The Kleiber Family Timeline

Tag: Mackinaw

  • Mackinaw 2026

    After we were finished at Saulte Ste Marie we spent a night at the Holiday Inn at Mackinaw City. If you watch certain news stations they show a live feed of the Mackinaw bridge, that feed is from the hotel we stayed at.

    The weather was perfect and the bridge looked awesome as usual. We visited the shops at Mackinaw Crossing and was surprised that the haunted house was not open (it was late on a Friday, if its not open then when is it open).

    The next day we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel and head back home with a quick stop at Sea Shell City. (more…)

  • Mackinaw City 2025

    The weather was really perfect for Mackinaw this year, and it was still early enough in the season that it wasn’t too crowded at all. Once again we stayed at the Halloween Express (great breakfast by the way and a balcony to boot). For dinner we had pizza which has become our tradition here. Lots of shopping at the dozens of souvenir shops and plenty of t-shirts will be coming back with us. The bridge is spectacular and we spent time at the rock beach wading in the water. Eventually the bugs came out but not before we picked up a souvenir rock from the beach for Moms Garden. Just a beautiful time for the family.
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  • St Ignace Deer Ranch 2025

    We could not check into our hotel room until 3pm so we headed across the bridge into St Ignace to do some souvenir hunting and to visit some of our favorite places. The first stop was the Deer Ranch where we went and saw the new deers. This year they had 3 fawns and they were very cute, although they were sleeping while we were there. James once again fed the deers and had a great time doing so. The deers looked very good and very healthy and happy.

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  • Sea Shell City 2025

    Sea Shell City is usually a stop on the way home from Macinaw but this year we decided to stop on the way up. Sea Shell City is about 15 miles South of the Mackinaw bridge. James had to buy another t shirt as the one he got last year as a gift was a size big, so he bought one a size smaller. Mom enjoyed shopping and buying some rock candy, and Dad was fascinated by a sharks head hanging on the wall and thought it would look great on the bathroom wall for Halloween. Unfortunately the sharks head was not for sale but other than that it was a great time at Sea Shell City.

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  • Mackinaw 2024

    This was our second visit up North this year, but we didn’t have time to make it to Mackinaw when James was receiving his award. So we made a promise to get back up to Mackinaw and while we were only there for a day, we did accomplish our goals.

    Lots of shopping and many of the stores have changed. There are a couple of Psychics there not giving reading which is unique, along with the usual array of tourist traps.

    We stopped into the American Legion there (which is now open to the public, ironic since being able to get a drink at this American Legion was the reason I joined) and enjoyed drinks and chips.

    A perfect day at one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

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  • Mackinaw Third Visit (Sept 2022)

    Its hard to believe, but Dad made it to Mackinaw an unprecedented third time this year, this time due to work. A customer in Saulte Ste Marie Canada needed help with a tester and Dad was sent to take care of it.

    Dad has been to Mackinaw in the winter, spring, and summer, but never in the fall and it was very interesting to him because you could see the tourist area starting to get a little ready for Halloween. Many stores were closed but enough of them were open that Dad could pick up a few souvenirs.

    Always beautiful in any season.
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  • Mackinaw Second Visit (August 2022)

    Our second trip to Mackinaw was a quick one, but we still had a blast. It was a one day visit and the weather was perfect. James got to spend a little time at the beach and Mary got to see a sunset. Our main purpose in this trip was to see the Northern Lights which were supposed to be very visible, but unfortunately we did not notice anything special in the night sky except the lights from the bridge.

    The next day we visited the Deer ranch in St. Ignace (which was our reason to cross the bridge. James fed them carrots but kept his mask on as he wanted to make sure the upper peninsula was safe from any lower peninsula germs. (more…)

  • Haunted House – Mackinaw Island 2022

    The long standing haunted house on Mackinaw Island was not open till 11pm for some reason, but we did finally make it there and went through the house. The haunted house is sort of a wax museum with some animatronics and is very traditional and fun.

    Dads facebook profile photo for years has been Dad and James at the top of the steps of the haunted house so we decided to take that picture again, about 12 years later.

    Our favorite at the haunted house was probably the coffin that opens and a corpse sits up and turns around and looks at you. Nice effect! (more…)

  • Mackinaw Island 2022

    The weather was still cloudy and about 55-65 degrees so it was a very comfortable trip to the island. Once again we took the ferry across, although we did not remember the $35 charge to park. This year we stayed on main street and shopped as we felt it was too “buggy” to go into the woods as there were tons of mayflies flying around.

    Stopped at Joann Fudge to get some maple fudge for Mom, plus lots of t shirts for the family at monster tee. We noticed the magic shop was gone, replace by what we think was a jewelry store.

    We noticed it was just starting to get busy as this was the Friday of Memorial day. We were happy coming up earlier so we missed most of the tourist who came up for the weekend.
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  • Haunted House – Mackinaw City 2022

    After our traditional smelt basket dinner at Audi’s, we went shopping at the tourist traps in Mackinaw city. We saw that the haunted house there was open so we decided to give it a whirl. All three of us went into the house and we all had a great time. The haunted house had some great animatronics and even a talking statue (projection) that gave us an introduction to the house.

    Lots of scares in this haunted house and I believe this was the first time any of us had gone through this house (the one on Mackinaw Island is much older and we have done that one several times.

    For the record, our favorite scene was the last one with the crazy kid animatronic running around. (more…)