Saturday, July 7, 2012

Are these Adirondack or Cape Hatteras chairs at the Mackinac Island library, commanding an awesome view of the Straits. @PureMichigan

I can imagine myself writing a book on Mackinac Island this summer, working in the library when its opening, enjoying the light from the clerestory windows. When the library closes for the day, the chairs overlooking the Round Island Light, Round Island and the coastline down to Cheybogan could serve to keep imagination and language working. The freighters passing through the Straits, marking their passage with blasts from their horn, could remind me to think of distant places. I have missed the Eight O'Clock run back to Mackinaw City and St. Ignace. All three services had at least one ferry depart on the hour.

I counted two for Star Line, throwing a rooster tail, and one for Shepler and one for Arnold. I am pretty sure that the last ferry at Nine sends a message.  Checked in by evening or ferry to mainland or face a vagrant night on the stony beach. I am sure the police force checks these chairs nightly during the flashlight patrols. An all night ferry would just encourage riff raff, even though it would be good for the bars. I remember leaving Ocracoke at 11:00 PM, but that ferry is operated by the State of North Carolina in attempt to keep car traffic rolling through a seacoast of sounds and estuaries. Most of these passages are free.

The cormorants were flocking thirty strong at the outward tip of the harbor's west breakwater when I arrived by Shepler Ferry this morning. I wonder if these black feathered birds spend much time on the dolomite rocks of this breakwater, the base of which doesn't connect to land. Cormorants mark territory by emptying contents of the stomach over boulders. These boulders are covered with a rusty moss. Cormorants are some of the most interesting birds on the Great Lakes.

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