Les Flâneurs

Mackinac Island day 2

On Wednesday, our first full day on the island, we languished a bit in our room before heading over to the main building for coffee and breakfast. Since all the breakfast offerings were one form or another of prepackaged food we just focused on the hot brown water followed by a couple of bananas. Fortunately there’s a Starbucks just up Main Street where we made up for the bland coffee offering of the hotel.

Since we had to remain close by the hotel in order to be ready to move into our new room we just strolled through town: first downtown and then back east, just past our hotel, we popped into Saint Anne's Catholic church. Madame Laframboise was instrumental in helping to found the original building and upon her death in 1846 she was buried, per her wishes, beneath the altar of the church. Once back onto Main Street we headed east along M-185 briefly until we reached Mission Point Resort before returning to the Harbour View. We then had lunch at Bill’s Grill outside our hotel — light sandwiches — before settling in to our new room and relaxing before heading off to afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel.

About 3:30 we called for a taxi and headed off to our destination. Our taxi driver drove right past the “guard” at the entrance so we didn’t have to pay the $10 entry fee for nonresidents of the hotel. We made our way upstairs to the main level, found a comfortable place to sit and settled in for the afternoon. Susan had the tea and I just sipped a “champagne” label for the Grand Hotel. No idea where it came from.

Susan gave the tea experience a grade of C-, and indeed it didn’t look very impressive. But the harpist playing nearby was superb, her choices of music wonderful and we hung about until everything closed down, at 5pm. We made our way out of the hotel along the long porch and up West Bluff Street before turning back to the hotel and then down into town for dinner.

We ate at The Village Inn, a place run by a Jamaican chef and while Susan had a crispy, fresh salad, I opted for the house specialty, “planked whitefish”: Lake Superior whitefish surrounded by Duchesse Potatoes and perfectly prepared vegetables. Tasty and spot on!

After dinner we meandered through town and ended up back at the hotel where we sat out on our patio with a glass of Nocino from Long Road Distillery in Grand Rapids (we brought a small bottle with us).

view from our room - can't get enough of the water

Memorial Park off Market Street

note the last two lines. . .

note the sign on the fence

just outside of town on the west side of the island, along M-185

interior of Saint Anne's - madame Laframboise is buried beneath the altar

entrance to Mission Point

across the road from Mission Point

M-185 in front of Mission Point

Bill's Grill, on the grounds of the Harbour View Inn

taxi driver

tea service area

The Porch

sunset viewing area

looking back at the GH from West Bluff

presumably takes you down to M-185

yep, it's grand alright

color change already

memorial to Woodfill Park

Mackinac Island day 1

That's right, we’re on Mackinac Island sitting astride the Straits of Mackinac between Lakes Michigan and Huron and the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan. (Mackinac is derived from the Native American word Michilimackinac apparently meaning “Great Turtle”.) Specifically, I’m writing from the Harbour View Inn, one of many lakeside hotels on the island and the former home of Madame Magdaleine La Framboise. Located just a stone’s throw from downtown and along M-185, the scenic 8.2-mile drive around the island, it’s a perfect location.

Susie and I left Grand Rapids yesterday a little after 9am and arrived in McBain, Michigan a little before 11am. We were keen to visit Bernice’s Lucas cousin Harvey and his wife Ev and we found them both outside soaking up the lovely morning. The four of us chatted about one thing or another, solving the world’s problems, and catching up on all the Lucas family news so we could pass it along to Bernice.

Shortly after noon we were back on the road heading north, this time to Lake City where we turned east and made our way to M127 and back north again. Joining I75 we were in Mackinac City, in the shadow of the great Mackinac Bridge, a little after 3pm. Driving was smooth with little traffic and very little construction.

After parking the car in the designated area at our ferry terminal we handed our bags over to the ferry attendants and they marked them for our hotel. Very efficient and we didn’t see our bags but once, and then only briefly, until we arrived at our hotel on the island.

The ferry left Mackinac City with probably less than 30 people aboard and swung slightly west so we could all get a good view of the Bridge before heading for the island.

The water was a bit choppy and there were some leans and rolls but nothing serious. Twenty minutes later we were dockside, our bags were handed off to the hotel porter, and we strolled up Main Street to the Harbour View and checked in.

The one glitch was our room was up four flights of stairs, beneath a mansard, on which I continued to bang my head, and it was supposed to have a balcony which turned out to be more the size of a closet without porch type seating. (The other balcony rooms below us had lots more space and furniture to boot.) Not a big deal in the overall scheme of things to be sure but still my head was taking a beating! Oh, and the Wi-fi would only work in the main building! Sheesh. Anyway, the management kindly agreed to move us down a floor and into a new room the following day and so they did.

That evening we strolled back into town and had a superb meal at the Carriage House located in the Hotel Iroquois. Lots of folks in the restaurant that night and since we didn’t have a reservation we had to sit at the bar for dinner but that was just fine with us.

After dinner we made our way leisurely back through town to the hotel, stopping to pay our respects to a lady who is much-maligned today. . . . . you'll see her at the end.