2018 Summer RV Trip – Days 18 – St Ignace, Bridge, and Fish

It’s cooler over here on the water than the Leelanau Peninsula and I awoke to 60F temps but at 95% humidity, I opted to stay inside for my morning coffee and computering.

One of my goals while along the Great Lakes is to try the various types of lake fish and after two unimpressive restaurant meals, I decided to try cooking some myself.  So after a little research and reading reviews (how did we live without the web), we decided to head across the Mackinac Bridge to Massey’s Fish Company in St. Ignace (ig-nis).

The company is owned by a couple where he is the fisherman and she is the sales person – mostly to restaurants with a small retail outlet.  Smoke from the fish smoker was billowing as we pulled up.

Note:  being the camera clutz that I am, I have my camera shooting very cool (blueish) pictures and I can’t edit all of it out so please overlook the varying photo colors.

Commercial fishing in the Michigan waters is tightly regulated with only licensed (50 total) and tribal fisherman may harvest – Massey’s owner is a tribal member (not sure which tribe).  The raw fish was all very fresh so I bought a little of them all - perch, whitefish, lake trout, walleye, lake salmon, as well as smoked whitefish, and three smoked fish spreads – delicious with crackers for that night’s light supper.

We inquired at Massey’s as to where we should eat and she recommended The Gangplank which was just down the road and across from the marina.  The restaurant is actually a covered deck surrounded by movable plastic walls.

As has been my norm, I ordered fish (Whitefish sandwich at $10) and the girls ordered burgers – they learned their fish lesson back in Sutton’s Bay, all meals with hand-cut fries.

The girls enjoyed their burgers and I thought my sandwich was pretty good but still a little too done – whitefish definitely has a unique texture.  The fries were good and could have been great had they blanched them earlier then cooked to crisp up.

We made our first round trip across the Mackinaw Bridge ($8) to visit St. Ignace and it is one impressive structure.  Opened in 1957, the five mile long “Mighty Mac” is the longest suspension bridge between anchorages (those huge chunks of concrete left and right of the towers where the cables begin) in the Western Hemisphere with the third longest suspension span (between the towers) in the US.  The four lanes of I-75 cross the bridge and the two outside lanes are concrete while the two inside lanes are steel grating.  For more info, click on the above link and scroll down to the “facts & figures” paragraph.

Can't believe I caught this shot from the ferry.  The ship isn't pulling the parasailor.

We'll be crossing the bridge with the whole rig when we leave.

Russ - This older Newell has been sitting across from us the entire visit.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

8/7/18 Event Dates