The t-k is standing by the canon near the water's edge out front of the Fort at Michilimackinac. We watched them shoot the canon and it was cool. Oh we have done that before with the big bros, and for me and better 1/2 when we were kids, but it is always cool.
He said to me, are they shooting at that boat on the lake? Well.. not exactly. He says oh, they must be good guys in that boat. It was a lake freighter and hopefully it wasnt their first trip through the straights and they had experienced the british shooting at them from the fort as they went under the big bridge.
It was a ton of fun. We explored the fort and really enjoyed the museum. I chatted with one of the archaeologists and was tickled beyond belief, she was very cool at it was kind of her to talk to me about the project in the hot sun. They are funded by the sales they make in the gift shop and the admissions to the fort. Now I am here to tell ya, for the four of us, it was like $30 to get in and that, my fellow wanderers, is a steal.
We also got to see a demonstration of them shooting the muskets, again, very cool. The t-k got to haul wood and experience, if briefly, the life as a kid at the fort. We also got to see some cool stuff from the Ojibwe, the native people of the territory. It was all around cool for the t-k and us old hats who have explored the fort before. It had been awhile for us.
Better 1/2 and I have been going to Mackinac, seeing the big bridge and checking out the Fort since we were little tykes. My mom went there as a kid back in the Hep-Cat Fifties and Swinging Sixties. My grandparents drove a bus load of kids there every spring on a field trip. It is so cool, it is generational.
I could write pages and pages about the fort, but you can just hit this link, here.
I love history, archaeology and exploring the lakes. There is no place like the mitten, no other place I would rather live. Oh sure, who doesn't love to explore the world at large? But here, here there is plenty to fill a lifetime of wandering.
I got a pic of the tyke peeking out from the tower of the fort and it is somewhere in the digital-verse, I just have to find it. I am sure I saw a ghost of another little guy peeking over his shoulder, he looked familiar. Much has changed over time, but some things endure. The Fort, and that whole experience and love of history, that has not changed.
This is what binds us, makes us a people. When new folks move in, we should share this wealth, make them part of the family. You wanna know a Michigander? Explore this land and you will see. There is much to learn and do. I have a tyke to share with, much like we did with the older bros. We all have many roads to travel still, new paths to discover.
This is why I wander.
Maine has a bunch of forts like that, too but they are all cannonless. I covet the cannons.
Posted by: Acadia | 08/07/2011 at 05:21 PM