Nature, travel, pets, home renovation, and geekery
Yesterday, my cruise of the Great Lakes left Detroit headed south. We left while there was still daylight, which allowed me to get some good photos of Detroit, Windsor, and the bridges over the river.
Downtown Detroit
Renaissance Center
Windsor
Detroit River looking north from downtown Detroit
Ambassador Bridge
Ambassador Bridge with Gordie Howe International Bridge in background
Gordie Howe International Bridge
Gordie Howe International Bridge
Gordie Howe International Bridge
Today my cruise of the Great Lakes stopped in Detroit, and I took an excursion to the Ford Piquette Plant. It is a privately owned museum in the first building Henry Ford owned and operated as a plant. The first Model T’s were built at this plant. The museum has a great selection of early Ford Motors on exhibit including numerous Model T’s and earlier models, which is essentially the alphabet before the letter T. The museum has some old cars that were competitors of Ford Motors also. We had a wonderful tour guide who is a retired Ford Motors engineer and explained how these cars worked. His explanation of how car lights work, which I will not attempt to explain, quite frankly scared me. It just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. One thing I found really interesting was the realization that the cars before the Model T had the steering wheel on the right side. Our guide explained that for a variety of reasons, the steering wheels were all initially on the right side, but with the Model T, the company rethought if it should be on the right and changed it to the left. For about ten years after that, Ford’s were built with the steering wheel on the left, but other companies put theirs on the right. Then at some point, everyone decided to standardize it on the left.
Among the examples of other company’s cars is where a couple designed for women, including the Detroit Electric 75 Brougham, shown below. The car was amazingly electric (considering we still don’t have that many electric cars), and the interior was quite unusual. The driver would sit in the back seat. According to our guide, it was rude for a high class lady to speak to the back of another lady’s head, so the front seat is turned to face the back seat, so all the women are facing each other.
In summary, it is a fascinating museum.
Ford Piquette Plant
Ford Piquette Plant
Ford Model B Tonneau
Ford Model (?)
Detroit Electric 75 Brougham
Ford Model T chemical fire truck
Ford Model T dump truck
Today our cruise visited Sault Ste. Marie, which is the name of the city on both the Michigan, U.S. side and on the Ontario, Canada side. We docked though on the Canadian side in the St. Mary’s River on the Lake Huron side or elevation. I never actually went into town though. I boarded another boat with many other guests for a lock tour. We sailed through the Canadian lock into the Lake Superior side or elevation then made a giant semicircle to return to the Lake Huron elevation via the MacArthur Lock on the U.S. side. We then sailed downstream a little bit before returning to the dock. It was a really enjoyable cruise, and I always love locks. Besides going through the locks, I enjoyed seeing the steel plant on the Canadian side. I also was fascinated by the Sault Canal Emergency Swing Dam on the Canadian side. I had never heard of such a thing, so I appreciated learned about it.
International Bridge with some of the St. Mary’s River rapids in front
Canadian Lock
Sault Canal Emergency Swing Dam
Algoma Steel
International Bridge and railroad bridge
U.S. Lock with construction of new lock visible on left
Rock pile indicating Canada/U.S. border in St. Mary’s River
When I was in Venice, I was obsessed with how all transport was done via walking or boats, including utilitarian and emergency services. On Mackinac Island, with the exception of emergency vehicles, everything is done via bike or horses. I couldn’t get pictures of all of it, but I had fun catching photos of as much as I could being done bike or horse, as opposed to what I am used to via car or truck.
Police bike riding by normal human transport carriage
Newly arrived visitors being transported via carriage as well as their luggage
Three horse carriages for long island tours
ADA accessible horse drawn carriage
UPS cart delivering Amazon.com along with everything else
Golf club cart
UPS cart with fancy Grand Hotel carriage on right
Luggage bike BOSS!
They don’t grow hay on island, so hay is transported daily via carriage (with UPS carriage in front)
Horse poop collection via a tricycle
Out of focus photo, but this appears to be the garbage carriage
HVAC repair bike
I’ve always wanted to visit Mackinac Island, but I had never gotten the chance, and also it is really expensive. Hence, when I saw that the planned cruise of the Great Lakes I was taking stopped here, I was really excited. It is a cute island that is mainly concentrated in a small downtown area along with the huge Grand Hotel and its associated land, such as its golf course. There are some private houses further out. However, most of the island is a state park including the historic Fort Mackinac. With the exception of emergency vehicles, all transport is done on the island via bikes or horses. The island offers horse drawn carriage tours of the island, which many of us from the cruise took. We rode one carriage pulled by two draft horses from downtown to what I can only describe as a transit station for horse drawn carriages, where we changed to a larger carriage pulled by three draft horses for the longer island tour. Our tour included a guided tour of some of the downtown highlights then after the carriage change, we went to Arch Rock and historic Fort Mackinac. Finally we went to the famous Grand Hotel, which charges admission unless you pay via your tour. I have to admit that I am very glad I visited, but I really don’t feel the need to return. Downtown was incredibly crowded, and everything is expensive. It is clearly a great place to hike and bike, but I think there are cheaper places to do that.
Post Office
Courthouse and Police
Grand Hotel
Arch Rock
View from Arch Rock
View from Fort Mackinac (my cruise ship is on far left hand side of photo)
Downtown Mackinac Island from pier where cruise ship is docked with Fort Mackinac on hill in background
Downtown Mackinac Island
Today my cruise of the Great Lakes arrived at Mackinac Island. On the way there, shortly after sunrise, we passed under the Mackinac Bridge. It is a gorgeous suspension bridge with green metal work. They clearly do maintenance on it as it was built in 1957, and it looks great. Naturally half the passengers on my cruise were outside on deck to watch us pass under the bridge. I was definitely among them. Below are some photos of the bridge.
Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
Mackinac Bridge
For the first full day of my cruise of the Great Lakes, we stopped in Muskegon, Michigan. It is a cute town that has done an admiral job of preserving its past as much as possible. The downtown features some new buildings but also some historic buildings. A block or so away from downtown are some gorgeous painted ladies houses. Our cruise had a trolley that took us on a loop around downtown as well as one that took us a half hour or so from downtown to the beaches. Some of the beaches are on Muskegon Lake, which is connected by a channel to Lake Michigan, where other beaches are.
Hackley Public Library
Hackley Schoolhouse
Hackley and Hume Houses
Muskegon Depot
Muskegon Lake
Muskegon Channel, where many people were welcoming us on our arrival