Visiting Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island sits in Lake Huron, between Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. Before becoming a popular tourist destination and summer colony in the late1800s, the island was long home to an Odawa settlement. European colonization began in the 17th century and the island became the strategic center of fur trade around the Great Lakes. Fort Mackinac was constructed on the island  by the British during the American Revolutionary War, and was the site to two battles during the War of 1812 before the US gained the island as it's territory. The entire island is now listed as a National Historic Landmark.

Present day Mackinac Island is a mix of modern luxury and old-timey Victorian lakeside leisure with it's pastel-colored facades of the downtown shops to sprawling porch of The Grand Hotel. Activities include shopping, golf, fine and casual dining, museums, a butterfly garden, an art gallery, a haunted theater, and horse-drawn carriage rides. Mackinac Island State Park covers eighty percent of the island's 4.35 square miles, and the island is known for its homemade fudge!

Nick and I visited Mackinac Island for the first time together towards the end of May (my first time ever!). Mackinac Island is approximately a four and half hour drive plus a 30 minute ferry ride from our home. The island can only be reached by ferry, private boat, or by small aircraft and, in the winter, by snowmobile over an ice bridge. Motorized vehicles have been prohibited on the island since 1898 and travel on the island is either by foot, horse, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. 

Once we arrived on the island via Shepler's Ferry out of Mackinaw City, we explored the downtown shopping (Little Luxuries of Mackinac was my favorite) before having lunch at The Pink Pony.

After lunch and before heading up to our hotel, Nick and I rented bikes and biked about a fourth of the island. It was a very beautiful, peaceful ride on a paved trail on the perimeter of the island. It was nice not to have to watch for cars - only horses! 

On the walk up to the hotel Nick and I were able to see some of the historical sites and architecture. My favorite was the Mackinac Public Library which is painted a fun robin's egg blue!

Father Jacques Marquette

There are no chain hotels on Mackinac Island. Instead the island offer more than 1,600 unique rooms in hotels, resorts, bed and breakfasts, condos, cottages, and homes. 

Nick's parents gifted us a night at the Grand Hotel. Construction on the hotel was started in in 1886 and opened in July 1887. The hotel was first advertised to Chicago, Erie, Montreal, and Detroit residents as a summer retreat. At the time of it's opening, a room at the hotel ranged from $3 to $5 per night.

In 1967, the Grand Hotel was designated as a State Historic Building, in 1972 it was named to the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1989 the hotel was made a National Historic Landmark. The Grand Hotel's front porch is the longest in the world at 660 feet in length. It over looks the vast Tea Garden and the Esther Williams swimming pool. Before 2007, air conditioning was only available in public rooms such as the parlor, lobby, and the main dining room. 

The Grand Hotel has served as the setting for the 1947 musical comedy This Time for Keeps starring Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante and as the background and setting for the 1980 film Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. The hotel has been visited by five US presidents, Mark Twain, and the first public demonstration of Thomas Edison's phonograph took place on the porch.

The Grand Hotel has it's own golf course and offers a spa and salon, ice cream parlor, afternoon tea, dining, stables, shops, bars, a coffee shop, and yard games. Non-guests can walk through the hotel for $10 per person. The hotel closes for the winter at the beginning of November. 

We stayed in the Tiffany Suite which featured a four-poster canopy bed, a large bathroom and sitting area, and views of the lake.

That evening Nick and I dined at in the main dining room at the Grand Hotel. After 6:30 pm the resort and the main dining room has a dress code that requires dresses, skirts, blouses, dress sweaters, or dress slacks for ladies while the men are required to wear a suite coat, necktie, and dress pants.

 We had a four course meal from a pre fixe menu. I tried frog legs for the first time!

It was nice to have this dining experience once because it's notorious on Mackinac Island, but I really did not enjoy most of the food and the service was average at best. The main dining room was also crowded, busy, and loud. If I ever stay at the Grand Hotel again, I'd go for a more casual option at either the Woods Restaurant or The Gate House.

homemade cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream for dessert

We had breakfast the next morning in the main dining room. The breakfast buffet was excellent (Sorry, no pictures. My phone didn't save them!) which was redeeming after the dinner the before. After breakfast Nick and I climbed to the very top of the hotel to the Cupola Bar which offers panoramic views of Lake Huron, the Straits of Mackinac, and the Mackinac Bridge.

After, we checked out and made our way back downtown to catch the ferry, stopping at the Little Stone Church.

After taking the ferry back to the lower peninsula Nick insisted on driving me over his "favorite bridge," the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge is five miles long, suspended over the Lakes Michigan and Huron, and connects Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. 

I guess you could say this was also my first trip to the UP (upper peninsula) although it lasted about 2 minutes - the time it took to turn around to get back to the bridge. 

It was a very short visit; we were on the island for less than 24 hours. I'm looking forward to going back again for a longer visit when we have time to explore more of what Mackinac Island has to offer!