2018 Summer RV Trip – Days 20 – Mackinac City & Area Wrap-Up

We started our last day with a trip to the highly rated Darrow’s Family Restaurant, a place Bev really wanted to try. 

I had looked at the menu on line and knew what I wanted to order when I walked in the door – corned beef hash, two over easy eggs, biscuits and gravy.  Bev had the same thing with toast and Pat had her pretty normal French Toast – this was mine.

Mine was very good and Bev enjoyed it also – the hash was just what I expected and plentiful.  Pat’s was the normal French Toast but came with homemade blueberry and strawberry syrups.  As good as the food was the server was even better - very efficient, stopped by at just the right time, and a glowing personality.

After breakfast we made our daily stop at Mackinaw Bakery & Tea Company for delicious apple fritters and a couple of other items – I’ve been having their pasties for most eat-in breakfasts.

The girls had yet to shop Mackinaw City, so they ran me back to the campground (about 5 minutes, where I hung out with the pups and wrote up three blog posts, including this one and you can see what the dogs did.  When they got home, they said about 90% of the main downtown street was devoted to fudge shops, restaurants, or T-shirt shops so they weren’t carry much when they got home.  

This was finally the night for me to cook some of the fresh fish we had bought at Massey’s and I decided to keep it simple and use onboard ingredients.  I cooked outside while Bev supervised.  

The fish was to be six pieces of perch (no other dishes needed) cooked in the Fry Daddy using the following batter (should have made half as much):

Ingredients:

¾ cup flour

¼ cup corn meal

1 beaten egg

1 tsp Tiger Seasoning, divided

½ tsp pepper

8-9 oz semi-sweet  hard cider from 45 North Winery in Sutton’s Bay (in lieu of beer).

Directions:

1. Heat to oil in the Fry Daddy

2. Pat the fish dry and lightly sprinkle with Tiger then add about ¾ tsp to the batter.  
3. Mix the batter, slowly adding cider to achieve the desired consistency and let it stand while the oil heats.  
4. Dip the fish in the batter and let excess run off.  Add pieces to the oil a few at a time so as not to overcrowd and cool the oil too much – turn as needed.  
5. Cook to a golden brown, remove and drain on paper towels, taste, adjust seasons, and dig in.

It probably took two minutes to achieve a nice color on the batter and when I cut into it, I thought it was perfect – moist and flaky.  I think I know why most restaurants cook theirs more – many customers would send it back if there was still a little sheen in the meat.  I thought it was very good but I’ll use beer instead of the cider next time.

To wrap up, I believe everyone enjoyed their stay in the Mackinaw area including Mackinaw MillCreek Camping.  With my other choices of RV Resort and RV Park, I would rate this place as a nice campground with a variety of site types and sizes, well laid out, well maintained, and well administered.  It amazes me that it could be so large yet feel so small – it must have a half mile of shoreline.  It is obviously a family campground with lots of kids but plenty for them to do including a nice beach, pool, playground, and obviously biking.  I would stay here again if in the area.  

Got this shot from the campground and I believe it's a normal sized oil tanker so too big to go thru the Soo Locks.

The area’s main industry is obviously tourism and with plenty of things devoted to getting your dollar – historic sites, lodging, eating, shopping, eating, boat riding, and eating.  This is not really my kind of place, but I’m glad we can say we’ve been here – I believe the fish store visit, ferry rides, and views were my favorite parts.

Tune in next time for our next stop.

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

8/9/18 Event Dates