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- Thursday, August 15th
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- On Thursday, August 15th, we began the day touring Fort Mackinac
and taking lots of photos there.
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- The rich history of the Mackinac area dates from the booming
French fur-trade of the 17th century, with the British taking
control of the area during the French and Indian War in late
1760. During the American Revolution, the British built the existing
Fort on a commanding rise to defend and control the strategic
Straits of Mackinac. The Americans assumed control of the area
after the successful revolution. Except for a brief period during
the War of 1812 when the British captured the Fort, the Americans
have controlled the area ever since. The Fort remained an active
military outpost of the U.S Army until 1894, and became Michigan's
first state park in 1895.
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- There are many interesting buildings and exhibits to look
at at the Fort (see the information in the entrance display photo
below), along with cannon firings once each hour and demonstrations
by "soldiers" firing their rifles on the parade-grounds
in front of the barracks. It's worth taking a couple of hours
to explore all the exhibits there. If you get thirsty or hungry,
you can get refreshments, drinks and nice lunches at the Fort
Mackinac Tea Room and eat outdoors under umbrellas at tables
on its large veranda. The Tea Room's veranda has a spectacular
view of the downtown and harbor (you can locate the veranda in
the detailed view of the next photo by finding the yellow umbrellas).
The Tea Room's excellent food is prepared by the Grand Hotel.
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- We had entered the Fort using the slanting walkway that goes
up the hill on its south side.We left through the entrance on
its north side, which leads to a nice meandering walk along roads
back down the hill on its west side, going past the Governor's
Mansion and then down side streets past many interesting old
Victorian homes and summer cottages.
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- View of Fort Mackinac high
on the hill overlooking the harbor
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view)
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- Fort Mackinac entrance display
- (click on photo for more detailed
view)
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- Lynn and Charlie at the Fort's
entrance area
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- Fort "soldiers" in
late 1800's uniforms firing their .45-70 Springfield rifles.
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- A cannon on the upper battlements
of Fort Mackinac
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- Looking towards the southeast
out over the Marina from Fort Mackinac
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view)
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- After walking back through town towards the Harbour View
Inn, we bought lunch at a popular streetside barbecue grill just
next door to the Inn and took our food up to the balcony porch
for a relaxed meal.
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- That afternoon, we walked back over to Rob Jerstrom's studio
to buy some of his Island photos to take home as mementos.
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- We then walked along some of the scenic routes we'd traveled
by carriage on our wedding day, so as to rediscover some of the
many special photo locations we'd seen that day. We'd visited
the new Wings of Mackinac
ButterflyConservatory on Tuesday during our wedding day carriage
ride, and today we enjoyed a visit to the older Butterfly
House located nearby the Harbour View Inn, where Charlie
took photos of many pretty butterflies. Butterflies are of special
interest in a place so full of flowers as is the Island.
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Charlie taking photos of butterflies in the
Butterfly House
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- A beautiful Monarch butterfly
in the Butterfly House
- (click on photo for more butterfly
photos)
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- Early that evening we dressed up a little and strolled east
over to the Mission
Point Resort. The Resort has many spectacular flower gardens
on its extensive grounds and is a wonderful place to explore
and take photos.
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- One of the flower gardens at
the Mission Point Resort
- On this, our last evening on the Island, we had dinner at
the Mission Point Resort's main dining room - it was a truly
fine meal - one of the best of all we had on the Island. After
dinner we walked back to the Harbour View, and relaxed on the
upper balcony deck, watching it get dark and all the harbor lights
come on. We began feeling romantic again, and retired early to
enjoy each other's intimate company again.
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- Dinner at the Mission Point
Resort
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- Our wedding trip, August 11-16,
2002
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