Did ya’ miss me?!
Well, anyway, the highlight of my 3 week summer break was the 5 days my brother, SiL, and I spent in a cabin by Lake Huron adjacent to Mackinaw City and Island. It is so damn beautiful and peaceful up there; pristine in fact! We never had to use the AC and, in fact, had to close the windows one night because it got into the forties. A native told me that, when tourist season ends, there are less than 800 permanent residents in Mackinaw City and even fewer on the island.
Did you rent a bike? Great way to circumnavigate the island. We also explored inland and found the “crack or fissure” in the middle of the island.
Great spot to visit, touristy yes but still retains a bit of mystery and magic imo.
Nice! I love Northern Michigan, and I’ve been all over that area. You’re going to have to do better than that one paragraph breakdown, Jasmine! Tell us all about your vaca!!
Yes, that’s the way to go. An old girlfriend and I rented bikes and rode all over the island many years ago. There’s so much history on that island that goes beyond the fudge shops on Main Street, and the island is small enough that you can cover the entire area on bikes. Everybody knows Fort Mackinac on the island, but we rode up to the site of an old makeshift British encampment on the highest spot of the island, where the Brits snuck onto the island during the War of 1812 and fired a cannon down onto Fort Mackinac from the high ground. Now it’s just a flat spot on a ridge with no touristy stuff anywhere, and a fantastic view. Would make a great picnic spot.
Yes and, yes it is! We also took the one hour fifty minute carriage tour. It was lovely, and it was also informative. The butterfly conservatory was breath taking. As we left, there was a lady sitting by the exit. No one could leave until they were checked for “high jackers”, butterflies that attach themselves to people. Sure enough, there was a huge and beautiful butterfly attached to the back of my hair! Busted little guy! LOL
Well, the beauty began as soon as we left Indiana and headed north through Michigan. Everything was a lush green due to all the rain in this region over the last couple of weeks or so. Dense forests and rolling hills galore! There is a company called, “Cabins of Mackinaw”, and we rented a cabin with two beautiful bedrooms, a kitchenette with a fridge and microwave, a cable TV system with all the HBO channels, and an AC/Heater that we never used. There was only one bathroom, but it had a Jacuzzi in it. Since it was also downstairs, my brother and SiL took that bedroom while I was sentenced to having to take a walk from upstairs. LOL
Mackinaw City should have air quotes because the permanent residents number fewer than 800. The many others are seasonal for the tourist trade. The real action was Mackinac Island. We took took the one hour and fifty minute tour first so that we would get the basic layout and know what we would be seeing later via bicycle. There are charming specialty shops galore in both the city and on the island, and we toured a ton of them.
One day was spent traveling to Soo Junction and taking the Tahquamenon Falls Riverboat Tour & the Famous Toonerville Trolley It was remote and gorgeous and good exercise! 
Was going to ask if you got up to the U.P. I love it up there-- so beautiful and remote. As soon as you cross the bridge you can tell you’re in a whole different area geologically from mostly flat lower Michigan.
It sounds like you like to vacation a bit more comfortably, with amenities, but tip for the future: if you (or anybody else reading) ever want to get back there and want to rough it a little more, a hidden gem is Wilderness State Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan, just on the other side of the Straits of Mackinac. You can rent cabins there on the shore that are rustic-- beds, wood-burning fireplaces, a hand pump and an on-site outhouse of your own, and that’s about it. The cabins are spaced far enough part in the woods that you don’t see any neighbors, you feel like you’re in the middle of the, well, wilderness. Yet it’s a short drive to Mackinaw City and everything else, so it’s the best of both worlds. You get a distant, but nice, view of the bridge from the shore in front of your cabin (click to enlarge and you can make out the bridge)…
Thanks for the info!
“I brought that butterfly from home.”
Uh-Oh, I’m supposed to recognize that quote? Let me cheat and google it!
All I got were links to directions on how to raise monarch butterflies at home. LOL
Isn’t there a place called something like Sleeping Bear dunes around there?
Yep, that’s a cool sandy lakeshore area on the tip of Lower Michigan’s little finger.
I like that I know what you’re talking about!
Really cool. I’m ashamed I don’t know my own state better. I know it’s really beautiful up there. My Grandparents took me to the Tahquamenon falls when I was twelve.
I’m not sure I’ve ever visited Mackinac Island. Maybe when I was little.
Naw, it just popped into mind as something I’d say to the Visitor Inspection Officer.