We enjoyed a presentation of food preparation during the 1770’s, saw an in-progress excavation site, and watched a musket rifle firing demonstration within the fort.

Mama Mia’s Pizzeria & Mackinac Bridge Museum

After touring the fort we followed our friends to the Mama Mia’s Pizzeria & Mackinac Bridge Museum for lunch and a visit to the museum. The pizza was OK, but I think most people probably go to visit the museum on the entire second floor. It is full of memorabilia from the bridge construction and one of the most inspiring things is the thousands of hard hats they have hanging from the ceiling that came from various workers on the bridge. There were some 3,500 workers onsite during construction, so you can see where they would have gotten all those hard hats from.

After lunch we bid farewell to our friends as they headed back south to the Detroit area. We’ll meet up again with them later in the week when we head to our next stop in their neck of the woods. And of course we braved The Mighty Mac again to get back to our campsite.

We relaxed on Wednesday, doing nothing more than taking Bella on a long walk on the trails in Straits State Park and preparing to leave on Thursday, August 21st. THAT will be the real test as we drive across the bridge while towing Nomad. Keep Cindy in your thoughts, lol!

Thanks for following The Wandering Wetheringtons.