Saturday August 6, 2011

The Moose is loose

When I got up this morning there was fog, I couldn't see the lake.  The clouds stayed after the fog lifted.
 I took the time in the morning to go out and find four caches.

At about 2PM Gerri and I decided to try to get better pictures of the bridge, no luck the clouds are still hanging in there.  We decided to try again when we get back from visiting the "Soo" Locks.  Sault St. Marie is about 50 miles north and is interstate the entire distance.  It was a quick drive even with some construction and rain.  There is a park around the locks with covered observation point, they are elevated for a good view.  There are four locks and the information said they are the busiest lock set in the world,  Two of the locks can handle two 600' ships at the same time.  We watched a freighter, a tug boat and a tour boat go through going toward Lake Superior.  The locks aren't as large as those on the Canal at Panama.  The ships go through under there own power.  The locks raise or lower the vessels 21', from Lake Huron to Lake Superior or the other way around.  Lake Superior is actually 16 miles up the St. Mary's River so it's not in sight from the locks.

Oh Canada

We could see the international bridge from the locks.  Traffic was zipping into Canada but crawling into the US.  The entire bridge was jammed in the southbound lanes.
Before starting back to St. Ignace we had snacks at a nearby restaurant.  Once on the road we called Glenna to have her get ready to go out to supper.  We had decided in on a place recommended by the ferry shuttle driver.
Supper was at the Mackinac Grill.
We all had whitefish cooked a different style for each of us.  Excellent food.
We decided to check out of Lakeshore early and drive about half way to Madison on Sunday.  Unlike many parks they gave us a refund for the unused day.

St. Ignace lighthouse

As usual computer and TV time rounded out the day.  Gerri was busy on her laptop so I had to read my mail through Wii, very slow.