Great Lakes Cruise-Part 2: Manitoulin Island, Soo Locks, Mackinaw Island, Sea Day, and End of Cruise in Chicago

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On August 15, we docked at Little Current, Ontario at 8 a.m. in perfect weather. After breakfast, we were whisked off on a bus with a local guide to visit the Ojibwe Cultural Center and learn about the First Nation cultures of the Great Lakes. Our guide had lived on the island for many years and was quite knowledgeable about all the things we passed while on the bus. The little town around the port is about three blocks of Main Street with shops and a couple of hotels for tourists and not much else. Our guide had owned the bigger of the two hotels in town for about 30 years and had just recently sold out so she and her husband could enjoy retirement and their grandkids. Our first stop once we got well inland was at the local Catholic Parish. It had been a traditional little white church with a steeple that burned down and was replaced by a round building built into the earth that evoked a more native appearance. Carved cedar wood doors led into the worship space in the round with a conical ceiling that had a round skylight at the top for some natural light and gave the impression of a big teepee. The furnishings were all made of wood and animal leather hides with lots of beaded work and decoration. The hymns and prayers were printed in both English and Ojibwe, as there is a concerted effort to keep the native languages alive in the younger people. I got some good pictures in the church. After that, we walked across the street to the Cultural Center and split into three groups. Each group rotated between a native crafts workshop, an art gallery featuring native artists, and a ceremonial room where one could learn about “smudge ceremonies”. Natural items like cedar wood, sweet grass and sage are burned and the smoke wafted about a person in a ceremonial fashion that is meant to restore one spiritually. After each group had seen all three presentations we linked up outside in a little amphitheater with a raised stage and we had an opportunity to watch and listen to native dances accompanied by a large ceremonial drum played by 4 men who sang the songs as they played the drum. The outfits were all hand-made and very spectacular. The dancing was good, as all the participants had won local and national prizes in competitions. The audience at the end was invited to participate in a dance and several of us did so after which we had a few minutes to mingle and chat. Soon it was time to head back to our ship for a late lunch, after which we could walk around the little town area and visit the shops. At 5 we had another lecture by Ian on the history of the native people of the Great Lakes from about 1600 when there was first contact with Europeans, the French and English colonial era, Revolutionary War, and War of 1812. The lecture culminated with the removal of the native peoples from most of the lands around the Great Lakes in the 1830’ and 40’s. He did another excellent job on a complicated subject. At 6 we sailed away while we had cocktail hour jazz, followed by our port talk on our next day’s visit to Sault Ste Marie. Dinner was at 7 with the evening’s music featuring tunes of the 70’s.

Our next morning saw us going through the locks at Sault Ste Marie. We docked at the port and after breakfast did another “hop-on hop-off” bus tour of the town with stops at different points of interest, unfortunately many of which did not open until about 11 a.m. and we had to be back on the ship by 12:30 to transit the locks for our little foray into Lake Superior. We saw another Catholic Church and the downtown, but spent most of our time going through the Valley Camp museum. The “Valley Camp” is a retired lake steamer that for many years carried coal, grain, and taconite from the mines and fields of upper Michigan down Lake Superior to the factories in Canada, Illinois, Ohio, and Lower Michigan. It was a big ship so had room for lots of exhibits. You could walk around most all of the ship and see the bridge, captain’s quarters, crew quarter, engine room, and the massive holds. There was artwork, artifacts and plenty of historical exhibits, including the remains of two of the “Edmund Fitzgerald’s” lifeboats from the famous wreck in the 1970’s. We had earlier done the lock observation from the viewing area of the Corps of Engineers facility and walked a bit of the downtown area. The locks are all gravity fed and have been enlarged several times. They are now doing construction to make an even bigger set at the same location. There is also a hydroelectric plant near the docks that uses water flow from one of the canals supplying the locks to generate electricity for the town and surrounding area. It has been in constant operation for over 120 years. The downtown was rather a touristy area with lots of small shops, restaurants, and hotels. We also had time to see some historical homes from the earliest days of the town right by the waterfront that are in the process of being restored. The Saint Mary’s River links Lake Huron with Lake Superior and has many rapids in this area. Before the locks were built, the only way around was to portage large canoes which limited the amount of goods to be handled. I looked up the word “sault” in French and found it to be “jump” in English, so I surmise the towns name meant something like “jump the St Mary River, which in fact what the locks do. This area is a high security area for Homeland Security due to the large amounts of material that pass through for manufacturing. The loss of the locks for even a short time would disable our materials supply chain and quickly throw the country into recession, so security is tight around them. We were all aboard at 12:30 and quickly underway through the locks into Lake Superior. Once well into the lake, the Captain spun the ship 180 degrees around, and we went back the way we came. This was done so we all could say we had been sailing on all five of the Great Lakes. Once through the locks we found ourselves backtracking a bit on Lake Huron, but eventually turning into Lake Michigan. Our afternoon lecture was by Ian once again and covered the history and technical aspects of the Soo Locks and Welland Canal as well as the types of ships and cargo they carry. Cocktail hour was followed by our port talk on Mackinac Island for the next day’s shore excursions. Dinner followed at 7 and later music featured songs by various “Piano Men” to include Billy Joel, Elton John, and the like. It was well done enough we stayed for the evening and even danced a bit.

The next morning we arrived at Mackinac Island at 7 a.m. and after breakfast were sent ashore to meet up with a series of horse-drawn carriages for our shore excursion guided tour of the area. Mackinac does not allow motor vehicles on the island, so getting around is by foot, bicycle, horse, or horse drawn carriage. Our carriage from the dock held 12 people and was drawn by two large workhorses. Our driver and guide was a young woman working as a summer hire for tourist season on the island and attending college in another part of the country after summer ends. There is a huge amount of summer hires from all over the country and the world that stay in dormitory like housing back on the mainland in Mackinac City. They staff the shops, hotels, and drive the carriages. Our brief ride through town was informative and ended at the carriage transfer point for a much bigger carriage holding 30 people and drawn by a team of three large draft horses. They are all Perc herons or Belgians, bred to haul heavy loads or work farm equipment. Many of the horses come from Amish farms in Michigan and Illinois. This trip took us through the state forest with a couple of stops to rest the horses and one to let us view the lake through the famous Arch Rock. It ended at Fort Mackinac where we had about 45 minutes to self-guide ourselves through the complex, see the restored buildings, and read about the history. It was built by the British to control the fur trade, was lost to the Americans in the Revolutionary War, regained in the early days of the War of 1812, and returned to the US at the end of that conflict. It remained an active Fort until the very early 1900’s, but during the Civil War was manned by only one “Old Sargent” who had served some 50 years there. After the Civil War, the area became a tourist mecca, the park was established, and soldiers acted as park rangers improving the park, providing tours, and keeping order. It is well kept and an interesting place to visit with staff in period uniforms and costumes as well as cannon demonstrations and musket volleys several times a day. We met our group at the prescribed time and lined up for the horse drawn taxi ride to the Grand Hotel. These were smaller carriages again with smaller horses pulling them in teams of two. We were let off at the drop point near the front of the Grand Hotel and it definitely is grand! It is very posh and costs big bucks to stay there. They charge $10 admission just to tour it, but our admissions were covered as part of the cruise. We explored around the hotel, took some pictures, sat on the big front porch in wooden rockers, and had an ice cream at the ice cream parlor. Those who had booked the premium tour had tickets for the Grand Buffet in the main dining room with white glove service, but neither the Giacobe’s nor we bit on that extra cost extension. We had tickets for a horse drawn taxi back to the ship, but we walked instead and saw some of the downtown area, which is one big tourist trap. We decided to skip lunch, and went back aboard ship after having a pleasant conversation with one of the young men working the local ferry line for the summer as their boarding area was near our ship dock. We thought that was a one off nice experience, but later had a similar conversation with another young man from a different part of the country working a summer job, which was refreshing. After resting a bit, we decided to go back out and look at the shops one last time. We purchased some fudge since that is the thing to do there (many fudge shops) and looked at many souvenirs, but did not buy anything. We went back to the ship in time for cocktail hour, dinner and while we intended to go see the music show (featuring the crooners like Frank Sinatra), we decided to watch the sail away at 9 p.m. from the open deck. It was a nice night and there were rumors of the northern lights being visible this far south but we did not see them. Suzy went back to the stateroom and I stayed up to take pictures of us crossing under the Mackinac Bridge, one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. I was a bit chilled as it was windy on the bow of the ship, and I was in a short sleeve short, but got the pictures I wanted and turned in for the night.

The next day was another sailing only day as we made our way down Lake Michigan to Chicago, passing Green Bay and Milwaukee along the way that afternoon. To pass the time Suzy and I unsuccessfully participated in the Bingo and Trivia competitions. After lunch, we had an opportunity to visit the ship’s bridge and hear from one of the officers about the ship’s controls, navigation, and communication equipment. After that, Micky Lyons presented our final lecture titled: Shipwrecks, Ghosts, and One Pirate. There are more than 12,000 shipwrecks in the Great Lakes, many of which have never been found. There are legends of ghost ships appearing and of haunted lighthouses, but also a true story of one latter day pirate that made a short career of stealing vessels at anchor and sailing them elsewhere to sell their cargo. He was never too successful but managed to stay out of jail thanks to corrupt judges. It was an interesting and entertaining wrap up to our Great Lakes lecture series. We had another afternoon tea, which was presented, by four of the crew in period costumes from the 18^th century. The pastry chef outdid himself and came out to take a bow as we ate his goodies and drank tea. We had our last port call talk, which was our disembarkation briefing for our arrival in Chicago the next morning and end of the cruise. We had the Captain’s farewell presentation with some of the key staff and a champagne toast. Dinner was special with a baked Alaska dessert. The music at 9 was very well attended, as it was essentially a mash up of music they had done on the trip as well as many requests. As I mentioned at the beginning, the drummer had said he would have Ian bring me up for a song at some point and this was the last chance. Ian came through and I was able to sit in on one song, which I had never played but had heard it. I did my best the audience seemed to enjoy it, giving me a big hand when I finished. Later that evening they borough up Micky’s companion to sit in on the drums. She was quite good, doing two up-tempo songs. Everyone was dancing and having a good time, so they went a little longer, but we wrapped up at 10:15 and went to bed. We had packed up our main suitcases and left in the hall for pick up before we went for the music. They were stored overnight and moved off the ship right after we docked the next day. By this time, I felt like I was coming down with a cold, so I was happy to get to bed, but did not sleep very well.

We were up by 6 a.m. the next morning to ensure we had everything together. It provided an early morning opportunity to see us come into Chicago and dock at the Navy Pier. The skyline was impressive. We showered, dressed, and joined Marti and Tony for our last breakfast on the ship. I took a few photos on the open deck, but did not tarry, as we had to be out of our rooms and down to the lounge by 7:30 to begin to be called out to board our busses to O’Hare for those of us flying out around noon. As we were called out, we scanned our ID cards off the ship one last time, said farewell to “The Ocean Voyager”, went into the terminal, married up with our bags, and rolled them to the bus. They cleverly loaded them by departing airline, we boarded the bus, and after a short wait, we departed. Our ride out to the airport was uneventful. Having been stationed outside Chicago in the early 80’s, I was familiar with the route and many of the landmarks. I was feeling like I had a summer cold by then, but sucked it up and carried on as we were dropped off at the United terminal. As we got off we said goodbye to Marti and Tony as they were staying on to be dropped at the Delta terminal for their flight to Atlanta. We had an easy check in and since we had about 3 hours to wait to board our flight, we used our one time United Passes to get into the United lounge, sit in comfortable chairs, get a snack, coffee, and read books until it was time to go. We had first class tickets home, so got to board quickly, get settled, and have a relaxing flight home that lasted just long enough for me to finish my book. On the ground at Dulles, we got our bags, rode the bus to the parking area, retrieved the car, and headed home. Of course, we hit some bad rush hour traffic and had to detour into a construction mess that turned a 45-minute drive into an hour and a half drive. We decided to eat dinner at a local Woodbridge restaurant on the way to our house and got home about 7 p.m., quite tired from the early morning and day of travel. We were greeted by Rossi and Eduardo who had taken good care of the place while we were gone. We contacted our dog sitter to arrange pick up of the Grrlz the next day and learned she and her family had contracted Covid while we were gone.

Since I was feeling poorly the next morning, I took an at home Covid test just to be safe and it was negative. I picked up our dogs, while masked and maintaining social distance with Diana Garber, brought them home and continued to put things back together from the trip, go through mail, and all the stuff you put off while away. Suzy began to experience some cold symptoms, but we did not think much of anything about it and did church Sunday. I actually went to both services as I was playing in the Praise Band. We attended our Sunday school and Rossi and Eduardo came for church driving our other car. We came home and had lunch together, and then Suzy took them to the airport to catch a flight to Las Vegas where they were meeting friends to spend about 8 days together there, which turned out to be doubly good for them. I had another prayer event at church at 3 p.m. and when I got back, Suzy was back from the airport and we both were feeling like the colds were catching up to us. On Monday morning, Suzy took an at home Covid test and it was positive. She immediately did a second one and it was also positive. I took one right after she did the second one, and it was negative, but based on hers; we decided to go to a local walk in clinic where it confirmed we both had Covid. That was not the outcome of the trip we were looking for, but it really did not spoil our trip as we did a lot, saw a lot, and enjoyed our time with our friends. The people on the ship were easy going, mostly our age if not older and the crew was fabulous with excellent service all around. I would heartily recommend this cruise to anyone who is interested in seeing the Great Lakes from a different perspective and I would sail on the “Ocean Voyager” again.

Great Lakes Cruise-Part 1: Toronto, Niagra Falls, Cleveland, Detroit, and At Sea

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It has been about 4 years since we booked a vacation trip on a tour or cruise, with Covid having cancelled our planned 2020 trip to Oberammergau and the Danube River Cruise to Budapest. We did not feel comfortable rebooking it in 2022 and opted to stay a little closer to home. The American Queen Voyages Company had been sending us information about a cruise that lasted 9 days and covered the Great Lakes of North America, with stops in both Canada and the United States. We had discussed the possibility of doing this trip with our friends Marti and Tony Giacobe while doing Thanksgiving last November. It turned out the timing worked for both of us for this summer. Suzy booked the tour through Sandra Dugan, an acquaintance who has a travel agency (Classic Cruises), and we set our departure for August 9. Suzy and I decided to use our frequent flyer miles to book our own flights to Toronto where this particular cruise began. We do this by sitting down at our respective computers and going in and booking our flights simultaneously. It normally works well, but this time we got crossed up as Suzy mistakenly selected a flight for August 10 while I got the correct flight on August 9. By the time we discovered the error my flight on the 9^th was sold out, so she had to take one that left an hour later. This was of some concern given all the issues the airlines have had with cancellations, lost luggage, etc., but when it came time to leave, all worked as it was supposed to. I arrived in Toronto with enough time to get some Canadian money, retrieve my bags, and finish the book I was reading just as Suzy arrived at baggage claim. We took a taxi to the Toronto Hilton, checked in on the 27^th floor, which had great views of one of the main streets in Toronto, and went to the designated meeting room to process in for our ship’s departure the next day. This included taking a rapid Covid Test as well as doing a second Arrive Canada app document on our smart phones as we would leave and re-enter Canada by boat an additional time during the trip. We finished all of the check in procedures in about an hour and had time to look over some suggested places to eat near the hotel. We ended up walking to the next corner and having a very good meal at a Greek restaurant, which set the tone for many more good meals to follow. Marti and Tony came in on later flights from Atlanta, so we did not meet up until breakfast the next morning.

The trip included a bus tour of Toronto the next morning which Marty and Tony took advantage of. We had done a lot of sightseeing on our own on a previous trip that began in Toronto, so we chose to spend the portion of the day before we had to bus to the ship to explore some more on our own by foot. We saw the main government buildings, a large plaza with Toronto spelled out in big block letters, a farmers market, the much larger covered St. Lawrence Market, the Distillery District (which was an actual distillery at one time in the past, but is now an area closed off to traffic that features shops and restaurants amongst all the old distillery buildings and equipment), the first post office in Toronto that features a small museum where we could try our hand at quill pen writing on high rag content paper. One of the interesting things about the architecture downtown you will see in the photos is the mix of modern steel and glass buildings with the older 19^th century buildings and how when the light is right, the older buildings are reflected on the sides of the modern skyscrapers. We noted how well the traffic downtown followed signals and made way for pedestrians at crosswalks, much different from our aggressive US drivers.

Our bags had been picked up in the morning from outside our rooms as we had tagged them all for the ship direct to our assigned staterooms, so we were free to roam about unencumbered by luggage. We made our way back to the hotel, had a late lunch, and awaited our busses to the ship around 3:30. We had a quick trip to the port terminal, passed quickly through security, and boarded the “Ocean Voyager”. Our first stop on board was to pick up our key cards for our staterooms. After that, we were free to get acquainted with the ship, do some unpacking, and gather in the main lounge for our briefing for the coming day and the required safety drill. Afterwards we were free until dinner in the main dining room at 7 p.m. We had linked up with Marty and Tony again and noted they were two doors down from us. We had dinner at the same table and we took almost all of our meals, including breakfast and lunch as well as dinner together with them at the same table for four each day. Across the hall from our stateroom was the drummer for the ship’s musical trio. I bumped into him as we were leaving for dinner and noted he was wearing a tie. Thinking he was another passenger, I asked him if that was a requirement and he told me that he was part of the band and he was required to wear a tie for the evening’s performance. We chatted a bit and I jokingly told him that if the band needed a bass player, I would be happy to sit in. He took that more seriously than I meant it to be and said he would try to work it out. More to come on that later. I should mention that on board the ship it was totally open bar. Drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, were included in the cost of our trip. There was a charge for premium brands, but most people I noted were happy with what was being served for free. I took advantage of several sodas each evening, while Suzy and the Giacobe’s stuck to white and red wine. The head of the dining room was aware of Suzy’s gluten free meal requirements and assigned one of his headwaiters to ensure she could order ahead of for next day if she wanted something that had to be adjusted to make it gluten free. The menus varied daily, although there were certain things you could always order ala carte. The dinners had a choice of starter/appetizer, a cup of soup, choice of a salad, choice of one of four entrée’s and a choice of desserts. If none of the entrée’s suited you, you could always have a lobster tail or a steak. Dinner usually ended about 8 p.m. and you were free for the evening. The band played music in the main lounge 9-10 p.m. each evening, featuring different styles each night. The guitar player was also the cruise director and history lecturer on board and was quite a good musician. They had a keyboardist playing an electric piano that looked like a baby grand and then the drummer. We did go down to the main lounge for the music almost every night and even did a little dancing. Marti and Tony always called it a night after dinner and we would see them again at the table for breakfast. We had sailed away from Toronto around 6 p.m. and by the time we were ready to go to bed, we were well out in the middle of Lake Ontario. The waters were relatively calm so we did not feel much of any motion as we drifted off to sleep after a long day.

Our initial port of call was Port Colbourne, Ontario, near Niagara Falls. We arrived around 6:30 in the morning and after breakfast we departed by bus for the falls from the Canadian side. Our local guide gave us the local area history and information that kept us entertained for the hour or so it took to get the Niagara Falls area. Once parked we walked a few blocks to the ramp down to get on a two deck “Hornblower” boat ride that took us past the Bridal Veil Falls and up into the Niagara Falls itself. We were issued disposable ponchos and could get as drenched as we wanted to by going up to the top level. Suzy and I stayed on the second level and got just a little wet, but had great views. After the boat ride, we had a little time to walk around the area and take more photos, then re-boarded the bus, and took a drive downriver with the guide pointing out various things of interest along the way. Our route eventually brought us back to the ship in time to have lunch aboard. Marty and Tony had taken a premium excursion that included a buffet lunch in the large tower building overlooking the Niagara area, so we did not see them until later in the afternoon. After lunch, we attended a lecture on Great Lakes wineries, which are making a name for themselves due to the favorable microclimates that exist around most of the lakes. All passengers were to be back at 5:30 and we set off for the Welland Canal Locks and Lake Erie. The band provided some smooth jazz background music for cocktail hour beginning at 6 p.m., followed by the ship’s Captain’s Reception and introductions of his key staff on board. At 6:45, we had our port talk for our arrival the next day in Cleveland. Dinner followed at 7 and at 9 Suzy and I took in the music in the lounge with the night’s theme of classic country. We were back in our stateroom ready for bed a little after 10 p.m. looking forward to our stop in Cleveland. This was pretty much the pattern we followed for the days we had a port call stop.

We arrived in Cleveland at 8 a.m. and docked right next to the football and baseball stadium, which is a new and looks very nice from the outside. Our local guide on the bus we took later joked that there was a long suffering fan of the inept Cleveland Browns football team who in his will requested that 6 members of the Brown’s team act as pallbearers at his funeral so they could “Let him down one last time!” After breakfast, we proceeded to get off the ship and check in through the customs and immigration office at the port as we were arriving back in the US from Canada. Once cleared we were able to get on “hop-on hop-off” buses that took us around the city and with stops at the Cleveland museum of Art, the Cleveland History Center, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Cleveland Public Square featuring “The Old Stone Church”, the oldest building in the city. We followed the ship’s staff recommendation to ride the bus around one circuit, get the pitch from the local guide as we did so, then get off and explore the things we wanted to see most, re-board another bus that came by every 20 minutes and see something else. Our time was limited to be back onboard by 5:30 p.m. so we got off at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and stayed there for quite a bit of our time in port. The place was truly amazing, and in some aspects a bit overwhelming, as there are so many displays of memorabilia from every era of music that contributed to R&R from the 1920’s up to the breakout in the 1950’s and every genre that followed up to the present. The building is a pyramid shape and has 6 levels with ever decreasing square footage on each successive floor. One level was given over to individual cubicles where you could pick up an instrument, get a video lesson on it, and play along with a rock song while you were being recorded. We were there early enough in the day that I was able to get a cubicle with an electric bass and amplifier, tune it up, take my lesson, and play along with “Crazy for You” by Heart. They also had one floor that had a small auditorium with special lighting and many speakers that played a video compilation of many of the rock artists performing at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies. It was short bits of a lot of people’s performances, but the sound and lights were all around you with a large screen that made you feel like you were there. Another floor had a small theater that was showing the Beatles rooftop concert. The Beatles are featured this summer in a temporary exhibit of all of their material and memorabilia from their entire career as a group and individual solo careers later. We decided against spending the hour plus to see the movie. We had split up earlier as I am slower going through exhibits than is Suzy and was surprised to get a text from her that she had fallen at an escalator and was up in the snack bar area getting looked at. I got there in time to see she had a good scrape on her knee but was otherwise unhurt. I bought us a soda to share and after ensuring she was fine we continued viewing the exhibits, but stayed together after that. We ended up doing lunch outside on the grounds with food trucks set up selling various kinds of things to eat.

After lunch, we took some outside photos, caught the bus to the History Center, and spent a bit of time there. They have an old functioning carousel from a local Cleveland Amusement park that was in operation for many years reset up in the building. We took a ride on it and took some photos. They had a lot of local historical displays, plus an adjoining period home to see, but the facility was about to close at 4 p.m., so we did a quick look at the vintage cars, planes, and motorcycles on display, and caught the bus making the circuit back to the ship. All aboard was 5:30 again with a 6 p.m. departure. I was impressed with Cleveland’s renewal and revitalization. I had last been in Cleveland in the late 1970’s and it frankly was a dump. It now has a lot to offer with medical and high tech industries supplanting the old manufacturing base, which still exists on a smaller and much cleaner scale. The renowned Cleveland Clinic is an enormous medical complex that covers quite a bit of area in the city and is its largest employer. There are loads of cultural things to do, a vibrant theater and arts scene, and lots of homegrown music as well. Our band’s guitarist got his start-playing clubs in Cleveland at an early age and so of course, our entertainment that evening was all music from artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Our next port of call was Detroit, Michigan. We arrived at 8:00 a.m. after a long and slow travel up the Detroit River entering from Lake Erie just before dawn. I watched us pass miles of industrial sites along the river, some old blast furnace steel mills, and other relics of the past, but also many functioning refineries and plants of all kinds still active. Detroit has an interesting geographical fact about it. It is the only place in the U.S. where you go south to go into Canada. We sailed right under the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, which is Canada’s industrial and automotive manufacturing center. For this stop Suzy, Tony, Marti, and I had selected the premium excursion experience that took most of the day to do. We began with a bus tour of the city with a local guide who was short on knowledge of local history, but was a real architectural maven who told us all about the buildings we were seeing. There has been revitalization efforts going on in Detroit and the waterfront area is quite nice, anchored by the Renaissance Center towers that are now the headquarters offices of General Motors. It has been a slow going effort as the population in Detroit has fallen by over 50% over the last 40 years, leaving many abandoned buildings behind. I was stationed outside of Detroit with the Army in the late 70’s and after the riots of the late 60’s, the city looked like a war zone in many areas. That has now been cleaned up a lot, but there is a long way yet to go to match what Cleveland has done with their city. Detroit is still all about the auto industry, and has not embraced high tech and medical industries as much as Cleveland has.

Having said that, our excursion was focused out of the city in the Dearborn area and was all about Ford—Henry and his successors. Our first stop was the Ford museum, which is an amazing collection of Americana from historical artifacts, to exhibits of manufacturing from colonial to modern times, furniture, crafts, farm equipment, steam engines, electrical power plants, trains, planes, and automobiles from every era. I had been here 40 some years ago and it was much the same, but had updated exhibits that included displays of American Revolutionary history, the history of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and eventual civil rights victories. The Birmingham bus that Rosa Parks sat in is displayed with interpretive guides to tell the stories of that era. You can walk through the bus and sit in her seat. All of this is a bit overwhelming and not everything interested Suzy, so we moved on to the adjacent Greenfield Village. This is an outdoor exhibition setting of all kinds of artisan and manufacturing crafts from around the turn of the last century, to include Model T rides and a steam train ride around the complex that burns coal and gets soot on your clothes just like back in those days! There are a number of historical homes and buildings associated with famous people that have been moved onto the site from around the country. Henry Ford’s boyhood home is there an open for touring, along with Thomas Edison’s workshop, and the original Ford Motor Car Company building. There are several period eating establishments, a farm with crops and animals and of course, a vintage carousel and a village green where cricket was being demonstrated with people in period costumes. An 1867 era baseball tournament was also underway in a large field with a national championship tournament going on featuring two games being played simultaneously and players in period uniforms playing by the rules of the time. That means there are no gloves, the players call their own balls and strikes, there is no spitting, and no swearing allowed. As we rode the steam train past he fields, the players all stopped and gave us hearty waves. We had a cafeteria-style lunch featuring farm to table foods including those developed by Luther Burbank and George Washington Carver. We had a set time to get back to the bus and we made it in plenty of time for our final stop of the day, which was the Rouge River Ford plant.

This stop was the highlight of the tour for me, as I had not seen any of the car plants when I lived there before. This particular plant makes the Ford F-150 pickup. Our bus dropped us off at the welcome center and after entering the building we were seated in an auditorium, given a briefing on what we would be doing, then had a big screen presentation of the history of the Ford River Rouge plant. Here the assembly line was put into large-scale practice by Henry Ford. His vision was to have all the raw materials for the vehicles delivered by ship up the Rouge River and the parts made there in his own steel mills and fabricating plants, and finally assembled in a long moving line. Thousands of men worked there and over time became unionized, limped through the Great Depression, and came roaring back in wartime production of armaments for WWII. After the film, we moved to a different auditorium for a multisensory presentation of the assembly process for the Ford F-150. It was quite well done and an amazing presentation. From there we exited to elevators, which took us to an observation area that overlooked the plant. The plant covers many acres of land with flat roofs planted with vegetation that helps filter rainwater and also help cool the facilities. This was the only area where we were allowed to take pictures and that is why that is all I have of the plant tour. All other areas were off limits to photos. We then went back down the elevators into the final assembly plant and moved across a corridor to observation platforms that ran completely around the assembly area looking down from two stories above the assembly floor. You walked at your own pace and stopped to look at different places where signs let you know what phase of assembly was being done. The line was not moving when we first came in as it stops every hour for a ten- minute break for the workers then starts up again. It was soon moving again and I was amazed at how all the pieces came together in choreography of the vehicles in constant motion along tracks that in some cases had platforms for the assemblers to ride along as they put something together so they would not have to walk to keep up. All the while little electrical tugs were moving bins of parts in little trains around to different stations where parts were going to be needed based on computerized signs. Full bins would be pushed off onto racks level with the trains and empty ones placed on the trains, which were stopped only long enough to load and unload bins. The plant runs two 10-hour shifts each weekday and one on Saturday and Sunday. Each worker does one little step that takes about 5 seconds to do as the vehicle keeps moving by. Working at full speed, the line can finish an entire vehicle assembly in just over 4 hours. On the output end, an assembled vehicle comes off the line every minute. It was just an amazing sight to see.

With the tour completed it was back on the bus and back to the ship where we met up for a lecture on the prohibition era in Detroit, one of the main areas illegal liquor was smuggled onto the US based on the proximity to Windsor, Ontario. The title was “City on a Still: Detroit in the Prohibition Era. Our presenter was Mickey Lyons, a journalist who writes about Detroit and is a published author and contributor to the Detroit Free Press. She had done the lecture on the wine growing and was not overly interesting; however, this one was well done and captivating. Our music selections for the evening show were all Detroit sounds to include Motown and other local sounds. We gave up early as we were tired and headed to bed about 9:30, having sailed away at 6 p.m., making our way up the St Claire River past the area where I had lived when stationed there, through Lake St Claire and eventually into Lake Huron after dark.

Our next day was a full day of sailing with no port calls. After breakfast, we were on our own until about 10 a.m. when we had a chance to have a Q&A session with our cruise director and his two band mates and learn a bit about what their life is like working on the ship. It was interesting to note their backgrounds and how they have worked to make a living at music. Two of them have had experience working the big ocean going cruise ships while this was the drummer’s first experience doing music on a ship. The drummer shared his contract was up and this was his last trip as he is going to enter graduate school and get a degree in social work. We met up with Marty and Tony and played a little bridge in the lounge until it was time for lunch, had lunch and attended another presentation by our cruise director Ian about the history and geology of the Great Lakes. He is a very good lecturer and would make a great teacher. We had a formal tea at 4 p.m. with white glove service and some good tea snacks, a few of which Suzy was able to have as they were made gluten free. There was an opportunity for some dance lessons at 5 p.m., which we passed on, the usual cocktail hour jazz at 6, and our next day’s port call talk about our return to Canada at Little Current on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Dinner was at 7 followed by music and dancing at 9. This night’s theme was “Down at the Drive-in”, 50’s and 60’s music. Our fellow passengers were all about our age and so it was a well-attended evening with lots of participation on the dance floor, including Suzy and me!

Please see the next blog entry for the second half of our cruise.