Of Surprises and Disappointments - Part II: Mackinac Island
You know how when people ask you, "How was your trip?" they really don't want a day-by-day itinerary. They only want the highlights, the disasters or bad weather or horrendous crowds, all so they won't be jealous. Or maybe, if they're true friends, just maybe they will listen to up to three (max) things you really liked.
One thing we learned, whether it’s Mackinaw City or Mackinac Island, both are pronounced identically with the "NAW" ending. The "-ac" spelling comes from the original French transcription of the Native American Ojibwe word Mishimikinaak, while the "-aw" spelling reflects the British anglicized phonetic spelling. I always think it’s nice that we retain Native American names for the places we steal from them to build missions and then forts.
The history of the area is really interesting, full of massacres, missionaries, traders, fighting among the English, the French, other indigenous Americans as well as frontier people but none of that is going to be one of my three items. There are many locations on the island where you find this history, but again, probably only interesting if you're there.
Anyway, assuming you remember Part I wherein we were perhaps less than enchanted by Mackinaw City, we did, as planned, continue on and board one of the ferries to the island, along with 200 people who waited in line with us. It was pretty efficient – Cute parked our car in some nearby lot designated especially for ferry passengers. Our luggage was stowed (somewhere on board) and then they were taken to the Airbnb, all without us hardly saying a word. (I won’t go into how I was convinced they were taking it to the wrong place so I took off running after them, much to Cute’s consternation. Turns out, they knew what they were doing. Huh.)
Mackinac Island is beautiful and we took too many pictures which I'm compelled to share. I have never seen such consistently gorgeous landscaping in front and around architecturally noteworthy homes and buildings. The colors of the flowers were somehow much brighter than at home, even if they were the same plants and had a shorter growing season. No heat exaustion probably. Their contrast to the tens of pine tree varieties and the very blue water and sky no doubt helps enliven the spectrum of colors. Interesting terrain and nature trails to bike or walk were close by.
The Grand Hotel (opened in 1887) provided my very first experience of being kicked out of a place because I (well, Cute really) was not wearing the proper clothing. After paying $14 each just to GO into the hotel, paying about $25 each for a cocktail, plus service charge, plus the credit card added fee, then the tip, we went to the 650-foot-long veranda’s rocking chairs to sip and absorb the Lake Michigan view. After about 10 minutes, we were told (politely) it was after 6 p.m. and formal clothing was required in order to be able to continue to sit there. We were welcome, however, to go in to the hotel (where all the shops had closed). Cute took off his baseball cap and off we went, feeling very unworthy. We walked down the hill and were warmly welcomed into a really good sea-side restaurant sporting white clad tables where they apparently cared more about our cash than our clothes.
The downtown is, granted, truly a tourist trap. But at least it’s cute and there are stores with good stuff, much better than the usual. Plenty of bars and restaurants, many on the water, and none of them were rowdy. And no cars! Or motorcycles! Just the clomping of horses and the psssttt of bicycles and people talking. And if you like chocolate, Mackinac Island is the famous place to go. On their main street, there must be 20 or so fudge shops, basically from seven different vendors, some dating from the 1800’s. It’s also entertaining to watch the confectioners wield their long paddles as they continuously torture the chocolate, butter and cream into better-than-homemade fudge, at least mine.
When I win the lottery, I’ll buy summer home on or near Mackinac Island. Summers only.
Did I mention the weather was perfect?
Great photos, Cutest! I would love to go back there in June for the lilac season and stay in a hotel. My husband and I were day trippers on our visit there in 2012. It was "only" ten dollars each to visit The Grand Hotel" then, and we were long gone by formal hour. We would have been kicked out had we stayed.