It is a short 15 miles across Lake Huron, into Hessel Bay, and to our slip at the marina.
On our way, we cruise by the Mackinac Island Arch. It is a totally different view by water!
Hessel Marina is a small marina in a small town.
Probably a better connection than our Verizon service lately!
We will spend two nights in Hessel. On our first night, we are lucky to score a reservation at the Les Cheneaux Culinary School, which is located right across from the marina.
The Les Cheneaux Culinary School was established in 2015 by a small group of both summer and year round residents who saw a need for fine dining in Hessel. They opened the school to sustain the operation of a upscale restaurant during the busy summer season. While the school program is 8 months long, they only serve meals from mid May to early September, during which time the students put their culinary training into practice. They offer an impressive, but limited menu, sourcing only local ingredients, challenging their students to showcase sustainable foods of the area. The tuition cost for the private culinary school is $16,900. The food was wonderful!
As the culinary school is only open on weekends, our next night is at the local place a few doors down. While not gourmet, the food was fine this night and I suppose it has been for the last 106 years!
We spend our one day in Hessel actually leaving Hessel on bikes. We rent bikes from a great outfitter near the marina and head to Cedarville.
The bikes were great…the seats not so much.
Before renting the bikes, we were told there was a bike path to Cedarville. The bike path turns out to be the shoulder of a very busy highway with speed limits up to 65 mph. Not my favorite conditions, but we survived the 8 mile round trip with no close calls.
We head back to Hessel and explore the small town. We pass the public beach and The Avery Arts and Nature Learning Center which is located inside the old Hessel School House.
The public beach
Thank you to Kerri Smith, the Director, for giving us a tour of the school house. We also walked the small children’s book path in which you read the pages of the book as you traverse the path. (Definitely much smaller scale than Bookworm Gardens!)
The grand event in Hessel every year is their wooden boat show. Boats travel as far as California and Florida to partake in this annual event which highlights Hessel’s rich heritage of boat building and repair. The show will take place the weekend after our stay, but we are lucky to see some of the participants arriving during our stay.
Grandma Betty shows her age well!
We had a nice time in Hessel, MI. Small towns are interesting and provide a challenge to unearth all their jewels to make this blog at least a little interesting!
Next stop will be an anchorage and then onto Blind River, CANADA!
Goodnight Hessel! Canada and North Channel here we come!
Taking a gentle pause in Hessel sounded refreshing and gratifying knowing that more adventures are to come. Thanks for sharing this community that supports the traditional wooden boat lovers. Take care.
Love the pictures of small towns!! Fun to see
Taking a gentle pause in Hessel sounded refreshing and gratifying knowing that more adventures are to come. Thanks for sharing this community that supports the traditional wooden boat lovers. Take care.
Loving your journey!
Thanks Colleen!