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Published: June 28th 2006
Now that the wedding was over, it was time to start our long trip home back to Sandpoint, Idaho. On Sunday morning, we had our traditional “goodbye meal” breakfast with Mom and Dad Matteson, and Dale and Gail at Callahan’s in Portage, Michigan.
After saying our goodbyes, we made our way to our hotel in Traverse City, Michigan. True to her word, Kathy did not have anymore Coldwater Creek stores to stop at for the rest of the trip. Instead, she decided to stop at select casinos along our way home. The first was the Little River Casino in Manistee, Michigan. After playing for only a few minutes, Kathy found the smoke in the casino too much for her to handle.
When we arrived at our hotel, while unpacking our truck, we were greeted by two ducks in the parking lot. We didn’t have our camera handy, so we have no pictures to show you. But just imagine two ducks trying to talk to us… seemingly to say either “Welcome to Traverse City”, or “You can’t park there without permission from the Head Duck!” Whatever they were trying to say, they were certainly cute.
The next day (Monday),
we started for our next overnight hotel in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan with a stop at Mackinac Island, a place I’ve wanted to visit for a long time. The movie “Somewhere In Time” was filmed there, mostly in the Grand Hotel on the island. We drove to St. Ignace, Michigan to catch a ferry to the island. We ate lunch at an outdoor café in town and then hired a private tour guide to show us the highlights of the island. This was in a covered carriage pulled by two horses. Justin, our tour guide, did a wonderful job, filling us in on little known details of the island. We ended our tour at the Grand Hotel, where I couldn’t wait to stand on the front steps of the very porch that Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour stood on while filming the movie. As Kathy and I started to walk toward the front of the hotel, we were stopped by one of the hotel security people, telling us (and others around us) that if we wanted to walk in front of or into the hotel, we would need to pay a fee of $12.00 each (unless we were staying at
Kathy and Puppies on Ferry
The puppies were hiding from the camera.the hotel). We couldn’t believe our ears… $12.00 each, just to have the privilege of walking in front of their hotel? Unbelievable! It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford the $12.00 per person, it was the principle. That spoiled an otherwise great day on the island. We walked back to town to catch the ferry back to the mainland, but not before Kathy bought some of her favorite fudge from Murdick’s Fudge Kitchen. Some say that Ryba’s Fudge is better, but in an unscientific non-blind test, Kathy determined that Murdick’s Fudge is still the winner.
We made one more stop that day… this time at the Bay Mills Casino in Brimley, Michigan. It’s a small casino, as casinos go, but it was one that Kathy left as a winner. And in our book, that makes it a GREAT casino.
Tomorrow, we enter Canada and start heading back west toward home. Stay tuned for more Travelogue, coming soon.
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Dad Sierra
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The Trip Back Home
Wow! Two Casinos in one day. Well at least one was profitable, Kathy. I'm glad for you. Hey, it's too bad that beautiful hotel is trying to milk the tourist just to walk on the lawn fronting the hotel. But not too bad for one day...made some dollars, exciting jet ferry boat ride, at least got to see the "Somewhere In Time" location, and the best fudge candy factory in MIchigan (or in the world?) Looking forward to more photos of your journey through Canada. Have a fun and safe trip.