Thursday, July 12, 2018

Mackinac Island

It's Island day!


It's a beautiful day to sail to the island!

Mackinac Island is located in the Straits of Mackinac.  It is only accessible in the summer by boat.  During the winter, you can go across the ice on snowmobile to the island.  They now have speedboat ferries that can get you across in 15 minutes.  They also do the classic cruises which take about 45 minutes.

It was a beautiful day to be on the island!


This is a view of the harbor from Fort Mackinac.  You can see what a good vantage point they had from the fort defending the island.


Some of the buildings from the fort were brought over in pieces across the ice from Fort Michilimackinac.  It's not hard to miss the fort.  It looms in the background of the harbor.


To gain access to the fort, you have to climb up what is called "Heart Attack Hill".  It is a steep incline walk.  Lots of people need to take a break when walking up so there are benches to sit and catch your breath.


Once you reach the fort, there is a lot of history to read and learn about.  They do a wonderful job of setting up different demonstrations to show what life at the fort was like.  You can even learn in the bathrooms!  There is a sign in the restrooms that explain you are using the modern bathrooms that were installed at the fort.  In their time, this was cutting edge technology!  If you were caught putting anything besides waste or paper in the toilets, you were taken to court, tried, and if found guilty had to use the old outhouses.  You were forever banned from using the fancy schmancy toilets!

My tribe would have been banned for sure.


The old cannons still wait to defend the fort.  They do have certain times that they fire the cannons.

A landmark that most associate with the island is the Grand Hotel.


It is like stepping back in time when you visit here.  The carriages and footmen bring guests and their luggage up from the harbor.  It is a lovely place to sit on the porch and relax enjoying the view.  We didn't do that.  My peeps were too much on the move!

The movie "Somewhere In Time" with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour was filmed here.


We did walk through the carriage house for the hotel.  Here, carriages and riggings that had significance to the island are on display.

On our walk to our carriage tour of the island, we passed this.  I got a kick out of it!


This is one of the employee parking lots for the hotel.  There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island.  All transportation is done by either horse, carriage, bicycle or walking.  They do have one motorized vehicle on the island and that is an ambulance.  It is only used in dire emergency conditions though.


When you go to the island, you have to make the climb to Arch Rock.  Supposedly, the rock is collapsing and will plunge into the straits in about 50 years.  It is worth the climb just for the view.


You can be lazy like us though and take the carriage tour.  They let you go and see the rock and take pics.  Plus you don't have to walk 3 miles up hill.

One thing that is a must when visiting the island....


....FUDGE!!  There are fudge shops EVERYWHERE!  It's hard to escape them!  You really can't go wrong with any of them.

So now that we came, saw, ate and walked, we are going to call it a day and say goodbye to a wonderful day on the island.

Definitely a must see if you visit Michigan.

Tomorrow it is Mill Creek.  This is the mill that produced most of the lumber for Fort Mackinac.

Until then....


....adieu mon ami.

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