Port Huron, Michigan and the Bluewater Region

Port Huron is Michigan's easternmost city, located at the bottom of Lake Huron and across the St. Clair River from Sarnia, Ontario, in Blue Water country.

In local shorthand, "Blue Water," with its variation "Bluewater," is the name for the southern Lake Huron coastal regions of both Michigan and Ontario. The water isn't more or less blue than it is anywhere else in the world. Every vacation area needs a name, however, and it does have a nice sound, bringing to mind images of summer, and of cerulean lakes and sandy beaches.

Several St. Clair County Michigan and Lambton County Ontario civic organizations use the name, and the Yellow Pages on both sides of the river are sprinkled with listings for businesses whose names include the two magic words.

The St. Clair River is an international border that adds a unique little something to everyday life. You can leave the country to have lunch. Cross-border shopping is a favorite pastime on both sides, although more shoppers cross from Canada to the States than in the other direction. There's French radio and TV from Canada, for the foreign language student or the hockey fan who doesn't mind not understanding the announcers. And you'll eventually get the hang of Celsius (Fahrenheit being Celsius times two, plus 30).

The Port Huron logo shot is the Blue Water Bridge viewed from the high river bank in Pine Grove Park. The park, within walking distance of downtown, is a great place for a picnic, or a day of ship watching, fishing, or simply enjoying a summer day while doing nothing. Tour buses stop there, and occasional couples (tourists!) kids with parents (tourists!) and kids with grandparents (yep) pause to be photographed with the bridge and river as a backdrop. It's a great setting, but something the locals see every day.

I'm from an un-lovely part of Michigan (Flint) and still not used to having a picnic breakfast in the park, before starting the work day, and sharing my space with tourists bearing cameras.

Thomas Edison lived in Port Huron from age 7 until 16, in a two story colonial near Pine Grove Park. The park was his hangout, where he played kid games with the neighborhood boys, and daydreamed about how the world worked, and how it could work better.

Within an hour's drive from both Port Huron and Sarnia are state and provincial parks where visitors can hike, camp, swim or water ski, or sample some of the best fishing both countries have to offer. There are summer music festivals, the occasional lighthouse, an antique shoppe or three in every town you'll visit on your drive up Michigan's Thumb, and some breathtaking coastal scenery.

Turn off the tourist path and you'll find the campground where the 1960s anti-war movement took shape and form, cemeteries whose permanent residents include a blues legend and a Canadian prime minister, a radio station unlike and other you'll hear or visit, and a haunted marina.

The winters are admittedly not much fun (where, specifically, are they fun?) but, during the other three seasons, you really wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

Come explore the Blue Water region this summer. We're easy to find, but hard to leave.