August 1, 2015. Mackinac Island and Sixteen Miles.

August 1, 2015.  Mackinac Island and Sixteen Miles.  A beautiful day on Mackinac Island, it was.  The temperature was in the low 70s and the sky looked as it appears in the pictures, above. 

We outsmarted 99.9% of the tourists by taking the 7:30 AM ferry to the island.  That is the ferry taken by most of the workers on the island and way too early for most tourists.  The streets were empty when we arrived and the eight-mile road around the island was ours and ours almost alone.  Our first lap around the island was serene, quiet and lovely. 

After the first trip around the island, we had breakfast at Seabiscuit, named for one of the greatest racing horses ever.  We have eaten there several times before, but always lunch.  Breakfast was delicious with eggs, hash browns, wheat toast and bacon marinated in molasses. 

No trip to Mackinac is complete without a stop at one of the dozen or more fudge shops.  We visited Murray's because that was our introduction to Mackinac fudge, twenty years ago.  We stopped at the Mission Point lawn, selected a couple of Aderiondeck chairs and sampled our purchase. 

By 12:30 the island was teaming with people.  The streets were lined with bicycles parked by people who were shopping or eating.  We began a second lap around the island, this time in reverse.  The reverse route turned out to be a pretty good idea.  Most of the traffic was coming from the opposite direction.  Still, the trip was far from relaxing.  Bikers came at us in waves.  Groups of five, ten and twenty bikers washed over the center line.  People would stop in the traffic lanes, ignoring the effect on other bikers.  It was chaos. 

July is not the time to visit Mackinac.  If you do, plan to arrive early and depart by early afternoon.  We had a wonderful time when the island was ours.  It was not fun when hoards of other bikers were traveling the same roads we tried to use. 

Many of the pictures will look familiar to you.  There is the fort, the Grand Hotel, Mission Point and Main Street.  If you have followed the blog, you've seen them before.  However, I am struck by the beauty of the island each time I visit.  I hope some of that comes through in the pictures above. 

We are uncertain whether we'll return tomorrow.  At present, the weather forecast calls for rain.  We'll check it again and decide later.  You will know when you read tomorrow's blog entry.  I know you can hardly wait to find out, but that's the best I can do.