We start this series of photos in Bay City, Michigan. Bay City lies up the Saginaw River. These first two shots show you the traffic on the river on Sunday afternoon. Combine this traffic with Gestapo tactics of the county Mounties, and it makes it very difficult for a boat the size of Interlude to maneuver.
Here's the view behind us.
This is the Saginaw River light at the entrance to the river.
A beautiful sunset.
Another shot.
In Bay City, we sat under the Citgo sign at the gas dock. You cannot even imagine how many bugs it attracted.
While we were in Bay City, Adam, Rich and Nancy's youngest came by for a visit. He also drove us to the airport. He goes to Capital University in the fall. Thanks for the help, Adam!
We were also visited by more ducks--duck, ducks, ducks everywhere, but they're so cute. Trish Birkenstock likes to watch their little web feet working so hard. Is that kinky?
Here they are again. If one of the babies gets separated, and the often do, they quack like mad until mama finds them.
On our way to East Tawas, we saw this loading dock for limestone. The dock was probably a mile out in the water. It was supplied with rock by the overhead tramway.
Just a couple of shots to let you know that we actually do a lot of our own maintenance.
These Detroit Diesel engines have performed flawlessly so far on the trip.
This is the Old Presque Isle (pronounced press-keel) light. Presque Isle means "almost an island". It also means "really a peninsula", but that's in Polish. Note the beautiful water...you can see twenty feet or more underwater.
A sailboat leaves the Presque Isle marina. This is one of the state-built marinas which ring Michigan's lower peninsula. If the state had not stepped-in and built these harbors, there would be few places to dock in the state. Most are very nice.
This is a view of the Presque Isle marina.
This is a view of the entrance to the Rogers City marina. Another state facility.
A view of the Rogers City marina. Note the weather; perfect!
Another view of the Rogers City marina. This is a major white fish area.
In Cheboygan (with a "c") we went well down the river and docked at the city dock. Note how narrow the river is at this point. Turning Interlude around was exciting (for everyone)!
This is another view, Interlude is in the foreground. We docked next to a park which had huge walnut trees. Extraordinary!
That night we had a bodacious sunset. The next three shots show the progression.
Gorgeous!
It keeps getting better. Note the Mackinac bridge near the horizon to the left.
We had dinner at the Boathouse, which was within 12 feet of where Interlude was docked. Excellent Walleye--another of the fresh water fish taken locally.
As we left the Cheboygan River, we passed the icebreaker Mackinaw--largest on the Great Lakes. It is to be retired this year and will become a museum in Cheboygan.
