Today was a busy day…  We started out with a 70 mile drive to Point Aux Barques Lighthouse in Port Hope, MI.

The museum here usually closes on October 1^st, but they were so excited about our group of 1928-1931 Model A Fords that the volunteers came in just for us!

They even fed us a picnic lunch, which was really yummy!

Next we drove to Frankenmuth, MI, which is an entire town devoted to Bavarian style architecture and its German roots.  And, it’s the home of the “World’s Largest Christmas Store”.

We had to curtail the shopping, though because we had a date to learn to roll pretzels. We started the class by donning pretzel “glasses” and food-handler hair nets.  The former were optional, the latter were required. Here’s our group and our pretzel instructors:

You can tell that while some of us were a little skeptical, we ended up having a lot of fun.

Pretzels in progress and a few of the finished product:

The staff baked our pretzels while we enjoyed a German dinner with accordion music provided by our own Cindi Krill.

Tomorrow we may be heading further away from the Lakes, but there’s an exciting stop planned for lunch.  Stay tuned!

On Saturday, we caught an early ferry back to the mainland. Farewell, Mackinac:

We had a leisurely drive south toward Bay City, MI.

As we drove further south, our fall colors began to change.  We had almost no reds, fewer yellows and more greens.

We accidentally found 40 Mile Lighthouse which had a wonderful museum and docents ready to tell tall tales.

Then we stopped for lunch at a wanna-be lighthouse.

Tomorrow, we’ll travel to another lighthouse.

Let’s review for a moment…  Our Great Lakes Model A Tour started on Tuesday, Sept. 24^th, in Milwaukee, which is on the western shore of Lake Michigan (LAKE #1).  After a couple of days, we drove basically northward to Ashland, WI, which is on the southern shore of Lake Superior (LAKE #2).  Then we drove a few days along the southern shore of Superior until we reached Sault Ste. Marie, MI.  Here we took a tour of the locks, which had us touch a bit on Lake Huron (LAKE #3).

We will spend days 10 and 11 of on Mackinac Island in Lake Huron.

To get there, we drove 60 miles south, then up and over the Mackinaw Bridge – in the rain.

If you notice the two spellings (Mackinac and Macinaw), they are pronounced the same but Macinaw refers to Macinaw City on the mainland, and Macinac refers to the island.

We left our Model As on the mainland because there are no motorized vehicles allowed on the Island. (It’s truly a Step Back In Time.)  Here are photos of some seasonal decorations in the ferry ticket office, the initial view of our hotel, and a shot of our ferry.

After lunch, we did a little window shopping and just walked around downtown.  Because of the rain, we didn’t get too many photos.  The turtle below is the first of many turtles – The indigenous people named the island Michilimackinac (shortened to Mackinac) which meant “the place of the great turtles”.  The island is shaped more or less like a turtle and turtles seem to be a symbol of good luck.

On Friday morning, we all met for a tour of the island.  Mackinac does not allow motorized vehicles — transportation is walking, riding a bike, or taking a horse-drawn taxi.

Here are photos of our tour carriage, with horses “Judy” and “Mona”:

Some of the sights from the tour:

The tour ended at the Grand Hotel, where we had the buffet lunch and were able to tour all the public spaces.

At the very top of the hotel is the Cupola Room, where there are 360 degree views around the island.

We had a pleasant walk home with some more window shopping followed by dinner with some close tour friends.

Here are highlights from the Clausens:

I think I’ll miss the sound of horses and carriages…

Today we drove the remainder of the southern coast of Lake Superior.

It was mostly overcast this morning, but as you can see below, when the sun came out, the trees really lit up!

The morning drive was over 100 miles, but we managed to make time to visit Tahquamenon Falls:

We arrived at the Great Shipwreck Museum in time for lunch in the old boathouse.  After that, some of our group climbed the stairs to the top of the lighthouse.

Others were satisfied vising the museum and the lighthouse keeper’s quarters. I was especially interested in these Fresnel lighthouse lenses:

Then we rushed off toward Sault Ste. Marie to check in and rush on to meet our Locks tour boat. (Yes! We finally made a cruise.)  It was a narrated dinner sunset cruise and really enjoyable.

Some of the giant freighters that float through these locks are 1,000 feet long.  I couldn’t get it in one photo:

Here are some of the shots from the boat:

The following are highlights from the Clausens:

And some from the Hulstroms:

And one from the Krills:

Tomorrow is Mackinac Island, which involves another bost (ferry) ride.  Please keep your fingers crossed for us!