(Or what I did for my summer vacation)
Por Charlene Baldridge | Reportero SDUN
In the Saugatuck, Mich. park outside my cabin aboard the Yorktown, there is a public restroom painted like a scene from Georges Seurat’s “Sunday in the Park.” Michiganders gathered in families, bringing the kids and grandmas to the park on a Tuesday afternoon in July for several reasons, primarily, one supposes, because the weather is fair, and secondarily because the ship Yorktown is alongside and will sail soon.
All passengers are aboard ship, the sun is sinking in the sky over Lake Michigan, and watching the gangplank being raised is akin to witnessing a thrilling work of art being created before one’s very eyes. I don’t know who is the most intent, those ashore or we aboard.
Instead of the searing Midwestern heat I’d expected and packed for, our weeklong progress – from Chicago’s Navy Pier to Saugatuck, Charlevoix, Mich., Mackinac Island, Cleveland, Niagara Falls and through the Welland Canals’ eight locks from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie – was blessed with cool breezes.
A surprisingly potent storm at the “lake” (Michigan) resulted in broken crockery and a few absentees at dinner and even breakfast the following morning. But best of all was the camaraderie established almost immediately with one’s fellow voyagers, who booked their cruises through the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Road Scholar or the Bryn Mawr College Alumni Association.
Thanks to Travel Dynamics International, which owns and operates the Yorktown, we were offered daily shipboard lectures about the flora and fauna and the history of navigation on the Great Lakes, and two recitals by the onboard classical artists: composer Jake Heggie (“Dead Man Walking,” “Moby-Dick”) and beloved mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade, the international opera star known to fans and friends alike as Flicka. The two traveled with their respective spouses and mingled with the rest of us at meals and on shore excursions.
In addition to gaining back all the weight she lost in preparation for the cruise, this writer did several things that would surprise her physician. The first was going along on a terrifyingly wild ride through the dunes near Saugatuck. Saugatuck Dune Rides utilizes daredevil drivers, wry signs such as “No Passing Zone,” “No Parking” and “Stop” in the middle of nowhere, and modified trucks to dispense the thrills. Truck beds are fitted with rows of seats, and, upwards of a dozen at a time, one seat belt and grab bar per row. We raced through roads laid in the dunes created more than a century ago by deforestation. The lumber, they say, was used to rebuild Chicago following the fire of 1871. Needless to say, I bonded with my seatmates, delightful women from Pennsylvania and Florida. Thank God for good pain medicine, bed rest and anti-nausea pills.
On Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw) there are no motorized vehicles other than police and fire engines. My major excursion was a horse-carriage ride around the island, which included passing by the renowned Grand Hotel (the site of the 1946 film “This Time for Keeps” with Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante) and some lovely Victorian “cottages” worth $5 to $10 million, each replete with its own carriage house and stables. We also drove by the golf course called Wawashkamo, which is Chippewa for “white men walking in a crooked line.”
Near Wawashkamo is the site of the 1814 Battle of Mackinac Island, a part of the War of 1812. Our carriage dropped us at Ft. Mackinac, which overlooks the town of Mackinac, where Yorktown was anchored. It was a slight descent of a mere 20 steps, we were assured.
Many wisely chose to stay for a return carriage. I opted to walk. There were indeed 20 steps, but these were followed by a long shank’s mare decline through a luscious park into town. Fortunately the path had handrails and many benches upon which to rest.
My third unwise choice was to brave the Maid of the Mist, which is the Canadian-operated fleet of two 600-passenger boats that take one up close and personal with Niagara Falls: the Canadian as well as United States sides. Yes, I got wet, and oh, it felt good, but it was the arduous descent to the Maid of the Mist that finished off my 79-year old legs, accustomed to sitting before a keyboard or in a theater.
I’m glad I did it, however, because after this year the Maid of the Mist as we know it will be no more. Operation has been awarded to Hornblower, a U.S. company, beginning in 2014. No one is quite certain what will happen.
The cruise staff was thoroughly competent, a bit nutty, and the food – heavy on fresh lake fish – was great, offering meat, vegetarian, seafood and pasta each evening and bounteous breakfast and luncheon buffets. Wine is served gratis with meals and all shore excursions, lectures and concerts are included in the cost of the cruise.
The Yorktown accommodates only 120 guests, which makes it the most intimate cruise in my experience. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Editor’s note: Charlene Baldridge, who writes our regular theater reviews, added her Great Lakes trip to an already busy summer schedule, which includes a regular excursion to the Santa Fe Opera. She graciously agreed to write this story upon her return from the North, and we wish we could have traveled with her – if anything to meander along those 20 steps into Mackinac in good company.
