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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 18th 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.
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