Houses of Mackinac

Just to be able to stay in this house I'd want to be governor of Michigan.

What a view from all those windows and those porches!

Oh yes, this house should be mine.

This one is a little cutie too!

And my love for yellow houses is stirred up with all the great ones on the island.

Be still my gingerbread heart!

And mustard with a wrap around porch!

This one should be yellow.

Don't you just totally want to see the house behind this gate?

Here's a little bit.

And a little bit more!

I could live with a green house.

I could live on these porches.

A tiny yellow house with a great upper deck!

The Fort

No trip to Mackinac Island is complete without a visit to the fort.

And the first stop up that hills is the missionary chapel made of bark.  Been there as long as I can remember.

And from there you look up at the fort and take a big breath knowing it's a long climb.

While waiting in line for our tickets about half way up, we came across a big line up of Girl Scouts.

And then they stopped.  Got in formation, and started marching!  I sure never did that as a Girl Scout.  I don't think I would have wanted that but I do miss them wearing green.  Where's the green??

Although it was the last weekend of the lilac festival, that early spring took them all out weeks ago. There were still a few late bloomers around though - you can see one about in the middle of this picture.

And into the fort.

Yep, it was a long climb up.

The "town square" of the fort.

O in the military jail.

Loved this!

One of the officers quarters

Looking out through a hole in the wall used for shooting at the enemy.

See - here you can see the wax guys looking out.  This island was involved in every way from the revolutionary war to the civil war where they house some of the confederate prisoners knowing they couldn't make it off the island and back to the south.  Our own little Alcatraz!

The Horses of the Island

Since this blog IS supposed to be about horses, I took plenty of horse pictures!

This red roan was pulling the popper scooper wagon!  He got to snack on the side of the road when his driver would jump down to scoop poop.

This guy wanted to snack but asphalt doesn't give you much to snack on!

This team would be so beautiful if the left one hadn't just peed in the street!

The line up of horse taxi's waiting for fares or tours.

This wasn't up hill but his team looks like they are working so hard!

This guy was quite the character posing for his picture!

I had thought about taking the girls riding, I've taken out the trail horses on the island several times before, but wasn't sure how O would do on her own.

But then I saw this group coming back wearing shorts and flip flops and no helmets...ugh.

I think this lady in the wagon hitched a ride..

Even the garbage is collected via horse drawn wagon on Mackinac!

Mackinac Island!

Our second full day found us heading north to Mackinac Island.  We made a quick pit stop in Petoskey along the shore for this photo opportunity.

Before long we were in site of the Mackinac Bridge!

We boarded the ferry and a whole bunch of grey hound joined us!  They were so sweet and quiet!  I had never really been around a grey hound before and they are much calmer than I had expected.

They were headed to the island for a parade to promote the grey hound rescue organizations.  All of these dogs were rescued from racing.

These two missed the ferry and came over on the next one.

Oooh! I see the Grand Hotel!

Yup - there it is!

And here I am trailing behind the Dynamic Duo on their tandem bike flying around the island!

Equestrian Girl wanted to explore this cave until she saw a spider.

 We made lots of little stops along the beach to check out the rocks along the shore.

I loved stopping to look at all the houses.

Tradition calls for a picture with the cannon!

O needed a picture too.

I don't remember these docks being on the other side of the island before.

The Dyno Duo!

Then we stopped on the nature trails

The sidewalks really were this crazy slanting all over the place!

The spider looking pine in the middle is really rare - we have one on our property in Mancelona.

Critter home.

More of those crazy board walks.

 The shore line on the far side of the island.

It was a little over cast and actually a bit chilly on the island but perfect weather for bike riding.  On the main land it was HOT.

All over the island there are now stone stacks that weren't there just a few years ago.  I wonder how/why this got so popular?

The famous Arch Rock!

The Girls took these stair up to the top of Arch Rock for a better view.

There were lots of stairs!

Finally to the top!

And what a view!

The look out site!

The shore line from the top of Arch Rock

A view of Arch Rock from the top

No horses?  Really?

Taking a break from all the stairs going DOWN now.

See, going down!

OMG - I'm in another picture!  Thanks O!