Mackinac Island

Today is Mike’s 67th birthday and we celebrated it by going sightseeing. This morning we drove into Mackinaw City and parked at the Arnold Transit Ferry dock. We boarded the 9:30 ferry for Mackinac Island. We chose seats on the forward open deck of the catamaran.

From Mackinac Island

After about a 15 minute trip we reached the dock at Mackinac Island. The ticket booth for the Mackinac Island Carriage Tours was across the street from the docks and we purchased tickets ($23.50 each) for the 10:05 carriage tour.

We started out on a carriage pulled by 2 Percherons named Gunnar and Bob. Our route took us by some of the historic homes near the shopping area, The Grand Hotel (seen in the movie “Somewhere in Time”), the Little Stone Church and the carriage barns. We learned that there are about 400 carriage horses on the Island. The carriage horses are in teams of 2 or 3 and the teams are always kept together (even when they are in the stable or pasture) and are always harnessed in the same order. In the winter the horses are sent by ferry to the mainland where they spend the winter on farms. In the spring they return to the Island by ferry and are re-shod and examined before returning to work.

The first part of our tour ended at the Surry Hills Museum where there are gift shops, food vendors and historical carriages are on display. The Wings of Mackinac Butterfly Conservatory is also located there, but we didn’t visit it. After having some donuts and coffee, we boarded a carriage pulled by 3 Belgian horses to continue our tour. We rode past St. Anne’s Cemetery, the Post Cemetery, Skull Cave and over to Arch Rock where we got off the carriage to take photos.

From Mackinac Island

We continued on our carriage tour to Fort Mackinac where we left the carriage tour to visit the fort. We entered the fort along the Avenue of Flags where we were greeted by a U. S. Army re-enactor. We bought our tickets ($10.50 each) and entered the fort and visited the restored buildings. Fort Mackinac (originally named Fort Michilimackinac)was moved from the mainland (now Mackinaw City) to the Island in 1780 by the British. The Americans took control in 1796 and in July 1812 (War of 1812) the British captured the fort. After the War of 1812 the fort was returned to the U. S. and remained active until 1895. At 12:30 we attended the Drill and Rifle Firing on the Parade Field. The U. S. Army re-enactors had the spectators join them in practicing the drill maneuvers (no photos of us marching, sorry).

From Mackinac Island

After visiting the fort we walked down to the town and visited Marquette Park, Mission Bark Chapel, the McGulpin House and walked through the shopping area on Main (Huron) Street. We went back to the docks in time to board the 2 p.m. catamaran back to the mainland and Mackinaw City and back to the RV.