| After photographing some of the vehicles in the truck show, I continued
through St. Ignace to see $36 million hotel & casino that Kewadin opened
in June. The only problem is that the 29,000 square foot casino with 800
slot machines and 26 gambling tables has been unable to operate because
part of the building was built on land where Indian gambling is not legal.
An unattractive $2.5 million replacement casino is being quickly erected
next to the new building.
| Then I drove west of St. Ignace to pick up pasties at Lehto's and returned
to Mackinaw City to pick up whitefish dinners at Scallywag's for our lunch
Dad tried Lehto's pasties recently and likes them, but the one I split
with him did nothing for me. Small, with too much crust and not enough
flavor. Looking at the filling, it appears that Lehto's pasties have just
meat, onion and potato. An Upper Peninsula pasty should have both beef
& pork plus carrot and a touch of rutabaga.
The fish from Scallywag's was excellent,. and the coleslaw & hushpuppies
were pretty good, but they need to learn to do a better job on French fries. |
Lehto's Pasties on US-2, 5 miles west of St. Ignace.
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"Just a Plain Farm" market with hay rides and a corn maze.
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In the afternoon I drove west of Mackinaw, first visiting the slowly
developing Old Mackinaw Historic Village. Then farther west to the mouth
of the Carp River, circling south past Just a Plain Farm, along Old US-31
through Carp Lake and back up to Mackinaw City. |
Hazy Mackinac Bridge from the south side of Mackinaw City.
The newly retired Coast Guard icebreaker Mackinaw, is now docked at
the old railroad dock in Mackinaw City. They still have quite a bit of
work to do, converting the 290' ship into a museum, before visitors will
be allowed in the interior areas, but the decks are now open for visitors
on weekend afternoons. My pictures from the new Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime
Museum are at www.mightymac.org/mackinawmaritimemuseum.htm.
The row of portholes was the Captain's suite.
| Last of all, I window shopped some of downtown Mackinaw City's gift
shops. Mel Tillis was appearing at Mackinaw Center Stage Theater that evening,
but I'm not much of a country music fan.
The exterior work on the replacement for the fire ravaged MaMa
Mia's Restaurant is now complete, but there are still weeks or months
of interior work before the restaurant will reopen. A new Mackinaw Bridge
Museum will follow someday, and the plaque honoring the museum and International
Ironworker Festival has been mounted on the front of the building. |
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