Mackinac Island, Michigan - July 21st to 24th, 2021
Rainy days are not something people look forward to while they are traveling, but we can’t control the weather. What we can control is how we work through them or work around them and make the most of where we are. It was cloudy and rainy most of our time on Mackinac Island and in Mackinaw City. However, we still had an enjoyable time. What made it even better was meeting up and spending time with friends.
Wednesday was a moving day, from Tahquamenon Falls State Park to Castle Rock Lakefront Mackinac Trail Campground near St. Ignace, Michigan. We hung out at the campground, doing our laundry, waiting for our friends Dave and Andrea to show up. In the evening, we took our camp chairs over to the campground beach, had a wonderful conversation on the beach with our friends, and enjoyed the view out across Lake Huron.
We spent all day Thursday with our friends. They offered a ride in their VanDOit van over to the boat docks. They had the two person bench seat in their van. Both of our bench seats are at home, so we don’t have room for four people. We took the 9 am Shepler’s Ferry over to Mackinac Island. A few of the morning ferries go under the Mackinac Bridge as a bonus, no extra charge. It just makes the ride a few minutes longer. The 9 am ferry was one of those that went under the bridge.
Originally we planned to ferry our bikes over to the island so we wouldn’t have to rent bikes. However, when we were getting our bikes off the hitch the day before, we noticed that the bike mount had twisted. The rubber protection on the mount was worn down to the metal in spots. The back brake cable on LB’s bike was completely severed. The brake cable on RB’s bike was frayed. Oh well, at least we didn’t have to pay the $13 per bike to ferry them over to the island.
It was a cool, cloudy day with a chance of rain, but we didn’t let the weather dampen our mood and had a wonderful time on the island. In the morning, we walked down Lakeshore Drive, past the shops, hotels, and bed n breakfasts to Arch Rock just inside Mackinac Island State Park. There are some lovely places to stay on the island with high prices to match. LB had looked up a few places and couldn’t find anything less than $400 per night. It was a moot point since there were no vacancies.
On the way back into town, we stopped at the Pink Pony Restaurant in the Chippewa Hotel for lunch. The Pink Pony has seating out back on their deck and patio with views of the harbor. However, it was an hour and a half wait to get an outside table. We opted for an inside table. We put our name in at about 11:20 am, but they don’t start seating until 11:30. We were sitting down at our table at about 11:45 am.
The food was delicious. Everyone had the whitefish sandwich except for RB, who had the pulled pork. Andrea and RB had sweet potato fries which they thoroughly enjoyed. They had a little added sweetness to them, nice and crispy on the outside, and soft in the middle. We had fresh-squeezed lemonade to wash it all down. Our waiter was from Colorado. Through our conversation with him, we learned that the company provides dormitories and apartments on the island for their employees. We were curious where the employees could live affordably. On our ferry ride back to St. Ignace, we learned that there are some workers that commute via the ferry. We’re assuming they get some kind of deal on the ferry price and don’t have to wait in the long line of tourists to get on.
After lunch, we toured Fort Mackinac. About every half an hour there was some type of demonstration like firing the canon or a rifle drill and demonstration. There were a few men dressed up in 1800’s military uniforms who gave the demonstrations.
Then it was time for ice cream. Good Day Cafe which sells Moomer’s Ice Cream was not far from the fort. Moomer’s Ice Cream is from Traverse City, Michigan. Moomer’s was closed the day Dave and Andrea were in Traverse City, so this gave them a chance to experience what they may have missed.
Now we needed to burn off some of those calories that we had consumed. We rented bicycles and headed in the opposite direction along Lakeshore Drive. At one of the rocky beaches along the way, we stopped to skip stones on the lake. LB had already skipped stones in Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Now he added Lake Huron to his list. He should be able to skip stones in all five of the Great Lakes before the season is over.
At British Landing about half way around the island, we turned onto British Landing Road and headed inland. For 2021, Lakeshore Road (M-185) is closed from about British Landing to Arch Rock. The road is under construction to repair damage due to the recent high water levels of the lake. After passing by the golf club and the airport, we turned onto Annex Road, then took Hoban Road so we could pass by the Grand Hotel on our way back into town.
As we tried to walk up along next to the hotel, an employee stopped us. It costs $10 a person to view the grounds of the Grand Hotel. OK, we’ll just admire it from afar. It is a rather large and grandiose hotel. A room in the hotel can cost you up to $1000 per night or more. There was a sign indicating that there is a dress code after 6 pm. The dress code applies to not only inside the hotel, but also on the street alongside the hotel. We never realized there were still places like that.
After turning in our bikes, we decided we were ready to take the ferry back. Of course we stopped into one of the fudge shops to buy some fudge before getting in line for the ferry. The line looked pretty long, but we managed to get on the very next ferry. Back at the campground, we spent the evening sitting around the campfire with our friends, munching on crackers, cheese, and Michigan cherries, drinking wine and beer, and sampling all the different flavors of fudge we purchased. Thank you Andrea and Dave for making the day at Mackinac Island even more special!
Friday was another moving day, but we were not going far, just from Castle Rock RV Park in St. Ignace, over the Mackinac Bridge to Tee Pee Campground in Mackinaw City. After shopping for groceries in St. Ignace, we had lunch in Bridge View Park. The park is nicely landscaped with good views of the Mackinac Bridge (duh!).
The Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere. There is a toll of $4 per passenger vehicle to go over the bridge or $5 per axle for other vehicles. Apparently our van counted as a passenger van because we were only charged $4.
The weather forecast called for rain on Saturday, so we wanted to get some exercise in on Friday. After checking into our campsite, we walked from the campground into town. The North Central State Trail passes by the campground, on the other side of the road. The trail is a former railroad corridor, running 62 miles from Bay City to Mackinaw City. We only walked it for a couple of miles into Mackinaw City.
We veered off the trail to walk down South Huron Avenue so we wouldn’t miss the ice cream shop that the campground owner recommended. The ice cream shop used to be called Mickey’s, but it is now called Mooney’s. They didn’t take credit cards. Luckily we had enough cash on us. The ice cream shop also had milkshakes, so LB was happy.
After enjoying our ice cream, we continued on South Huron Avenue, with its views of Lake Huron. Shepler and Star Line run ferries from Mackinaw City in addition to St. Ignace that take people over to Mackinac Island. An old Coast Guard Icebreaker ship is now a museum that you can visit, called the Icebreaker Mackinaw Maritime Museum.
We turned down East Central Avenue. This is a boulevard lined with the old shop fronts. It was hard to admire the old buildings with all the cars parked in between. In addition to the cars parked along the sides of the street, the center island of the street was more car parking. We know that parking is important, but the street would have so much more character if they turned the center island into some nice landscaping or pedestrian area.
To the south of Central Avenue is the Mackinaw Crossings Mall, a maze of pedestrian walkways lined with shops. We did not venture into the mall, but it looked like it had more character than Central Avenue, although it had a more modern feel.
At the west end of Central Avenue, we discovered the Wienerlicious Restaurant with a huge sculpture of a hot dog on the roof. Now that was the character we were searching for! We made plans to come back on Saturday for lunch.
Just south of Wienerlicious, we picked up the North Central State Trail again and headed back to the campground. By the time we reached the campground, we had walked 4.2 miles with an elevation gain of 36 feet in an hour and 45 minutes. We counted it as hike #30 of our 52 Hike Challenge.
In the evening, we walked down to the small campground beach, sat on the bench swings, and stared out across Lake Huron. A very relaxing, but enjoyable day.
It rained most of the day Saturday, so we spent most of the day inside the van. We worked some, took showers, and watched YouTube videos. Of course we drove into Mackinaw City for lunch to eat at the Wienerlicious! LB had a Chicago dog with waffle fries. RB had the Italian sausage with peppers and onions along with waffle fries. They even had malt vinegar to put on the fries. The food was pretty tasty. Evidently, we are not the only ones that think so, because the line to order was out the door. If this is the line for a rainy day, what is it like on a sunny day?
The sun poked out a couple of times in the evening so we were able to get out, walk around the campground, and sit down by the campground beach and watch the boats go by. There were plenty of kids at the playground by the beach. We’re sure they were glad to get outside again and burn off some energy.
Instead of dwelling on what we might have done if it hadn’t rained, we relished the things we were able to do. We will look back at our time in the area and remember eating at Wienerlicious and having a wonderful time sharing Mackinac Island with Andrea and Dave. Making memories is the goal of traveling, whether it is sunny or raining.
Check out our related video: Mackinac Island, Michigan
(RB)