There are bicycles everywhere you look, and you have to watch out for them on the streets, along with the horse and carriages. Our horse driver told us they will ticket bicyclists going over 25 mph (and I think I saw a couple speeding). The cops also ride bicycles since the only vehicles here on the island are emergency vehicles.
And there are horses everywhere, pulling 25-passenger carriages, 28-passenger carriages (these required 3-horse teams), individual horse and riders, and 4-passenger surreys you could rent. The horses were big draft horses, Belgiums and Percherons, and she said sometimes they have some Klydesdales but none right now.
We were assigned a 10:00 carriage ride so we didn't do much shopping before our ride. We passed Fort Mackinac and the Grand Hotel on our way to the Surrey Hills Museum, Butterfly Conservatory and Grand Stable. The Grand Hotel was "constructed in the late 19th century, the facility advertises itself as having the world's largest porch." The porch is 660 feet long. It is also called the showplace of the Great Lakes.
We saw the empty Grand Hotel Carriage earlier, but we saw it going into the hotel loaded with people.
The word "Mackinac" is derived from the Native Americans' word " Michillimackinac," which means 'The Great Turtle' or 'Land of The Great Turtle, and turtle sculptures are very popular on the island. I liked them all.
We arrived at our first stop and Joe spotted donuts right away, inside the building with the carriage museum. The donuts were still warm, and delicious. Mazie thought it just might have been the best donut she had ever eaten. Then we started walking the grounds. But the Butterfly Conservatory was an additional charge, so we just looked in the window.
We walked over to the carriage museum and the Grand Stable.
As we went back to the building where we got off the first carriage, we had to wait for the second carriage on the opposite end of the building. As we were walking up to it, I saw a beautiful "paint" draft horse, which I think is rare, the ones I have seen have been one color. So I walked over to take a picture, and got yelled at by the driver. I guess I was outside the area we were allowed in!
For this second carriage ride, they had 3-horse teams pulling our carriage, which was the 28-passenger carriage. These are beautiful animals, and Joe took lots of horse pictures today.
This ride took us through the state park, past the cemeteries, and to the "Arch Rock."
Lake Huron is beautiful, and the water at the edge is crystal clear.
We passed some girl scouts on our way back to town. They also have boy scouts here during the summer, and in fact, President Ford spent some of his boy scouting days here, which we remembered from his Presidential Library and Museum back in Grand Rapids.
We finished this ride and went back to Main Street to find some lunch. We were going to do the "Fur Trade" walking tour, but entry into many of the buildings was an extra charge, as was the Fort, and we felt like we had paid enough already, so we didn't do either of those. We could see the Fort, and heard them doing one of the shooting demonstrations, but we had toured a Fort at Niagara just a couple weeks ago, so we skipped this.
We did see a few things, a pretty stone church, and a "bark chapel," to name a couple.
And everywhere were beautiful flowers, in huge pots, in hanging baskets, planted along the sidewalk.
And of course there are always photo ops.
Joe tried to do his famous "setting up the camera and running to get in the picture" act and fell down on this one. The picture turned out blurry, but it was funny because he just sat there. Then someone came along and took pity on him, and offered to take the picture of all of us.
We walked down to the harbor and looked at all the sailboats, and a rescue boat moored there. The rescue boat had two 300 horsepower motors on it.
One of the high points of Main Street is the Lilac Tree Hotel. If we were ever to come here overnight, I would have to stay here.
Tbere were fudge shops here about every other store. Mazie and I had one sample but we managed to get out of there without buying any, although we, including Joe, did succumb to the temptation of another ice cream cone. We headed back to the dock for the 3:30 return boat. The clouds were moving in, but the boat outran them, which was good because Joe and I sat up on the top deck.
As we were pulling into the harbor back at St. Ignace, I spotted a beach that looked more appealing than the one at the campground, so Joe drove us over there and we all (except David) got to put our toes in Lake Huron. Great Lake No. 4 for me.
Dave didn't walk down to the beach, so Joe took a picture of him and his bride up on the boardwalk.
The casino is only about a mile from our campground, so we spent a couple hours and a couple dollars there. No big winnings though.
Tomorrow is another travel day, but we don't know exactly where we are headed. Should be interesting. Go West Young Man will be the theme of the day, I think. We want to explore some of the Upper Peninsula.
333, 341.
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