Harsens Island--Where the Heck is That?

Hopkins, MI    High:  67    Low:  51

Heading to Harsens Island today...About a 3 1/2 hour drive from Hopkins to see my sister who is staying at Harsens Island in a rental home for a few days. We're just coming over for the day and evening, and everybody heads back home in the morning. Well worth the drive! Harsens Island is located at the top of Lake St. Clair and at the mouth of the St. Clair River. It's less than an hour's drive from Detroit and Port Huron, MI. You have to take a car ferry, the Champion Ferry (7.00 round trip) to get there leaving Algonac. It's a fast, two minute ferry ride! If there are cars waiting to cross the river, no matter how few, they take you over immediately. Sparky found out that there is more freighter traffic on the St. Clair River than the Suez and Panama Canal combined! The river is in a delta region called the St. Clair Flats and drains water down from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. Harsens Island is the major island in the Flats and has about 2,000 residents. There is a tiny little town called Sans Souci on the island which is very charming.

This is a wonderful island! The house my sister rented was a big one, and on the St. Clair River, the only one available during the time frame they came so they had plenty of room. After being in the motorhome for two years, it seemed humongous! But it WAS humongus! Pictures in a moment...But first......

Within minutes of our arrival, a freighter came through and then two more during the afternoon. We sat out on the deck and watched them pass....By evening, six of them had come through. In a twenty-four hour period, we counted at least 16. Sis was up and down during the night, so she did the night watch. :-)  We really enjoy watching these old behemoths still transporting freight through various river channels. Another favorite place we have is the St. Mary's River up in the Upper Peninsula, where there's a campground right on the river. The freighters pass by even closer!

The rental house was gorgeous...Four bedrooms, at least three baths...windows everywhere to give you the water view....Loved it! It even had a bidet/Sparky calls it a butt washer in private (!) in the master bathroom. It was a wonderful place for my sister and her husband to get away from hospitals, tests, and the grueling schedule they have been under lately...

Sun room sitting room

Living room

The lovely master bedroom.....

Sparky had a WONDERFUL visit with her sister...We talked about our mom who passed away in 2008, how each of us is like her, we talked about our own habits and idiosyncracies, how much we were like each other....even down to the bandaids on our thumbs from picking at our fingers! Bandaids on the same hand on the same thumb! We laughed and laughed about that....

We snacked, chatted, and laughed some more...

Sis took a nap...She gets tired easily these days....We had supper and kicked back....

Watched some more freighters go by....

It was just a wonderful day spent with my terrific sister, Lyle and her wonderful husband, John, who takes great care of her. Foot rubs, anyone? (Eldy does that for Sparky, too!) We both are lucky to have such wonderful men in our lives....She and her husband head back to Detroit tomorrow with another round of chemo on Monday...We'll be standing by in spirit until our next actual visit.....Love you, Sis!