Saturday, June 18, 2011

City Campground, Mackinaw City, MI

Wednesday's drive took us from Green Bay (the bay, not the town) on the west side of L Michigan, around the upper end of the Lake, and across the Mackinack Bridge to Mackinaw City.  We'll be staying here 3-4 nights, playing golf and touring assorted historical parks, including Mackinack Island, Colonial Michilimackinac and, of course, Nick Nack Pattiwack.




This park has electrical and water hookups but no other significant amenities - which suits us just fine, especially for $15/night.  You can feed the fish or the sheep for $1: there are 3 fish ponds, a dozen sheep and a llama named Peggy.  I'd rather feed Peggy than the fish or the sheep but that option is not offered.  Maybe Purina doesn't make llamachow?  Missing the boat there, burgeoning market.



Everything's on the honor system here: camp fees, firewood, fish food, sheep food.  Help yourself.  Put your money in the can.  You will note in the above picture that the office and observation deck are quite impressive, no expense spared.
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As you may know, llamas are great lookouts.  When we approach the sheep pasture fence with Ranger, Peggy immediately comes to the fence, leans against it, stares fixedly at Ranger and continues to do so until we are some distance away.  The sheep follow the llama around like so many shadows.
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Michilimackinac is an indian word meaning island of the great turtle, aka island of the giant fairies.  The distinction between the two was, no doubt, related to the quality and quantity of the stuff they were smoking on any given day.  We're extremely excited about seeing great turtles and giant fairies when we visit the island, there being a dearth of these fine, exotic creatures thus far on our trip.
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Many things here have names that start and/or end with mack, nack or ac; a few even have an extra mack/nack/ac in the body of the word for good measure.  Here's the clincher: when found at the end of a word, mack/nack/ac is pronounced 'gnaw' as in mackinaw.  Go figure.  The Aflac goose would love it here.


Relaxing after a fine meal of fresh whitefish cooked over the campfire.


Ranger doing his pre-wash duty on the fish-cooking rack.

1 comment:

  1. I'm so jealous. One of my bouquet list items is to circumnavigate the Great Lakes. I grew up on "Paddle-to-the-Sea' by Holling Hollings (or Hollings Holling, whichever.) I would like to relive that adventure, only not the saw mill part!

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