Mackinac Island, Michigan

Sunday, August 9 and Monday, August 10

What can I say? Mackinac is a Disneyesque place with hundreds of visitors like us, and there are no cars. To get around, everyone walks, rides bikes, or takes horse-drawn carriages. They arrive by ferry with their bicycles. This is the Newport, Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard of the Great Lakes, and definitely should not be missed. But for isolationist anchoring nomads like us, it’s a little overwhelming.

A Sunday afternoon in August is one of their busiest times, so we’re hoping that today, being Monday and overcast, won’t be quite as crowded. Yesterday we rode our bike (along with everyone else) along an excellent paved road that circles the island, about 8 miles. The flowers are gorgeous, with landscaped gardens everywhere. Along the shore, we saw hundreds of Inukshuks. These are small rock towers that defy gravity. In the Inukshuk heritage, they have meaning, but on Mackinac Island, they are a spontaneous artistic activity, a lot like building sand castles. I’m willing to bet that the winter winds blow most of them down so that the new tourists can start fresh next summer.

The smell of horse manure is awful, but as soon as you get off the main road, it’s not so bad. There are a dozen fudge shops in the three blocks of the town. Ferries come and go all day, plus the marina is completely filled with boats, so the wake and the slap of the water are extreme until everything settles down after dark. There are two or three other Loopers here.

The Grand Hotel is not the only important building on the island, but it is the most impressive. It is not just one building - it includes at least five other restaurants on the island. Last night we ate dinner in a tented area called the Jockey Club, a restaurant under the Grand Hotel umbrella. The meal was great and the waiter was superb. Our waiter and a lot of the other seasonal staff are Jamaican. He works as a waiter at the Grand Hotel during the summer season and returns to Jamaica and his family to work their winter season as a bartender. Tonight we’re going to another Grand Hotel restaurant, the Woods, and probably taking a horse-drawn taxi there and back.

The most amazing coincidence happened yesterday as we walked on the long covered porch of the Grand Hotel. Brian and I had circled around the back of the hotel, walked along a road with enormous “cottages” and arrived at the hotel from the far side. As we walked along the covered porch, Brian glanced in a window and suddenly noticed two lamps that Mimi (his mother) had made! We raced inside to that sitting area by the window, and yes, they were definitely Mimi’s lamps! Everything about them was familiar to us - the prints of birds and leaves that she had cut out, the decoupage technique on the clear glass hurricane chimneys and the pastel yellow painted background. We recognized the base, the electric cord, the top, the harp and the finial. A woman nearby loved the story and took photos for us. As background for you, Mimi created decoupaged lamps over four decades and Dave assembled them. She had a shop near Annapolis where she sold them, and sold or donated lamps to places like the White House, the Commerce Department, the State Department, and as we’ve just seen, the Grand Hotel!

We are getting a slow start today, but sometimes we need it. We plan to ride our bike to see Fort Mackinac and two butterfly conservatories nearby. Fort Mackinac plays Revelry at 9:30 a.m. and plays Taps at 6:30 p.m., raising or lowering several flags simultaneously and shooting off cannons. They also shoot off the cannon at 40 minutes past every hour, until 6:30, but after a while, you get used to it.

(We visited the two butterfly gardens on the island. Both were indoors and filled with butterflies of every color. I really enjoyed seeing them.)

After two months on the boat, our cat Sofie has finally come out from under the bed, but only when the boat is still and the day is quiet. Almost like a real pet.

Today is Brandon and Hermione’s anniversary - three years. They have accomplished quite a lot in that small space of time.

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