Thursday July 28th - Day 4

No riding today but a very good day.

Joe and Sally picked us up in their car at our motel and we headed north to the Forty Mile Point Lighthouse.  Beside the lighthouse, there was the wheel house from the Steamship Calcite.  It had been beautifully restored to it's original state by the local volunteers.  The Calcite was, in it's day the largest limestone freighter on the Great Lakes.  It was owed and operated by US Steel, who operated the limestone quarry here in Rogers City.  The limestone, a critical ingredient in making steel, was then shipped to Conneaut, Ohio where it was loaded on trains and sent to the Mon-Valley steel facilities.

Soon we were headed further north to Mackinac City where we had a lunch of locally caught whitefish.  After lunch we boarded the catamaran ferry to take us over to Mackinac Island.  The island is a beautiful lush mound in the Straits of Mackinac, which joins Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

The Island was first settled by the British and then signed over the the United States after the Treaty of Ghent.  More than 80% of the island is a Michigan State Park.  The area that is populated is dominated by stately Victorian homes built in the 1800's.

The island allows no gasoline motorized vehicles. All transportation is by horseback, horse and buggy, horse drawn carriage, bicycle or walking. The only exceptions are Fire, EMS and electric mobility scooters . Even the police are only on foot, bike or horseback.  There are over 600 horses on the island during the summer and only 500 permanent, year round residents.

The locals call the tourists, "Fuggies" because one of the major attractions on the main street are the fudge making shops.  The big "Tourist Trap" is the Grand Hotel.  It boasts the world largest covered porch and is overly exclusive.  With room rates ranging from $300 to $1500 a night, they have the nerve to charge tourists $10 to come onto the property to look around.

Our first stop was at the butterfly display where hundreds of the colorful winged creatures were flitting around.  If you stood still, there was a very good chance that one or two would land on you somewhere.

A Victorian summer "Cottage"

Later, we opted to take a carriage tour that allowed us to see all of the exquisite homes, including the Governor's summer home, the modest homes of the locals and the dense forests covered with cedar, birch and oak trees.

After about six hours of walking, touring and shopping, we boarded the catamaran for the cruise back to the mainland.

Another terrific day in Northern Michigan.  I could get used to this place!