We could also see the Grand Hotel, sitting proudly on the island. Built in 1887 (in 3 months!) by 2 rail lines and the Detroit and Cleveland Navigation Co., to promote tourism, she is quite elite. Elite enough to charge between $300 - $4500 per night for rooms and $10 each to anyone who wants to sit on her long porch! The porch is the longest covered porch in the world, so it is proclaimed, and the hotel is the largest summer hotel in the world, but not worth $20 to use just to stand on the porch.
The town looks busy from the water.
No motor vehicles of any type (except a fire truck and an ambulance) are allowed on the island. All transportation is on foot, by bike, or of the horse drawn sort. SO, we went for a horse drawn carriage ride! Here is one of the carriages, claimed to be the highest capacity passenger carriage in the world, pulling up to pick up a group of us to ride through the Mackinac State Park. Most of the horses are Belgian Draft horses, large, powerful, and beautiful. They work 4 hours per day, 6 days per week, for 4 months of the year. For the rest of the months, they are removed from the island and put to pasture to wait out the winter.
One of our stops was at The Arch, a natural arch overlooking Lake Michigan.
Looking carefully in the shallow water below, someone has taken the white rocks and "painted" a sailboat in the edge of the waters.
We stopped at Fort Mackinac, built high on a hill, overlooking Lake Michigan.
Old guardhouses...
Old cannons firing...
Here is the fort from the water side - that's a real walk to get up to it!
To read up on the interesting history of the fort, click here.
Each year, the island and fort host a group of Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts to act as Goodwill Ambassadors to the tourists. The first year they began the program, one of the Boy Scouts was non other than future president Gerald Ford. That event has been immortalized, with good intentions I'm sure, but a bit scary... you'll see...
This morning we left St. Ignace and drove across the Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere, to Luke's old home of Petoskey, MI.
When Luke's parents left Belgium for a new life in the US, they first lived in Petoskey. Luke's dad was the organist in this beautiful church.
After about a year, dad moved on to a different church, but Luke's Nonkel Gust (Uncle Gust) and family moved to the US and took over the organist's position here for over 20 years. This is the house they lived in ...Nonkel Gust, this picture is for you!!!
Luke credits his short time here as a young boy to starting his interest in sailboats. We visited Harbor Springs this afternoon - I think somebody has cast a memorial to Luke and his love of sailboats.
The Odawa Resort and CASINO in Petoskey generously offers free RV spaces for overnight parking in their lot. They even supply free shuttle service from the RV lot to their casino (very clever...).
Of course, we felt obliged to visit, so we went in for the buffet dinner. I am quite proud to say that I spent $1.25 in the quarter slots and won $16! I gave that $16 to Luke and he parlayed it to a grand $19 at the $1 roulette table! The last of the big gamblers, I have to say ---- but we had a lot of fun AND our winnings almost covered our dinner.
We plan to see more of the area tomorrow and then make a bee-line for home.
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