Day 4
Mackinac Island

Breakfast at sunrise in the campground at Mackinaw City. Our itinerary for the day was a trip to Mackinac Island. Incidentally it is pronounced "Mack-in-awe" even when it is spelled with a "c" at the end.

To get to Mackinac Island you take a ferry from either Mackinaw City on the lower Michigan peninsula, or St. Ignace on the upper peninsula. Our ferry was a hydrojet which makes an impressive "rooster tail" when it high speed.

The ferry passes by the Grand Hotel which is a magnificent hotel on the island. The porch facing the lake is 600 feet long and is said to be the longest porch in the world. We will have lunch there later.

We are coming into the harbor at Mackinac Island. The town is dominated by a fortress on the hillside.

After getting off the ferry we boarded horse-drawn carriages for a tour of the town and the island. Those yellow buttons identified us to the carriage company as paying customers.

No automobiles are allowed on the island; you get around by (1) walking, (2) bicycle, or (3) horse-drawn carriage. Even freight is delivered to stores by horse-drawn carriage. Note the fudge shop; they are everywhere here. Fudge is one of the specialties of Mackinac Island.

 

Arch rock is a neat place (photo courtesy of Dick McGarrity).

Our tour passed by the fort, where one of the guides in period-costume was resting on a bench. A lovely sight indeed!

After the carriage tour we got a closer look at the Grand Hotel.

The buffet lunch at the Grand Hotel is itself grand! They have a wide variety of deliciously prepared foods. It was very easy to overeat and feel stuffed the rest of the day. But we do this so seldom that "pigging-out" is O.K.

After stuffing ourselves at the buffet lunch, sitting on the porch and watching the people is good medicine.

The view is pretty nice, too.

Wouldn't it be neat to spend a night at the Grand Hotel and be picked up at the ferry and taken to the hotel in a carriage like this?


 

After wandering around town for a while, it was time to head back to the mainland. The ferry ride gave us a final view of the town and fort on the hillside. It is a very interesting place!

The day ended with a campfire, with the lit up Mackinac Bridge in the background. Tomorrow we head north to the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie.