Trip to Mackinaw City, Michigan, September 10, 2012

When Tom and I learned that my sister and her husband were moving from Michigan to Florida, we decided to make a quick trip up to see them. The trip to Michigan is less than six hours, the trip to Florida will be about fourteen hours.  We had a good visit on Sunday evening.

On Monday, my sister had to work but her husband was free so he, Tom and I traveled another hundred miles north to Mackinaw City.

Tom and I visited the area in 1964, shortly before our daughter was born. My sister, then a teenager, babysat with our son at Mother and Dad's house. (Mother told me later that my sister paid her ten cents to change Ray's poopy diapers.)

The bridge was completed in 1957, the year Tom graduated from high school.  Dad was still talking about the tremendous feat in 1964. From shoreline to shoreline it is five miles (8.0 km) long, and is still the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere. In 1964, we drove across the bridge but this year we stayed on "our" side.

In 1964, Tom and I camped in the back of our station wagon. We had a little half-tent that enclosed the area of the extended tailgate and sleeping bags laid on the bed of the station wagon. This year we drove back to Houghton Lake and stayed in a motel.

The motel was rather nondescript but the view out the dining area windows in the morning was spectacular.

 

 

When we returned home, Tom discovered he had taken a photograph of the bridge much like the one he took this year. He had also taken one of the lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's house.

Below is this year's photo. When I downloaded the photo, I noticed that the flag was at half-mast. I expect that was in memory of the Americans killed in the Libyan embassy attack and of 9-11 which was the next day.