Mackinac Island

A lovely little oasis of flowers and intimations of bygone luxury. We took the ferry (Ziggy's first boat ride!) to this island which has no cars (the only motorized vehicle above a couple of hp was an ambulance). Tons of bicycles, wagons, horse-drawn carts and buggies, and pedestrians like us.

We fell into a charming seaside patio -- the Carriage House at the Hotel Iroquois -- and had a nice drink sheltered from the madding crowd outside. In retrospect, we should have just stayed there or come back for dinner, but the unimaginative and very pricey menu, along with the rigid seating hours of 6:30 and 8 (we wanted 7 or 7:30) turned us off.

So we wandered through the island, which is a bit like Cape May with its restored Victorian houses. There is a big lovely lawn in front of Fort Mackinac where we joined dozens of other foot-sore tourists in just sitting and looking at the harbor.

The most striking thing about Mackinac Island is the flowers. The entry way into the Carriage House dazzled us with the array of beautiful flowers, but it turns out that is a signature of the island, with every house adorned with potted flowers or beautiful gardens.

Dinner was a disaster. After traipsing around the island and finding most eateries very downscale and crowded, we discovered that we could no longer even get into the Carriage House. We ended up sitting outside without a lake view at something called the Gate House, which claims to belong to the Grand Hotel, the famous old hotel sitting on the bluff of the island. The food was terrible and even the drinks were bad.

The wait for the ferry, which switches from half-hourly to hourly in the evening, seemed long, but all in all it was a delightful little excursion.