WPSU

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The Mysterious Case of the Forbidden Fish Guts

Can you find the canal boat
in this picture?
So let's say you are on a boat trip, and you like to fish, and you CATCH a fish, and you'd like to cook it for dinner--maybe in the little galley on your boat.  Here's a pressing problem:  What do you do with the fish guts?

Can anyone enlighten me as to the correct protocol?

After a bouncy night at anchor it was time to go into town!  We stayed Thursday night in Manistique, a small town, touristy now but a lumber town in its heyday.  The marina was across the river (that's about 50 feet) from a winery with tasting room!  Downtown were vintage 1880s brick storefronts, a couple antique shops, a couple restaurants . . . and, if you walked out of town on the boardwalk,  three chain motels and three fast food joints on the outskirts.  It startled us to realize how long it had been since we had seen typical modern urban sprawl.




It's nice to stretch your legs after a night at anchor
and a day on the boat!
The Manistique lighthouse is a muscular, angular steel pillar, painted barn red and perched on the end of a long breakwater that you can walk out on in good weather.

We watched a tug push a barge into the harbor, and we passed a blended family--two adults and six kids, all different sizes and colors--lined up holding hands before the lighthouse for a family photo, like paper doll cutouts.

Beside the breakwater are dunes anchored by beach grass and a sand beach, a scene that--to my eyes as a Massachusetts native--was transplanted straight from Cape Cod.

We had dinner at Marley's, an establishment that has continuously operated as a bar since 1880. The tin ceiling and beadboard walls, painted dark green, looked original, as did the walnut bar with its huge mirror.  At the bar: three wide guys in straw hats and beards wearing weathered jeans supported by suspenders that were NOT a fashion statement.  I am fairly certain ours were the only polo shirts in the establishment.


No comments:

Post a Comment