Tuesday, Aug 3
Star Line Ferry
We left our trailer at Brimley State Park and headed toward St Ignace around 7:45 to catch the 9 am Starline ferry across Mackinaw Island. There were two competing ferry lines to the island: Sheplers and Star Line. Both had similar fees and military discounts, but Star Line offered free overnight parking, so I went with them. They also bragged that they had hydro-jet boats with a distinctive 35-foot “rooster tail” that were faster and provided a unique shuttle experience.
We arrived early to take the 9 am “under the bridge” tour, which they only offer at specific times. These shuttle trips would take an indirect path to the island and take you under the Mackinaw Bridge. We were early enough to get a seat on the upper deck. Even though it was very windy and cool, and we had rough water, seeing how high the Mackinaw Bridge was from the water was incredible. We also enjoyed watching the island as we approached it.
Lake View Hotel
We stayed overnight at Lake View Hotel across from the dock where we landed. The weekday rate was $350 per night! We dropped off our luggage and headed out to explore the island.
Carriage Tours
We bought some vouchers for the Mackinaw Island Carriage Tours, which were probably unnecessary because I am not sure they get sold out. We still had to exchange the vouchers for tickets at the ticket booth and then wait about 30 minutes before loading a carriage. While waiting, we enjoyed people watching, especially an antique bicycle club that was riding around on their big wheel bicycles.
The first part of the carriage tour took us through the town on a two-horse carriage through the main streets (Main and Nicolet) and then up by the Grand Hotel and to their Surrey Hills Museum. Our carriage driver was from Yougoslavia and had a very bad accent, but he was still mostly understandable and fun, Along the way, he pointed out various landmarks and cracked jokes.
We got out at the Museum, where we toured the antique carriage museum with a working horse barn. Besides the various carriages used by individuals and businesses on the island, they had a horse-drawn hearse still used today and an antique fire pumper. On the grounds surrounding the museum, they had a working blacksmith shop (not in operation) and a butterfly conservatory (that cost extra so we skipped).
We then stood in line to board a three-horse carriage that took us to Skull Cave, Island Cemetary, Post Cemetary, and Fort Holmes to Arch Rock. At Arch Rock, we stopped just long enough to go to the observation platform and get a quick look. The platform was crowded, with people trying to get perfect selfies and family pictures. We then continued to the rear entrance of Fort Mackinac, where we disembarked.
Fort Mackinac
Fort Mackinac was an impressive fort built to protect the fur trade routes and our northern border. It was originally built in 1780 by the British. Mackinaw Island then became part of the United States in 1783 due to Jay’s Treaty with Great Britain, and the Americans garrisoned the fort thirteen years later in 1796. The British captured the fort without a fight in the first land battle of the War of 1812. In 1814, the Americans tried recapturing the fort but lost the battle. In 1815, the fort was returned to the Americans after the war. The fort was then abandoned at different times to support the Second Seminole War, the Mexican War, the Sante Indian Uprising, and the Civil War until becoming a National Park in 1875 and a state park in 1895.
We were hungry, so we immediately headed over to the Tea Room that was built in the Officer’s Stone Quarters. We got a great table on the patio that overlooked Mackinaw City and enjoyed some lunch.
After lunch, we toured the rest of the fort. It was beautifully restored, and there were a lot of displays. They even had soldiers wearing period uniforms conducting demonstrations and tours. We watched a rifle demonstration but avoided the others because of the crowds.
Lake View Hotel
We decided not to go down the steep front entrance, so we returned to the rear entrance and caught the next carriage that stopped. The carriage continued past the Governor’s Summer Residence, where the Michigan Governor could stay over the summer, and then stopped at the edge of Mackinac City near Nicolet Street. We walked down to our hotel and checked in to check out our rooms.
The Lake View Hotel was built in 1858 and is the oldest operating hotel on the island. It has been reconstructed several times over the years, where they added features such as turrets, giving it a Victorian look, a four-story atrium with a pool, and two restaurants with bars. Our room was nice with a pillow-top bed, a flat-screen HDTV, a Keurig coffee maker, a Bluetooth radio, a recharging station for electronic devices, and an in-room safe. A sign of the hotel’s age was they had installed a rolling in-room air conditioner ducted to the outside. Our window looked out into a residential area.
One of the hotel’s most notable features was the balcony or porch on each level that overlooked the main street and had rocking chairs for guests. We found a couple of rocking chairs and watched the people going by before we returned to the street to walk around.
Mackinaw City
After leaving our hotel room, we did window shopping and tried fudge samples at various stores on Main Street. We stopped at Dowd’s Market and bought a phone charging cord for me. We continued to walk down South Huron past Marquette Park and eventually turned around at the Island House. We returned to the Pink Pony and tried to get a table for dinner, but they had a 1-½ hour waiting list. So we decided to go to Mac Burgers instead, known for its affordable burgers and sat at a table on their back porch overlooking the lake.
Afterward, we walked around the streets, but even though the streets were still full of tourists, everything but restaurants and bars were closed or closed. Even the fudge shops were closed. We did find Sanders Fudge and Candy Shop open and decided to get some ice cream. While there, we ran into Mark from “Keep Your Daydream,” a YouTube Channel we watch, and chatted with him for a while.
We finished our ice cream and then returned to our hotel’s front porch to watch the crowds. Since we were across from the ferry docks, we saw much of the crowd heading back to the mainland.
As sunset approached, we decided to go along the boardwalk on the island’s west side to find a good spot to watch the sunset. We found some benches near their public school to enjoy the beautiful evening and sunset before returning to our rooms for the evening.
Wednesday, Aug 4
The Chuckwagon
The next morning, we walked down the street to a diner called the Chuckwagon, which was supposed to have the best breakfast on the island. It was a typical diner with a short-order grill, sit-down bar, vinyl bench booths, and piles of hash browns and bacon warming on the grill. We ordered the Chuckwagon Special, with two eggs, hash browns, toast, choice of meat, and coffee, all for $11. That was cheap for Mackinaw Island!
Bicycle Tour
We decided to rent some bicycles and ride the 8-mile M-185 highway that completely circled the island. Some of the highways were blocked because of construction, though we would be doubling back on portions of them. There were plenty of bike rental places, so we found one where Lisa could get a three-wheeler, and I could get a regular bicycle. We first went counter-clockwise on M-185, passing Mission Point Resort, Dwightwood Spring, Arch Rock, and Mackinac Island State Park. We had to turn around when we hit the road construction. We then drove through the busy Mackinaw City, where we paused briefly at the beautiful 1874 St Annes Catholic Church. We then continued cycling clockwise along the coast next to high, wooded bluffs with several huge homes. We passed a marker commemorating the filming of a scene from Somewhere in Time, a small cave called Devil’s Kitchen, and several coves until we got to British Landing., the point where the British landed in 1812 to attack the fort. There was a small food stand called the Cannonball there, and though we did not buy anything, I enjoyed their sign about the seagulls (see pictures). We walked on the small beach that had an old cannon displayed, visited their small nature center and walked their small nature trail, and most importantly, took advantage of the public restroom before returning to Mackinaw City. It was a good ride, and we both enjoyed it a lot.
Grand Hotel
After returning the bikes, we headed toward the Grand Hotel.
The Grand Hotel was on a high bluff, so it was a hike to get to it. Along the way, we went inside the beautiful 1904 Little Stone Church, a popular wedding venue.
The Grand Hotel is a huge luxury hotel that overlooks the straits of Mackinac and boasts the world’s longest front porch at 660 feet. It was opened on July 10, 1887, and took 93 days to complete. The minimum nightly weekly rates were over $700 a night.
It costs us $10 per person to enter the hotel because we were not guests. After we bought our ticket, which was a hotel map with a date stamp, we walked down the hall on the ground floor, which was lined with photographs of important people that had visited the hotel. There was also a small room with pictures and items from the two movies filmed: the 1980 “Somewhere in Time” and the 1947 musical comedy “This Time for Keeps.”
We were hungry, so we decided against the Grand Luncheon Buffet since it was already near the end of the lunch period and it would have cost us $56.50 apiece, and we decided to go to the Jockey Club just outside the hotel. This outdoor restaurant was situated alongside the Grand Hotel Golf Course in a small grove of trees, giving us beautiful views of the hotel, the golf course, and the beautiful flower gardens surrounding the hotel. We both ordered huge salads and some Big Porch Ale, a craft beer brewed exclusively for the Grand Hotel.
After lunch, we returned to the hotel and took the elevators to the main floor. We discovered we had taken the wrong elevators when we stepped out instead of into a hallway where the hotel rooms were. As we tried to find our way to the main floor, peeking into the fancy hotel rooms was fun. The hotel hallway looked endless as it went the entire hotel without any doors. Eventually, we found someone to give us directions to the main level.
The main level was filled with antique furniture that enabled you to picture fancy-dressed people from an earlier time strolling through the lobby. We stepped out on the front porch and were impressed with its size and length. Surprisingly, the porch provided little afternoon shade. We found some open rocking chairs, ordered some Big Porch Ale, and sat enjoying the views of the huge tea garden with its flower beds. Next to the tea garden was a pool and a lawn game area with bocce ball courts. An occasional horse carriage taxi would pull up in front of the hotel. A couple of hotel employees wearing red jackets were stopping people who were not hotel guests or who had not paid their admission fee. There were a lot of unhappy people that did not like getting stopped. We also had great views of the straits and the ferries going back and forth to the mainland. It was a beautiful view, and we had a lot of fun.
Before leaving the hotel, we took the elevators to the Cupola Bar located in the steeple on the roof of the hotel. This two-story bar had great elevated views of the surrounding area on all four sides. We just walked around the bar, though, and did not stay.
We then walked around the flower gardens outside. We stepped into Sadies Ice Cream Shoppe, which was on the side of the hotel, but the prices were so ridiculously high that we decided to skip it.
Mackinaw City
We then went back down the hill to walk around Main Street. On the way down the hill, we passed a house with a bunch of rubber duckies scattered around their fenced lawn and a sign challenging passers-by to find them all.
While walking down Main Street for the last time, we bought a sweatshirt for Lisa before deciding to head back to the mainland for dinner.
St Ignace
After we got off the ferry, we drove over to BC Pizza to get some pizza to take back to the camper. We had to wait a while for the pizza because they were quite busy. We got back to Brimley around 7:30 pm.