Marvelous Mackinac

The attractions of the Upper Peninsula are not particularly close together. There are hours of driving to get from one to another, and since we are using Jason’s house in Covington Township as our home base that often means a little extra driving back and forth. But I knew from the moment that we planned this trip that I wanted John to see Mackinac Island, so I figured we would have one night spend “on the road” as it is a four hour drive from where we are staying to the Straits of Mackinac.

I looked into spending the night at the famed Grand Hotel on this island, but the price was utterly absurd. And while there are some other less expensive accomodations on the island, few of them are particularly cheap and none of them really appealed to me. I decided that we could just stay at an inexpensive place on the beach in Saint Ignace and take the ferry across as a day trip. I think it was a pretty good call.

John gets restless with long car rides, so whenever I can I try to stop along the way so we can see or do something. And I figured that Tahquamenon Falls fit that bill quite well. Though it is not nearly as impressive as the waterfalls in the Sierras or the Cascades, Tahquamenon is the biggest in Michigan and it is still a fairly impressive sight.

This is a popular state park and it was the only one where we had to pay an entrance fee. There was a long walk from the parking lot to the falls and since John was running low blood pressures this morning, it seemed safer to take him there in a wheelchair.

That wise choice did, however rule out getting close to the waterfalls, something that could be done only be walked up and down flights of stairs to the viewing platform. Nevertheless, I think we had a pretty good sense of the amount of water flowing over the rocks even if we did not get splashed.

About another forty five minutes of driving toook us to Saint Ignace, an old French fur trading settlement that has the distinction of being the third oldest city in the United States. But despite its historic pedigree, the town is not particularly impressive, and Breakers Resort, as our hotel rather grandly christened itself, was even less impressive. Our room was not that large and rather cheaply furnished. It had a more than slightly musty odor. But it did have a balcony with a view of Lake Huron.

The bar on the beach, the spot in the picture with the yellow and black umbrellas, served pizza as well as drinks. John and I ate there. He surprised me by ordering BBQ pizza. It was better than I expected, though it would no doubt have sent any Italian over the edge.

We had breakfast the next morning at the resort’s resataurant, and I packed the car up and drove to the ferry dock. I had hoped that we would be able to catch the 10AM boat that detoured under the Mackinac Bridge. But there was already a long line of people waiting, and we had to take the 10:15 passage straight over to the island.

Rather like landing at Edgartown in Nantucket, the ferry on Mackinaw disembarks passengers onto a street filled mostly with tacky gift shops. Mackinac Island has always been famous for its fudge—tourists here were the first to be referred to unaffectionately as “fudgies”—so a large number of them hawk any number of flavors of this and llines of fat midwesterners are lined up to buy it. But there are also a number of bike rental places on the street and all of them also rented small electric wheelchairs or “mobility carts.” I was not really eager to push John around for four or five hours, so I asked him if he was willing to try one. I have no idea why it even occurred to me that he might not be delighted to have one. And before we knew it, he was off and running on them with me struggling to keep up with my bad foot.

We passed by the old fort, the heart of the state park on the island, but chose not to go in for a visit. Even before European settlement, the strategic value of this area for controlling access to the upper Great Lakes was clear.

The French built a fort on the mainland near by what is today Mackinaw City. When the British took control of the area, just before the American Revolution, they decided that putting their fort on Mackinac Island made it more defensible. When the area passed from British to American control, the fort was essential for American domination of this area and for supporting American interests in the fur trade.

Most people do not know that Mackinac Island was America’s second national park. But when the Army closed the fort in 1985, the federal government turned the island and the park over to the control of the State of Michigan. Most of the island is still park today, though there are limited area of residential development from an earlier period. Most of the homes are quite impressive.

A few have been converted into bed and breakfasts.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the residents of Mackinac Island voted to ban those pesky new horseless carriages. Detroit becoming the center of the automotive industry only seemed to harden their resolve. Today there are only a few motorized vehicles on the island, almost all owned by the town or the state. Otherwise, horses are used for transportation and for drayage.

No doubt the horses get tired of the tourists after a while.

The tourists need to be careful of the little presents the horses leave them.

The most famous building on the Island, and perhaps its biggest tourist attraction, is the Grand Hotel.

Its wraparound porch is supposedly the biggest in the world. I think its pool could be equally celebrated.

John seemed a little hurt that I had not opted to stay there until I told him that the cheapest room I could find was over 1200 dollars a night. Even for my big spender husband, there are limits!

We also passed on doing a full tour of the hotel, and just looked at a few public areas. We had some coffee instead of the 80 dollar lunch special.

We did take some time to look at a couple pictures that had been filmed here, most famously Somewhere in Time.

After perusing the Grand Hotel, we a little further on and explored the West Bluff neighborhoods. Some of these homes had amazing views of the bridge, though the weather was a little hazy today and it was hard to see it.

Riding down the streets, John could sometimes see amazing gardens hidden behind the mansions.

We could have spent hours more exploring, but we knew that we had a long drive back to Jason’s house. So we caught the ferry back to St Ignace and started driving.

Just outside of Marquette, I pulled over so John could see this place: