The Road to Mackinac Island

Early morning on Mackinac Island

Just about the time we were getting sick of snow and cold weather, we starting thinking about where we might go for summer vacation.  Having traveled extensively throughout the Northeast, we had a difficult time trying to determine where we might go when the mercury started hovering around 80 degrees.

We had decided we wanted a drive vacation, but I was adamant that we weren't going to drive south in July.  As born and bred New Englanders, the thought of visiting a place with oppressive humidity was unappealing, so we opted to head west.

The choice, Mackinac Island, Michigan.  Why there?  Well, about 25 years ago on my way to Glacier National Park, where I was to work for the summer, I visited Mackinac Island.  Back then, the internet was still pretty young, so I must have read about Mackinac elsewhere and was fascinated with the place. Upon arrival in Mackinaw City, I hopped a ferry and set out to explore this unique place whose only modes of allowable transportation were bicycle, walking or horse drawn carriage.  Automobiles were forbidden.

My visit was limited to a few hours, just long enough to rent a bike and circumnavigate the island before returning to the ferry.  With its vibrant village, old fort and wide range of lodging options, the place just stuck with me and I vowed to return someday to spend more time.

The alarm sounded at 5 a.m. so that we could get an early start.  The drive to Michigan would take a little more than two days, since we didn't want to push ourselves too hard.  After all, vacations are supposed to be relaxing, right?

The once opulent Balsams Resort - Now, not so much.

Our route took us through Northern New Hampshire, Quebec and Ontario before entering back into the U.S. in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.  Traveling through New Hampshire was relaxing enough.  We took a brief stretch break at the former Balsams Resort, which was unfortunately an abandoned dilapidated structure, a far cry from the gem it was at its peak of popularity.

Quebec was mostly farm country until we hit the outskirts of Montreal.  Once there, the road construction on Highway 10 cause stop and go traffic for more than an hour - ugh!  When we finally broke free of that, we continued to Ottawa, arriving around the same time that all the federal employees were probably getting off work for the day.  This slowed us again.

Starting off Day 2 at Pembroke Honda

As we approached Pembroke, Ontario, our designated stopping point, our check engine light suddenly flashed to attention.  It was day one and we were experiencing our first "what could go wrong?" moment.  Our saving grace was that coincidentally there was a Honda dealer in Pembroke and they were able to get us in first thing the following morning.

The beginning of day two started in the service department of Pembroke Honda.  We were pleased they got us in first thing, but the repairs took a couple hours.  Basically, they had to flush the emissions system.  A hundred and fifty dollars later (fortunately in Canadian), we were on the road to our next destination, the world's largest nickel, a roadside attraction in Sudbury, Ontario. 

And it really wasn't that heavy.

All you ever wanted to know about the world's largest nickel.

Ashton under the Nickel.

Thanks to Google, we got directions to the nickel.  The nickel was modeled after the 1951 Canadian nickel and it stood perched on supports outside the Science North building.  It's about nine meters in diameter, or about 30 feet in non-metric terms.  We opted not to take the underground mine tour since we still had several hours of driving that day, but Trip Advisor rates the tour pretty high.  We snapped a few photos and were on our way.
About 3-1/2 hours later we arrived in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario where we grabbed Chinese food and spent the night.

The next morning, we drove across the border to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to the Soo Locks Visitor Center.  Here, there was an interesting museum and a multi-level viewing area where you could watch ships passing through the locks.  We were fortunate to witness a barge heading east loaded with aluminum and a freighter heading west carrying iron ore.  It was pretty impressive to see the 1,100-foot freighter maneuver into the 1,200-foot lock.  I must say I was impressed by the skill of the pilots guiding such a huge ship into such a narrow lock.  I've seen locks before, but don't ever recall seeing them in action, so it was pretty interesting.

Freighter entering the lock.

Barge entering the locks

From the locks, we took the hour and quarter drive to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior.  Its claim to fame is the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum which is on the grounds of an old lighthouse.  We were getting off and on showers and we were anxious to get to Mackinac Island, so we only stayed long enough for Ashton and Bethany to dip their toes in chilly Lake Superior waters.

Hey trivia buffs, Duluth, MN is the western-most Atlantic seaport.

On the way to and from Whitefish Point we drove through the town of Paradise, Michigan.  I'm not sure who named it, but our view was it didn't live up to its name.  What we found while driving around rural Michigan was that many of the towns had very little commerce going on.  Many were more like settlements without even a gas station.

Rumor has it, Lake Superior is pretty chilly.

Beach at Whitefish Point, Michigan

After our hour-and-a-half drive from Whitefish Point, we arrived at Shepler's Ferry Service in St. Ignace.   Shepler's has been transporting people to and from Mackinac Island since the mid 1940s and it under its third generation of family ownership.

It's about a 15-20 minute ferry ride to Mackinac Island.  As you approach the island, the historic Grand Hotel and iconic Fort Mackinac come into view.  You disembark on the town dock and walk the wooden platform, through a building and emerge on the main street where you are seemingly transported back to a simpler time.  Once through the building, it opens up to a wide street lined with historic clapboard buildings, the clopping of horsedrawn carriages and streams of bicycles meandering down the road and lined up along the curb.

The next blog post will be the "on island" post.  In the meantime, here are a few more photos of getting there.

Two ships in Soo Locks

Trivia: How much water does it take to lift a boat?

Sailing away in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Lake relief map.

Lunch in North Bay, Ontario

Mountain View Grand - A Grand Vacation Spot

The sprawling Mountain View Grand

On the Northwest side of the New Hampshire where the White Mountains begin to descend into the Connecticut River Valley, the Mountain View Grand stands as a monument to the Grand Hotels of New Hampshire's past.

The inn opened to guest 140 years ago, in 1866.  As the story goes, a stage coach en route to Montreal hit a hole in the road and overturned during a storm a half mile from the Dodge Farm.  The passengers needed shelter from the rain and went to the farm where Mr. & Mrs. William Dodge took them in for the night.  The next morning when the passengers got up, they found stunning views of the surrounding mountains.   This was the impetus for the Mountain View House.

The hotel operated until 1986 when it was shuttered and remained idle for about 15 years.  My first encounter with the resort was when I was traveling along Route 115 in New Hampshire many years ago and looking north across the valley where I saw this enormous structure that piqued my curiosity. I wondered what this imposing edifice was that could be seen from such a great distance away, so I drove north up Route 3 and eventually came to Mountain View Road.  It seemed logical that this would lead to a place with expansive views, and I might get to a point where I could again see this building.  About a quarter mile up the road the woods disappeared and I came to an opening in which the mystery building was the centerpiece.

The vacant building loomed over a nicely kept 9-hole golf course, but the hotel itself was in a state of disrepair.  I pulled up in front of the hotel and wandered around peaking in windows thinking, if I were a multimillionaire, I'd buy this place and bring it back to life.  Well, someone beat me to it, and following a $20 million renovation the hotel was brought back to life in 2002.  Since then, I've always wanted to stay there.  In Summer 2017, this goal was finally achieved when my family visited for four days.

The most distinguishing feature is the central tower above the lobby that now houses the resort's spa. The next most distinguishing figure was the veranda across the front of the building.  It was the perfect place to relax and drink in the mountain views that evidently give the resort its name.  It was also a great place to enjoy one of their delicious desserts.

The tower

Their trademark "Brake for Mousse" dessert

Given the size of the building, one would have thought that there would have been an opulent lobby with crystal chandeliers.  Instead there was an understated lobby with a few stuffed chairs and a small front desk area. We checked in and headed to our room on the second floor.
 
While the room itself was nice, with two queen beds and a big marble bathroom, the room didn't live up to the Mountain View Grand's namesake.  We were on the back of the building overlooking the roof of the lower floor (the kitchen I believe).  From our vantage point, we could kind of see a mountain through the trees in the back, but the blue tarp on the back roof kind of distracted you.  In re-looking at the web site, it appeared we were in the Classic Room with "northern views of our property," rather than the Grand View Guest Rooms with "stunning views of the southern valley..."  If you go, be sure to book a room on the front of the building so you can get the full mountain view experience.  Another unique feature is the manually operated elevator, said to be the oldest in the state.  The bellmen are happy to give you a ride upon request.

If the room was slightly disappointing, the resort was not.  They had a full list of programs every day, hosted by the activities staff.  This included indoor and outdoor pools, fitness center, game room, golf course, a farm with tours, walking/mountain biking trails, a huge chess/checkers set on the front lawn, tennis courts, basketball court, playground for little kids, an activities field for lawn games and a pair of bocce courts, not to mention the fire pit with nightly S'mores.  Apparently they also have a movie theater in the building, but it was closed for renovations.  As such, you were never lacking for something to do at the resort.

Life-size chess/checker set

Evening s'mores at the fire pit.

Ashton in the cannonball contest

One of our first activities, was a swim in the outdoor pool.  It was big and the water temperature was just right.  The deep end was about 8 feet and the shallow end was quite large, so the pool never really felt very crowded.  If you wanted, you could order a drink from the poolside bar or food from the golf club house upstairs from the pool.

Another highlight was the resort tour.  This 45-minute tour covered the history of the property and some of the dignitaries who graced its halls many years ago.  Part of the tour went down into the wine cellar.  An interesting tidbit is that you can actually reserve a table in the wine cellar for a memorable dining experience.  Just remember to bring a sweater, because the cellar is kept at 55 to 60 degrees.  After all, one wouldn't want the 6,000 bottles of wine housed here to spoil.  Rumor has it that the most expensive bottle of wine in the cellar costs a paltry $8,000.

Dining available in the wine cellar

The first night at the resort we went out for pizza in downtown Whitefield.  Of course "downtown" might be a an overstatement.  There is a town green surrounded by big old buildings, but most of the the buildings are either vacant, somewhat dilapidated or just need work.  You can see by the architecture that this town once had a heyday, but I think that was back in the mid-1800s when lumbering was the big industry.  The only two buildings that weren't really in need of repair were Dunkin Donuts (in the renovated rail station) and Subway.  Besides those two places there was really only one other place to eat downtown - Sunny's Pizza.  Sunny's was a small "hole-in-the-wall" kind of place with about half a dozen tables inside and a couple on the sidewalk outside.  The pizza was good enough, but the ambiance left a little to be desired.

One morning during our stay, we took the farm tour.  As indicated earlier, there is an on-site farm that provides many of the eggs used by the resort, but also was home to sheep, goats, llamas and alpacas. If you got there early enough you could help collect the eggs, which we did.

Sheep and chicken barn

Getting down on the farm

During the farm tour we learned that llamas and alpacas are excellent guards for smaller animals.  Kudos the llama stood watch over the chicken coop and sheep, while Gustavo the alpaca dominated the big barn.  It was interesting to watch the "chain of command" in the barn.  When the barn doors were opened, none of the other animals went out until Gustavo stepped out to survey the property.  Once he was out, the others followed.

Kudos staying alert for predators

Another nice thing about the farm is that they offered various classes.  Bethany took a soap felting class one morning while Ashton and I participated in the ax-throwing contest.  Surprisingly, there were a fair number of people who signed up for ax throwing.  Each person was given three opportunities to throw and while I hit the target once, you can be assured that I won't be  joining any traveling lumberjack show any time soon.

Ax throwing champions!  (Well, not really)

The resort had activities and programming every day.  Each morning you'd get the day's schedule and you could choose from many different activities.  Ultimate Frisbee, poolside golf (chipping Velcro balls onto a floating green in the pool), Bocce, tennis, golf, scavenger hunt, mountain bike rentals, basketball, Whiffleball and lawn games, were just some of the options.  You could probably do something different every day for a week.

The resort is just about halfway between Littleton and Lancaster, NH.  We went to Littleton one day to experience Chutter's Candy Store.  If ever there was a mecca for the sweet tooth, this certainly would qualify.  Their claim to fame is having the longest candy counter in the world.  Their 112-foot counter is stocked with glass jars brimming with colorful candy.  If that wasn't a big enough sugar high, our next stop was Bishop's Ice Cream where they've been making their own ice cream since 1976.

Chutter's Candy Store

Longest candy counter in the world

Another night we headed north to Lancaster.  Now this may be insensitive, and maybe we just didn't give it a chance, but if you're looking for a town with seemingly very little going for it, you might consider Lancaster, NH. We drove up there to find a restaurant and discovered a couple of pizza places, but very little else in the way of dining options.  We grabbed a pizza, went into a small store that sold outdoor apparel, but that was about it unless you needed groceries or a pharmacy.

Back in Whitefield, if you opted not to eat at the resort, the options were rather sparse.  Besides Sunny's, Dunkin and Subway, the only other viable option was Grandma's Kitchen.  If you were just passing by, you'd probably just keep going, given the lack of curb appeal.  But Google gives it a 4.5 Star rating, so we gave it a try.  It's a bare bones mom & pop kind of place.  The food was ok, but it had the ambiance of someone's old garden shed.  We sat in the screened porch area, which unfortunately was downwind of the dumpster, so we got the occasional whiff of rotting garbage.  It puzzled me why the dumpster was placed about 10 yards from the building when there was a large dirt parking lot that would have accommodated it at a more tolerable distance from the dining room.

Overall the Mountain View Grand was a wonderful experience.  We might just have to go back to participate in all the activities we didn't have time for the first time.

Parting Shots.

Lunch by the pool

Bocce anyone?

Imagine that...a view of the mountains!

Poolside golf

Let's have S'more!

Quiet contemplation.

Inviting veranda

The Algonquin Resort - A Day Too Long

In 1889 Canada welcomed its first seaside resort, the stately Algonquin Resort in St. Andrews, New Brunswick.  It was where we spent four nights recently on a summer vacation.

The resort sits atop a hillside about five blocks from Water Street, the main street in town.  From just below the resort, a patchwork of quiet streets spread down to the waterfront with nicely kept cottages, mostly of similar age to the resort.

Looking back at the resort's red roof from the town dock

The original building houses the restaurant, lounge and spa, as well as a pleasant veranda with wooden rocking chairs and other cushioned chairs and love seats.  Our room was in the Annex that was built in 2012 & 2013.  To the architect's credit, it was difficult to distinguish between the Annex and the original building from the outside.

Original building on left.  Annex on right.

We arrived on a Sunday night, the 2nd of July, just a day after Canada Day.  Since this was the 150 Anniversary of Canada, there was a big free concert taking place by the St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site in town, making for a somewhat unusual hustle and bustle to the area.

As it is, St. Andrews only has about 8 restaurants and with the added crowds, finding a place to eat proved a challenge.  Finally, we opted for a takeout pizza from the only pizza place in town and we had to wait 45 minutes to get that.  The next morning, we headed to Tim Horton's for breakfast and the place was absolutely packed.  Outside of Tim Horton's a truck with three Goldens in the back pulled in.  They were in a big crate made from lobster trap materials - very cute!

The lobster pot caught three big Goldens

On Monday, we explored the area a little and visited the Fundy Discovery Aquarium in St. Andrews. The CAA booklet indicated it was one of the "must see" attractions and suggested we allow 2 hours for visit.  I suppose it you had little children and you spent a lot of time at the touch tank and if you took in the movie and stayed for the seal and seahorse feedings, you might be able to spend 2 hours, but for us, after about 30 minutes we had seen everything.

That evening we ate at the Red Herring Pub where I learned something about how Canada licenses its restaurants and bars.  Apparently if you are primarily a bar, minors cannot even be in the place without an adult.  We saw at least three groups of people that were asked to leave because they weren't old enough.  Aside from that, they had  really good pub food.  I had a burger and Bethany had fried clams, both meals were delicious.

On Tuesday, we borrowed the Algonquin bikes and peddled into town to make our whale watching reservation, then continued down to the local bike path, that was maybe 3/4 of a mile long before it dead-ended at the edge of some private property.  We did hop off the bikes to explore a rocky beach overlooking Minister's Island on one side and Katy's Cove on the other.

Getting ready for a ride on the resort bikes

A walk on the rocky shoreline

That afternoon we drove to St. John, which was by far the least interesting thing we did.  The city was pretty industrial and didn't have much to offer.  On the way back from there, we stopped at a place called Ossie's Lunch, a small roadside takeout place in the middle of nowhere that had been in business since 1957.  This small place on a desolate stretch of Highway 760 in Bethel, NB had great fried take-out food and shakes.  Had it not been for the bugs, we would have eaten at one of several covered picnic tables scattered about the property, but we were relegated to our car so as to keep the feasting insects at bay.

Ossie's through the windshield

The lower part of the sign makes a pretty bold statement, but the food was good

One evening, Bethany and I left Ashton at the hotel and went to the Harbour Front Restaurant and sat on the deck overlooking the bay.  It was a hot day, but on the shaded deck there was a cool breeze and beautiful view, making it very relaxing.

The balance of our time at the resort was mostly enjoying either the outdoor pool or the indoor pool and water slide.  Ashton really liked the three-story slide that started in the building, at the top of a spiral staircase, went through one wall to the outside and back in another wall next to the indoor pool. After a little coaxing, Ashton convinced me to give it a try.  It was pretty cool and I probably took 5 or 6 runs down the slide during our entire stay.  Also next to the indoor pool was a large hot tub, which also got some use from our family.

Large outdoor pool

Indoor pool with spiral staircase to waterslide

Ashton at the top of the slide

Steve and Ashton getting ready to ride the slide

Besides the pools and bikes at the Algonquin, entertainment consisted mostly of people watching. A couple nights, Bethany and I sat on the veranda and either ate dessert or just watched the world go by. I don't mind relaxing, but I can only watch the world go by a couple times before I'm looking for new worlds to explore.  Unfortunately, there weren't any new world to watch.

A bite was taken out before the photo

Dessert on the veranda

The most entertaining thing that happened was watching the manager break the horse sculpture on the front lawn.  The metal sculpture of a horse on its hind legs kicking its front feet in the air.  It was on loan from Kingsbrae Gardens down the road from the Algonquin. When Bethany and I were sitting on the veranda one night, the manager in his suit and tie, came outside to check on a group of people sitting around one of the two gas fire pits.  After that he went over a yanked on one of the horse's front legs and it broke off in his hand.  Now, in his defense, the sculpture was meant to move if you gave the legs a short tug, but this guy really yanked on it and next thing you know, he was holding the leg of the sculpture in his hand.  It makes one curious: Will Kingsbrae Garden ever loan anything to the Algonquin again?

On Wednesday we headed down to the town wharf for our whale watch with Fundy Tide Runners in a Zodiac inflatable boat.  The nice thing about these boats is that they are fast and very maneuverable, making them perfect for whale watching.  They are also rather small (12 person capacity), so you have a more intimate experience with the other passengers.  We donned our survival suits and were under way.  During the trip we saw one Minke whale, one Finback and a number of harbor seals.

Posing in survival suits in front of the Zodiac

My recommendation is that if you are ever on a whale watch, the Zodiac is a great way to see them. There was a more traditional whale watching boat nearby, with the covered lower deck and open upper deck, but they had to leave early since they had to chug back to base.  On the Zodiac, if the whales changed direction, and suddenly popped up farther away, we could easily maneuver closer and change directions quickly.  So we probably got a little closer than the bigger boats.

This was definitely the highlight of our trip.  And the waters were so calm, it was like speeding across glass on the way back to the dock.

Take my word for it.  It's a finback whale.  They're not good at stopping to pose.

In pursuit of Moby

What we found in New Brunswick was that various guidebooks made things out to sound more interesting than the really were.  You might say that claims were somewhat exaggerated.

What we discovered is that the Algonquin would be a good couples resort, particularly if you liked golf, tennis, swimming, spa treatments and sitting on the veranda and reading.  It's not a family resort and in retrospect our plans may have been different had we studied this more carefully. It was a nice visit, but I'd say we were there a day too long.

Some parting shots...

"A" is for Ashton and Algonquin

Views from the Minister's Island crossing

Another view from the Minister's Island crossing.

Bethany and Ashton on the veranda.

Bottom of the water slide.

Staircase to the water slide.

Exploring the rocky beach.

Fundy Tide Runners Home Base.

Steve on the veranda.