Blue Water — Port Huron's Lighthouses, River Walk & Lake Huron Shore

Where Lake Huron narrows into the St. Clair River, the current runs a startling, glassy blue — the color that gives the Blue Water region its name — and the water traffic is a constant parade of thousand-foot freighters passing within a stone's throw of shore. This day trip strings together the best of Port Huron's waterfront: Lighthouse Beach beneath the towering Fort Gratiot Light, Michigan's oldest lighthouse; the Blue Water River Walk that traces the swift St. Clair beneath the international bridge to Canada; and a run north to Lakeport State Park for a proper Lake Huron beach afternoon. It is a walkable, water-soaked day of lighthouses, freighter-watching, and Great Lakes shoreline barely over an hour from Detroit, capped by a waterfront dinner as the ships glide by.