St. Ignace, Michigan

We fully expect that this trip won’t be all rainbows and sunsets - meaning that there will be places we would’ve and should’ve skipped to see something more exciting but that’s part of the journey as well. St. Ignace itself was fine - but the draw that brings most people there seems to be Mackinac Island. Apologies in advance to those of you who love this place, as there are some redeeming qualities to it but if I was to rate this on Trip Advisor - and I might - it’s probably getting no more than 2 stars. Maybe 3 if I’m feeling generous.

We pulled into our campground, the Lakeshore RV Campground, just outside of St. Ignace (pronounced like “Agnes” but with an “I”). Beautiful views overlooking Lake Michigan and the Mackinac Bridge. There’s a private little beach just down from the campsite, with a few benches and a table where you can enjoy views of the sunsets, the large freighters passing and of course, the bridge. The bridge is the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the US (5 miles long) and once completed, it negated the ferry industry that ran for years in the Mackinaw Straits.

The sites here are even tighter than the last place (!) but it was a relatively quiet site (“boring” for Owen, as there weren’t any kids his age or many kids at all). We set up, and headed into town for a look around and to research the options for getting to Mackinac Island the next day. We put Owen in charge of this project and he pored over the options, ultimately setting on Star Line ferries - the fastest, from his perspective. The other main option is Shepler’s, but both offer similar services and pricing. St. Ignace seems to serve as a jumping-off point as the main tourist draw, but there are also some historical museums about the area and quite a bit of trail hiking as well.

We took the ferry over on a Tuesday, and the weather was perfect. The boat we took included a ride under the Mackinac bridge on the way to the island, which was certainly cool to see. Upon docking and getting our bikes unloaded, we headed out onto Bicycle Street (I actually don’t know if that’s the name - it’s probably Main Street) but I heard a stat (unverified) that Macinac Island has the most bicycles of any island in the world. Based on what we saw, don’t think we can really dispute that. This place puts Amsterdam to shame.

You can bike around the island (8 miles roundtrip) but unfortunately, we could only go part-way around the island on each side because- construction! They were doing shoreline restoration, and perhaps this added to the bummer factor of our visit, because biking to see the island is one of the best parts. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island - only bicycles and horsedrawn carriages. Now some people might find this charming, but near on collisions with bikes versus horses looked probable and there are ample amounts of horse dung to avoid, along with trying not to enter into a head-on collision with oncoming bikers. There were just SO many people. And bikes. And horse crap.

Many of the houses on this island are absolutely gorgeous, but with so many throngs of tourists riding just in your front (or back) yard, how does one enjoy this? Ok, so there ARE many interesting things on the island to see including Fort Mackinac, Fort Holmes, historic churches, beautiful vistas, historic cemetaries and lots of trails. The only place where there aren’t a lot of people are the hiking trails and the inner bike trails on the island. There is also Arch Rock, which is one of the more famous rock overlooks on the island (waiting line to get up the stairs to take the picture….). Earlier in the day, we were told we weren’t able to visit this place as there was police activity in the area, and it was blocked off. It opened up later that day and we did eventually bike over there. Sadly, we found out later that evening that it had been closed in the morning as a man in his 40’s had died by suicide by jumping off the arch, and he was found that morning. So very sad.

Arch Rock

We found a cute place for lunch (no line!) called the Watercolor Cafe, which was right on the water and offered great views of the marina and Lake Huron. Good food, good prices. We did bike up to the Grand Hotel, which really is a sight to see - so massive! But just to access the sprawling patio and order a beverage, one has to pay an admission fee of $10 per person. I guess I understand it, because if you are paying a minimum of $500-$600/night to stay in a room (that looks like fashion designer Betsey Johnson has thrown up in BTW), well I don’t think I’d want to be bothered by tourists either. But it IS grand to look at.

We returned to Bicycle Street and hopped into the closest confectionary we could find for some sugary reinforcement. If you like candy shops, souvenir stops, and eateries/breweries of all sorts, this might be your kind of place. We hopped back on the ferry at 3:30 and appreciated our visit and the opportunity to do so, but decided we did not need to go back anytime soon. Upon getting back to St. Ignace, Owen wanted to head to splash pad that he had seen the day before, where he decided to get soaking wet, and managed to pull me in as well (it was a pretty hot day).

Splash pad! St. Ignace

Back at the campsite that night, we got out the pudgy pie maker for cherry turnovers! A classic camping must-have.

On our final day, we spent a good majority of the morning working and doing school. I’ll probably write a post on what that looks like for us but we’ve decided that Owen is going to do school year-round, so we started in earnest this week. Through a combination of an online program (that we monitor and partially teach) as well as curriculum that we will completely oversee, he is starting to dive in and also use our route as a means of learning. By the time we wrapped up all of our respective duties, we had a few hours left in the day to take advantage of so we drove across the Mackinac Bridge to Mackinaw, and went to a Coast Guard Icebreaker ship (now a museum). Of course, had to fit a couple cheesy photos in.

“Hi - Owen here. I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun going to Mackinac island and the splash pad was really fun. The Coast Guard Icebreaker ship was a great experience. In Sault Sainte Marie we went on another ship but I was glad they were not the same experience.”

We visited the local Farmer’s Market that afternoon, which I was happy about as it was the first one we’ve come across on the trip. Purchased fresh greens, juicy slicing tomatoes (maybe the best thing I’ve had so far), and fresh baked bread. Also had to pick up some smoked whitefish and a traditional “pasty” (pronounced past-tee), which is a handheld meat pie. Like an empanada (but honestly, not as good IMO). Still, we want to try as much of the local fare and I have a strict goal of not wanting to eating at any chain restaurants this next year if we can help it.