Mackinac Island

Day 1 

We got up early to get on the ferry that would go under the Mackinaw bridge ... only it didn't!  But the good part was we got to the island early.  We met a beautiful white golden (I think that's what she was) named Lucy on the ferry.  Her Mom and Dad said it was her first travel adventure and she was a tad bit nervous.  To calm her nerves, she held hands with Dad.

  Our hotel - The Main Street Inn - would hold our carry on stuff and our bag would be handled by the dock porters so all we had to do was drop things, check in, give them a phone number to text when the room was ready and go do what we wanted to do.  

Just in case you didn't know, there are no motorized vehicles on the island.  So transportation is horse drawn carriage, bicycle, or feet.  The only exception is 1 police car, 2 or 3 (we got differing numbers) fire vehicles, and 1 ambulance.  We also found out there is only 1 doctor, and he only works M-F, 9-4.  

We decided a good way to get oriented would be a carriage tour.  We spent the next hour and 45 minutes touring the island on a series of 3 horse drawn carriages with narration by young folks. Two of them were Romanian and the second one told us that there were 13 here from Romania.  They are here for the summer to work on a college student program and after they are done for the summer they get 3 additional weeks to tour the US before returning home.  Here are some pics from our tour.

This is the famous Arch Rock and the view from the viewpoint. 

A couple of teams of horses at the Arch Rock Welcome Center. 

The view from our balcony.  We can hear the clip clop of horses outside.  And if you don't hear them, you can smell them when you are outside.  You get used to it, but watch where you step!

We walked to see some of the shops, and since we had sandwiches that were monster sized (and both were members of the clean plate club) we decided to grab a few snacks at the grocery store and have those back in our room for dinner.  

Day 2

We had a slow moving morning but awoke to another beautiful day!  First order of business was breakfast.  We walked to the Watercolor Cafe where we each had homemade pop tarts - called poppys. The flavor of the day was Strawberry.  I couldn't resist taking a bite before taking a pic.  

They were finger licking good!

We also grabbed some great looking cinnamon buns for tomorrow's breakfast.  

Then off to Fort Mackinac.  It's up the hill and has a gorgeous view of the water below.  

We enjoyed walking around the grounds and there were some great exhibits.  They had musket firing and canon demos.  We missed the canon demo, but caught the end of the musket demo.  

We ate lunch at the Tea Room and enjoyed the view from seats with a view. 

Then we walked to the Grand Hotel and paid our $12 to be able to tour the property.  It's definitely how the other half lives.  We enjoyed walking the halls and sitting on the porch - the longest covered porch in the world!  The story goes that when this was built this amazing building was to be built in 90 days.  If that was accomplished the builder would get a $1 million dollar bonus and would share it with the workers.  The reason for this was the hotel was fully booked before it was built.  The workers found out that the builder was not going to share the bonus, so it was built in 93 days.  It is unimaginable that this task was accomplished in such short time!

We sat and rocked for a bit and there was a lovely breeze.  Very relaxing.  But I still don't want to pay the kind of money you have to spend to stay there!

Next up to the Cupola Bar - at the top of the hotel with great views.  Honestly we enjoyed the view from the Tea Room more.  The Cupola bar was expensive, loud, and all the tables were super close to each other.  But you know - when at the Grand you must do this.  Bill enjoyed a Manhattan and I enjoyed a caramel coffee.  

My face when I see the price of the 125th Anniversary Cocktail - $249!!!  Yikes!

While sitting on the porch (and rocking) we heard the beginning of some sort of tour.  The guide told the story of this "very expensive Venetian Glass chandelier" in the bar.  Apparently they totally shut down the hotel and turn everything off for the winter.  Every spring, they find that the Cupola Bar has flooded.  Water seeps down thru the roof, then down the chain, and into the chandelier leaving rust stains in some of the pieces where it collects.  Being unable to get that stain out, they decided to order an exact replica from Italy.  Something was lost in translation and though they explicitly stated NOT to reproduce the brown stains, when they opened up the copy that arrived it had been made WITH the rust stains.  I thought even with the stains it was quite beautiful.  I'm looking for a new light fixture for our living room and Bill was quite relieved to know this was not what I was looking for!

Then off to find the Secret Garden.  We found it and it was beautiful!

As we headed back to our hotel we stopped by the Little Stone Church.  It was lovely.  

Then we continued back admiring the views - both of the beautiful houses and the water.  

We ended our day with some great burgers from the Pink Pony.  We needed some protein to be ready for our adventure tomorrow!

Day 3

When I awakened and walked out to the living area of our suite was treated to this:

It's gonna be a good day!  Today we are going to rent bikes and ride the perimeter of the island.  M185 goes all around the edge and is 8 miles long.  There is really only one small hill.  I told the rental folks we wanted the easiest to ride bikes they had.  We were both given bikes with a bottle of water and a basket, and we had one lock between us.  Once we got going we kind of got the hang of things and really enjoyed the beauty of the island.   Proof we rode bikes haha!

Once we got outside of the busier downtown area we were treated to the island's beauty in a quieter way.  

We saw Arch Rock from below.

 

Even a peek between 2 houses can be beautiful.

Once we turned in our bikes we grabbed a bite and headed to the Original Butterfly House.  There are 2 butterfly houses on this small island!  They were beautiful and so nice to have them all around us.  Bill had to have one removed as we left.

There were some really pretty blue butterflies but they were so fast I couldn't get a picture of them.  I did get them in a short video.  

As we were walking downtown I got a better picture of the fort from Main Street.

We wanted to mail some postcards so we went to the post office.  This is the only post office that does NOT deliver mail.  Their motto is come rain, snow, heat, or gloom of night you come get your mail!

We decided on the Yankee Rebel Tavern for dinner where Bill and I both got salads that were as delicious as they were pretty to look at!

We came back to our room and once again found our beds turned down and a small box of fudge waiting for us.  We had a wonderful visit.  Bill asked me at dinner what my favorite thing we did was and I'd have to say our lunch at the Tea Room.  Sharing pretzel bites and a fruit plate, while sitting under umbrellas and looking down at the town and Lake Huron was a special experience.  But honestly, we have had such a great time it was hard to pick.  I do know I will miss the sound of horse hooves clip clopping, seeing all the gorgeous buildings and beautiful flowers, and being surrounded by water.