Captain’s Entry:
We boarded
the ferry for Mackinac Island at 9:00 a.m., cruised under the Mackinaw Bridge
and flew like a banshee over to the island’s stunning harbor. The shoreline
pulses with bright white buildings and the deep yellows, blues, and greens of
patio umbrellas and myriad colorful business fronts along the wharf.
As many of
you had warned, the first lovely scent we encountered when leaving the ferry
terminal into the street was horse manure (I’m trying to be a lady here). I
wished for a scented handkerchief to touch to my nose and some spice pouches to
pin in the folds of my clothes as in the days of yesteryear.
In their
dialogue of island trivia, the carriage tour guides loved linking horse manure
to the 17 resident fudge shops on the island. Laughing at their own jokes, they
would then tell the truth of the matter and reveal the world-famous composting
methods the island employs and thus the reason for the lush greenery and
glorious flower arrays that seem to be everywhere (obviously in an effort to
direct attention away from the piles of manure in the streets).
I enjoyed
listening to the clip clop, clip clop of the Belgian-Draft-horse teams pulling
their loads of tourists endlessly through the crowded streets of town into the
tranquil trees of the state park past Fort Mackinac, The Grand Hotel and back
downtown again. The steady beat was
somehow calming against a backdrop of chatter in many languages, crying babies,
and whining kids. Methinks the fall would be a better season for visiting this
tiny isle.
My heart’s
true destination was The Grand Hotel. The gardens with their large central
fountain and bushes clipped into shapes like horses and carriages were
impressive even from high up on the world’s longest front porch. I took a “selfie”
sitting in one of the snow-white rocking chairs that make up the lineup of the
most rocking chairs ever on a front porch anywhere in the world.
I marveled
at the hotel’s entrance salon full of so many textures, patterns, and colors
that I couldn’t believe how pleasing the whole of it was to the eye. How did
the decorator achieve that? It’s a miracle.
The small
display of memorabilia in a hallway outside a candy store seemed short shrift
to a movie whose characters and personalities touched the hearts of so many.
Granted Esther Williams and Jimmy Durante appeared in a movie filmed here in
the 40s, but hey, Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour surely deserve top
billing with the masterful script they brought to life. I’m ashamed to say I
still don’t know the screen writer’s name. Sigh.
Okay, it’s
time for true confession. I didn’t enjoy Mackinac Island. I know, I know that’s
blasphemy, but I’m into truth telling even though so many of you said you love
it to pieces. Sorry, I didn’t. Maybe I’ve just super saturated myself in travel
and can’t stand seeing yet another fort and pioneer rooms with lumpy beds and hurricane
lamps all around. Yikes! Did I say that out loud?
Today we’re
taking 5 (that’s movie talk) and reexamining our priorities, which for now are
the “cowgirl museum” in Fort Worth, Texas and a slice of pie for Frank in Pietown,
New Mexico. Between now and then, maybe I’ll achieve an attitude adjustment.
That’s it for now. “Catch you on the flip side” (that’s movie dialogue from another
favorite, Proof of Life).
First Officer’s Entry:
It’s 117
degrees in Phoenix, and we’re not there.
Instead we spent the day on balmy Mackinac Island with 15,000 of our
closest acquaintances. Our carriage
driver said that’s the average daily visitor count at this highest of the high
season, but even so the island absorbed us just fine.
We made the trip from “Mackinaw” to “Mackinac”
via the Star Line Hydro-Jet Ferry, which was an experience all by itself. I think the captain must have been a retired
“swift boat” driver because he loved to lay that sucker over on its side and
make the rooster tail spray the folks on the back deck.
The island
has no bridge to it and no motorized vehicles are allowed on it. All transport is by horse, horse carriage,
horse cart, bicycle, and the traditional American tourist footwear, flip-flops.
Our carriage
tour took us about eight miles around the humorously narrated main areas of the
island. The two highlights for us were
(for me) the revolutionary Fort Mackinac and (for CKT) the Grand Hotel. Actually, the Grand was on both of our “primary
objective” lists as we’ve wanted to see it up close and institutional ever
since the movie “Somewhere in Time” was filmed there. We love that movie. Netflix it and don’t miss it even if you can.
End Log
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