St. Ignace, Michigan

Straits State Park

September 3rd through September 7th, 2009

Thursday, September 3rd - 72/55°, Sunny

    We decided to get an earlier start to our trip this year. Since Tara had Friday off, I took the day off of work as well. That meant that we were able to leave for St. Ignace Thursday afternoon after I got home from work. By the time I got home at 3:30pm and we finished our last minute packing, it was 4:30pm by the time we hit the road.

    We had to make a few stops during our drive today – once at the bank (need to have money!), at the gas station to fill up the tank, and then later on for dinner. Tyler wanted Taco Bell and the other kids wanted KFC today. Normally we aren’t big fans of two restaurant stops (although they are not unheard of), but since they were so close to each other we decided to go ahead and do it… besides, we’re on vacation, right? Anyway, I ended up having tacos with Tyler while Tara opted for the easier to eat while driving KFC.

    Our only other stop on our drive north was at a rest area for a bathroom break. The only reason that this is notable was because while waiting for the dog to do her business I looked across I-75 into a field where 10-15 deer were busy playing and eating. It was kind of a neat site to watch them frolic in the evening sun. Plus, my stomach began grumbling a little at the thought of how tasty they would be…

    We managed to get to the Straits State Park campground a little after 9:00pm tonight. Several couples who stay at Sun-N-Fun in Florida with Dad & Mom camp here every year, and a spot opened up this year so Mom thought that we should give it a try. Since it was dark already, we focused on getting the van unpacked and getting ourselves ready for bed, which finally happened around 11:15pm tonight.

Friday, September 4th - 72/57°, Mostly Sunny

    Since last night was a relatively late night for all of us involved (not to mention the early morning from having to go to work), we were in no hurry to wake up today. It was around 8:30am when we finally stared stirring in the camper. We mixed in showers for everybody at the bath houses today while breakfast was being prepared. Today we ate eggs/omelets boiled in bags, along with hash browns and bacon. The eggs tasted just like they normally would, but I suppose that cooking them in the bag makes cleanup a lot easier - plus you can cook as many as will fit in the pot of boiling water as opposed to one or two at a time. I suppose this meal would be more accurately called brunch, since it was eaten so late in the morning.

    After eating, Dad, Samantha, Drew, Jayden, and I took our bikes out for a ride. We went from our campsite to the observation area at the eastern end of the campground and back. What I call the observation is an elevated area with one of those pay telescope things mounted to it. It also has a staircase that goes down to one of the trails that we walk on. After we returned from our bike ride, Dad, Jayden, and I followed that up by taking a walk along the trails. This morning we took a turn off the main trail, ending up at the Welcome Center rest area along I-75, just north of the Mackinac Bridge. We headed back after turning around here.

    Once we had returned from our walk, Mom, Drew, Jay, and I loaded into the van to drive to the fish market to buy perch for tonight’s fish fry. We also stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few odds and ends that we would be needing over the course of the rest of our weekend. When our shopping was complete, we returned back to the park only to be reminded that we forgot to purchase ice cream for sundaes later this evening. I had planned on riding my bike up there by myself but it turned into a group ride, with Dad, Tyler, Sam, Drew, and Jay all tagging along. Tyler and I went in and picked out a box of vanilla and a box of chocolate before returning once again.

    With our grocery shopping complete, we spent some time relaxing around the campsite. There were a couple of card games going on, and the Wii was seeing some action as well. Bonnie (whose camper was facing opposite ours across from the picnic tables) took Tyler, Sam, and Tinkerbell for a walk along with her dog, Money. My relaxation didn’t last long as I realized that I was supposed to purchase a pitcher that was on the clearance shelf at the grocery store that Tara had a coupon for. Drew and I climbed onto the bike one more time to ride to the store to get it. Thankfully that was my last trip in for the day!
Once evening rolled around we starting preparing for our fish fry, along with French-fries (our major contribution for the weekend’s food) for dinner. We even brought along and cooked up the walleye, perch, and catfish that the kids caught while fishing with Jeff when we went camping in Bay City. All of tonight’s fish was mighty tasty, so no complaints on my part!

    Once again after dinner Dad and I went for a walk along the trails. This time we were joined by Sam and Drew. Sammy pointed out a tree with a “U” shaped trunk, so I took her picture in it. We tried to get Drew to sit in the tree and have his picture taken, but he freaked out. I’m not sure when he developed this fear, but it is becoming obnoxious.

    When our walk was finished we returned to the campsite, just in time for the ice cream sundaes (good thing I went back to the store!). The entire camping group was sitting around the campfire enjoying their ice cream and the nice evening.

    Once we finished eating, Tara & I took the kids inside to watch a movie. Dad & Mom came in and joined us just a couple of minutes after it started as well. Tonight’s feature presentation was “Coraline.” I thought it was a so-so movie – not great, but not bad either. My favorite parts were the fact that her family had moved to wherever the movie took place at from Pontiac, Michigan. They also had a Detroit Zoo snow globe featured at various points of the show. I am not sure what the significance of the tidbits were, but it was nice to feel the love for Michigan anyway.

    Once the movie was over we set up our beds and called it a night, with the final lights-out coming around 11:15pm once again.

Saturday, September 5th - 73/59°, Sunny

    We got a little bit earlier start to our day, getting up around 8:00am this morning. We ate our pancake breakfast with the group earlier today as well. The kids even had special Mickey Mouse pancakes made for them. The only side I can remember was bacon, although I am sure there were others as well. I must be subconsciously blocking them out because they were stuff that I wouldn’t eat anyway!

    After breakfast we worked on getting our showers. Since the lines were much longer today at the bath houses, some of us had to shower in the camper (it’s a good thing the group shared an illegal water hookup, otherwise this wouldn’t have been possible!) while others lucked out and didn’t have to wait too long to get into the other showers.

    Once we were all smelling better, we loaded up the van (everyone except Dad, who apparently needed some alone time this morning) and drove into town to do some browsing at the craft show. While there we watched the juggling comedy act of the self proclaimed hippie “Crazy Richard.” I think that he has been there every year that we have, but the kids still want to rush over and see his show. Whatever makes them happy makes me happy, so no complaints here.

    I guess the way the meals work with this bunch that we are camping with is pretty much breakfast and dinner is a group meal, and for lunch you are on your own. With that in mind we began making pie-iron pizzas once we returned from the craft show. Unfortunately we ended up making pizza for a few of the group as well, which we hadn’t planned on doing. Not only did this cut into what food we had available to eat, but it meant that those who were cooking had to wait even longer before they had a chance to sit and eat.

    Tyler, Sam, and Drew went with Bonnie to walk the dogs today. Apparently Tinkerbell gets tired and needs to rest frequently, which doesn’t shock me considering the amount of time she spends sleeping at home. When you want to spend time playing with her, she is hidden away in my bedroom snoring. Crazy pooch.

    I decided that today was a good day to go for a bike ride, so I headed out of the park and cruised the streets around the park for a while. I managed to find the cemetery that abuts the east side of the park, rode along various streets, and eventually found myself at the playground at Memorial Park (near the craft show in town) before I returned to the camper to watch the Michigan Wolverines beat the Western Michigan Broncos 31-7. Go Blue! I did have to take a break at some point during the second half action (which wasn’t as exciting as the first anyway) to ride to the store with Tara to purchase some chicken legs for Sam’s dinner.

    Speaking of dinner – tonight was “meat night”, which for most people meant steaks. For us it meant steaks, pork chops, and the aforementioned chicken legs. Tara made a salad to go along with the appropriately named “salt potatoes,” which seemed to be just potatoes boiled in really salty water, and a couple of different jell-o salads.

    Another meal meant another walk to burn off some calories for Dad, Tara, and I. This time Drew and Jayden joined us, and we walked the trails from the road near our campsite across to the bridge observation deck area before returning. While we were gone, Tara, Mom, Tyler, and Sam played cards and dice games to pass the time.

    As darkness began to settle in around us, Tara, Tyler, Sam, Drew, Jayden, and I decided to drive to town to watch the weekly fireworks that St. Ignace has. We wrongly assumed that they would be put off at dusk, when in reality it was 10:00pm before they started. That meant that we spent about an hour sitting on the beach near Memorial Park in the dark trying to pass the time. The kids threw rocks into the water for a long time, and eventually we ended up sitting together listening to the Barenaked Ladies on my cell phone. We’ve gotten quite good at singing “If I Had $1,000,000!”

    After the fireworks were finished, sometime around 10:20pm, we walked to the van for the drive back to campground. We were fairly tired after sitting at the beach waiting for so long, so we decided to call it a night and headed for bed.

Sunday, September 6th - 73/57°, Partly Cloudy

    We had big plans for today, so we got our morning started a little earlier than normal. The coffee pot started percolating at 7:00am, and we were all up and moving around by 7:30am. Since we were planning to leave, we all took turns showering (I think we all managed to get into the bath houses today without too much of a wait) and eating whatever we could find for breakfast.

    By the time we were all ready and had packed a lunch for us to eat later, it was close to 9:30am by the time we left the campground with our compass (or, perhaps more accurately in this day and age, the GPS) set for Sault Ste. Marie. It was our intention to visit the Soo Locks, but we checked the schedule to see if any freighters would be passing through only to learn that they weren’t expecting any until later in the day (between 4:30 and 5:00pm). With that in mind, we opted to start our activities by visiting the Tahquamenon Falls first.

    We arrived at the falls just in time for lunch, sometime around the noon hour. We found an available picnic table and settled in for our meal of chips and sandwiches. After we finished our meals we began the walk along the trails to view the upper falls. I’m not sure if I have ever been here before or not, and even if I have it was so long ago that I wouldn’t remember anyway, but I certainly found these falls interesting. The falls are streaked with color, apparently from the iron in the region as well as the acid from the trees.

    Once we decided that I had taken enough pictures of the upper falls, we drove to the lower falls (we could have walked, but we still needed to get back to the Soo Locks). Of course I took more pictures here too. The kids were most disappointed that we didn’t bring their bathing suits, as there were lots of people wading into the river. We found a shallow spot along the trail, let the kids take off their shoes and roll up their pants, and wade in themselves. The kids made us promise them that next time we come here that we could spend the whole day so that they could do more (some people were wading across the river to the island in the center).

    By 3:30pm it was getting to the point where we were going to be too late to see the ships pass through the Soo Locks, so we hustled our way back to Sault Ste. Marie with our fingers crossed. In reality we timed it just right, however. We arrived just as the longest ship on the Great Lakes, the Paul R. Tregurtha, was coming into the locks. This ship seemed to take forever coming into and out of the locks. On its way in, two small pleasure boats managed to come into the other lock, be lowered down, and exit before it was fully in. On its way out, a freighter over 600 feet long came into the opposite lock, was raised, and left all while the Tregurtha worked on exiting the lock. In all we saw two freighters lock through, as well as those two small personal boats. A third freighter was coming in as well, but by then the kids had seen enough and were getting antsy. In all we spent a little over an hour at the locks.

    Since it was getting late by this time, we decided to have dinner in Sault Ste. Marie as well. Due to the late hour on a Sunday evening, we didn’t have time to do much in the way of restaurant exploration. We ended up at Applebee’s, sitting down to eat around 7:00pm. We had promised the kids ice cream earlier in the day, so after dinner we stopped and got them the next best thing – Wendy’s Frosty’s – for our drive back to St. Ignace.

    It was 9:30pm when we returned to the camper, and since we had a big day ahead of us tomorrow with another early morning in the works, we decided to go straight to bed so that we would be well rested for our big walk in the morning.

Monday, September 7th - 77/57°, AM Fog/PM Sun

    Even though I am usually up at 5:00am for work, for some reason 7:00am never really feels like sleeping in when it is on a weekend. The coffee pot seemed to start early today, even if it really was that time of day.

    Since we were going to be doing some heavy walking, those of us who were going postponed our showers today, instead getting dressed and having a quick breakfast before heading out to the trails. Dad, Tara, Tyler, Sam, Drew, and I all left the camper for the bridge walk around 8:05am. Mom stayed behind with Jayden – it was their job to drive the van across the bridge and pick us up later.

    By the time we actually made it the start of the bridge walk, it was 8:20am (it took us about 15 minutes of walking to go from the camper, follow the trail to the rest area, and join the crowd just below the toll station on I-75). We had a relatively easy walk this year, with lots of interesting visuals added by the somewhat heavy fog that rolled in. I think Drew was the most proud of us today, as he managed to walk the entire 5 miles by himself. Although he was a little tired when it was done, the big smile on his face as he was doing it (aided by the motivational donut at the end of the walk) said it all. Around 9:30am we were forced into a single lane of traffic, which seems to be the normal time (as much as that stinks – being crammed into that one lane really slows you down). We still managed to finish around 10:00am, for a respectable hour and forty minute total walking time.

    Once we passed the finish line I separated from the others to go take some pictures of the fog-engulfed bridge from the shoreline. Everyone else made their way to the donut shop to meet Mom, Jay, and the rest of our camping group. Once I decided that I had taken enough, I started a jog/speed walk to catch back up with them. I managed to arrive just as Tara was ordering donuts for herself and the kids, so the timing was perfect.

    After eating we walked around the Mackinaw Crossing mall for a while. Dad was really hoping to purchase a model tractor that a certain store has had the past couple of years, but the store has been closed (apparently the owner passed away). We also ran into the guy with the copper paint who poses like a statue (he has been there for the past year or two). Tyler poked his suspenders from behind and got a little move out of him, but Drew was the most enthralled. Tara gave Drew a dollar to put into the basket he had with him on the ground, and Drew was rewarded with a fist bump. Another big smile from the little guy.

    We returned to the campsite around 12:00pm after fighting traffic (and parents!) out of Mackinaw City. Tara and I took turns showering and packing the van while Dad & Mom worked on making tacos for lunch. The kids used this time to get in a couple of last minute card games.

    After eating we said our goodbyes and headed over to the bridge view park (on the opposite side of I-75) to take our yearly pictures on the rocks. Dad and Mom followed us to help with the picture taking. I managed to hoist Samantha and Jayden over my head this year, but Drew has become much too clingy and scared, while Tyler has just plain gotten too big (although I can still get him over my head, the thought of doing so on a rock made everyone involved a little nervous). We also took a couple of family photos, as well as a couple of Dad & Mom together.

    By the time we finished and got on the bridge for our trek home, it was almost 3:30pm. We made a short 15 minute pit stop at Sea Shell City to let the kids play on the pirate ship, and then we truly began our long drive home. Aside from a stop at a rest area to use the facilities, stopping at McDonalds for dinner(where we stayed to eat outside), and one more stop so the kids could use the restroom (this time at a Cracker Barrel just outside Bay City), we had an uneventful drive. No major traffic jams, no accidents or tickets, just smooth sailing. We did get off the expressway at I-475 to avoid traffic, but that doesn’t really add to much to our trip.

    We arrived home at 8:20pm. We quickly unloaded the van before getting the kids bathed and showered so that they could get to bed for the start of school in the morning. After the long drive, Tara and I were tired enough that we weren’t too much behind them tonight.

Trip Summary

    Well, I have to admit that this trip wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared that it might be. I think that everyone involved was a little nervous about spending so much time with such a large group – most of them much older that either Tara or I.

    Our campsite at Straits State Park, #178B, was a nice site. It was located within a row of two bath houses, which helped keep the kids from using the bathroom in the camper. If we weren’t camping with a group I would have been a little more disappointed with this site as it didn’t really provide much privacy (although it really isn’t any worse than most of the sites at the KOA and definitely not worse than the sites at Lake Huron Campground). In addition, being at a campground without water or sewer hookups worked out OK – some of the group we camped with had several hoses hooked together so that they could fill the fresh water tank of the camper, and aside from Saturday morning the showers weren’t usually too lined up. It did suck not having internet access – I would have liked to at least check my email and read an online newspaper. What made it worse was the fact that our cell reception was extremely spotty in the campground, so using it for email or internet was pretty much out of the question. Although the KOA had cable hookups, the digital TV brought in some decent channels. We even pulled in a channel or two from Green Bay, Wisconsin!

    There was a list of things that I was disappointed that we didn’t do, even though most of it was due to our laziness. First, Drew kept asking to go to the tower – this is the gift shop located near the KOA that we have ridden our bikes to the last few years. The kids get to sign their name to the top of the tower after we climb up, and I think that they have really started to look forward to doing it. We also didn’t ride our bikes to the playground at Memorial Park, which is something that both Tara and I said that we wanted to do. We had ample opportunity to both of these things on Friday, but instead we played lazy and hung around the campground playing games and taking walks (which is OK, I just wish we could have squeezed these in too). The final thing that I missed was of getting a picture of each of the kids sitting in one of the many curved-branched tree that we found in the campground. We had done this many years ago on Mackinac Island when Tyler was little, and I was hoping to take a similar picture this year. I did get a picture of Sam, Drew, and Jayden, but they were not all in the same tree (or at the same time of day, for that matter). There were perfect trees for this type of picture located at each of our road, but I just never seemed to remember to get all the kids together at the same time.

    Although the kids are getting older and activities tend to take over our August and September, I am hoping that we can keep the bridge walk tradition alive for many years to come. I am almost 100% certain that we will be back next year, but I am not sure where we will be staying. Assuming we actually manage to get the truck that we need Tara & I may take our camper to the KOA and stay there. Whether Dad & Mom join us or stay at the state park is up to them – I am sure that we would spend some time at both places either way.