Best of Your resource for planning your trip on Mackinac Island 2011

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Welcome to “The Best of Mackinac Island” from Tra- Mackinac Island became one of the nation's favored verse, ’s Magazine. This free down- summer resort destinations during the Victorian era. load about one of Michigan’s most storied regions is the Tourists arrived on large excursion boats from Chicago, perfect resource for planning your trip Up North. Wheth- and Cleveland seeking the cooler weather on er you prefer the popular tourist attractions or meander- Mackinac Island. More than a century later Mackinac ing off the beaten path, Mackinac Island delivers what Island still evokes its romantic past. In large part this is you want in a great Up North Vacation! due to the absence of automobiles. The island is acces- We’ve included activities to suit every interest—a bike sible only by boat or plane. Once on the island, visitors ride through Mackinac Island’s lush interior, a quiet and residents travel by foot, bicycle or horse-drawn car- butterfly garden, a lighthouse cruise. And since no vaca- riage. There are only 600 year-round Mackinac Island tion is complete without sampling great local fare, we’ve residents. They share the island with more than a mil- included a few restaurant picks so you won’t go hungry. lion visitors each year and some 500 horses in summer. Getting Around the Island

After you've arrived either by ferry Chambers, that petitioned the Vil- Find the Pink Pony For a Lovely Break or airplane on Mackinac Island, lage of Mackinac Island to ban the you'll immediately note the sound automobile as the "horseless car- A perennial Island favorite the of one of the island's most unique riage" startled the horses. Pink Pony Bar & Grill is open for attractions--there are no cars, truck Descendants of the founding car- breakfast, lunch and dinner. Wheth- or trains on Mackinac Island. Most riage men still actively manage the er you want to fuel up before setting of the sights of Mackinac Island are company. Today Mackinac Island out on the day’s adventures or you an easy walk from the ferry docks. Carriage Tours, Inc. is the world's need to take a midday break from But to truly see all the wonders in- largest, oldest and continually oper- touring and shopping the Pink Po- side the 8 mile circumference, you'll ated horse and buggy livery, with ap- ny’s menus (lunch served from 11:15 want to hire a carriage or pedal a proximately 100 freight and passen- ‘til 4:30) have a wide variety sure to bike. You can also tour the waters ger carriages put in motion by more please everyone in your party. around the island by boat. than 400 horses! The Pink Pony’s bar is considered Sightseeing the elegant way—sit by many to be THE hot spot on the Take a Carriage Tour back and relax while your horse- Island. It’s easy to see why the Pink drawn carriage tours the Island’s Pony Bar & Grill’s patio is often For a trip back in time experience most popular sites including Grand named Michigan’s Best Outdoor the history, charm and beauty of Hotel and Arch Rock during a 1 hour Patio. With outstanding views—the Mackinac Island from the comfort of and 45 minute tour. Sight Seeing rolling tide of the Straits and the a carriage. tours begin May 1st and continue comings and goings of the ferries— Carriage men officially began until October 24th. Prices start at it’s a great spot to relax with a cool providing tours of the Island in 1869 $23 for adults and $9 for children. libation. when the first city carriage license Top off your romantic wedding was issued. In 1948, the carriage with a dreamy carriage ride after men officially established Mackinac you tie the knot. Wedding Carriage Island Carriage Tours, Inc. rides range from $250-$450 per The founders of Mackinac Island hour. Carriage Tours have had a very Of course, the carriage company prominent role in making Mackinac can customize a private tour for Island Michigan's most popular tour- you, as well. Private tours seat eight ist attraction. It was the carriage guests and range from $100-$200 per men, led by their president, Thomas hour. Getting around the island

Pedaling around the Island

Pedaling has a lot of power on an www.arnoldline.com/bike_rental. sulas. island with no motorized vehicles! htm) Pedal along toward the island’s Don't worry, you don't have to haul • Mackinac Island Bike Shop (http:// southwest lobe to spot some of Mack- your bike to the Island. Rent a bike bikemackinac.com/) inac Island’s most famous features. from one of Mackinac Island’s six • Mackinac Wheels (http://www. Arch Rock, a stand of fragile brecci- rental venues and enjoy the natu- mackinacwheels.com/) ated limestone, is instantly recogniz- ral beauty at your own pace! Bike • Mission Point Bike Rental (web able and a popular photo-opp. Sev- rentals start at $5 per hour. Single site not available) eral winding bike trails and carriage speed, tandems, mountain bikes, • Orr-Kid's Bike Shop (http://www. roads, most of them paved, lead back kids’ bikes, trailer carts and more mackinacbikes.com/) to another famous limestone tower: are all waiting for you. Half day, • Ryba Bike Center (http://www. the pockmarked and craggy Sugar whole day and sunset rentals are rybabikes.com/) Loaf, a ritual burial site of the is- also available. land’s early Native American inhab- It’s easy to rent bicycles from the Off the Beaten Path: Biking the itants, juts up 75 feet into the air at many bike rental shops available on Interior of Mackinac Island a horseshoe in the pathway. the Island. They’re just a few short steps from the ferry docks. (Confirm For a woodsy escape, ride up the Thinking Ahead to Dinner? this is true) Not only are the bikes center of the island, past Fort Macki- easily accessible but Mackinac Is- nac, to Garrison Road. Be ready Why not pedal to Mary’s Bistro at land State Park (http://www.macki- to pop the kickstand and ramble the west end of Mackinac Island’s nacparks.com/mackinac-island-state- around historic sites. Along the way, historic downtown. Think relaxed park/) offers more than 70 miles of you’ll come across old stone-walled dining--chicken pot pies, and sirloin biking trails through 2500 acres of Protestant and Catholic cemeter- with horseradish sauce and grilled boreal forest, so you won’t be bored ies, Skull Cave and the battlefield- bananas. Grab a seat on the back on your bike. M-185, for example, is turned-golf course, Wawashkamo. patio to watch the ferries zip in and the state highway that circles the Garrison Road dead-ends at Lake out of the harbor. 906-847-9911, Island. It’s a pretty, and fairly level, Shore Boulevard, where you’re treat- mackinacmarysbistro.com. 8-mile bike ride around the Island’s ed to a panorama of the spectacular scenic shoreline. five-mile that links • Lakeside Bicycle Rental (http:// Michigan’s Lower and Upper Penin- Getting around the island

LighthouseLighthouse CruiseCruise

Skim past the life-saving lights Cruises to the east wind past Get a Quick Bite Back On Dry Land that prevent many a shipwreck in Mackinac Island, Round Island and the Mackinac Straits on 3 or 4-hour Bois Blanc Island and their respec- Sidle up to a window seat lighthouse cruises on Shepler’s Ferry tive lighthouses, as well as the Poe at the Pizza Palace and order line. Departing several times a week Reef and Fourteen Foot Shoal lights up the thin-crust Shipwreck from Shepler’s dock in Mackinac and up the Cheboygan River to Special in honor of your City, the cruises either shoot west view the Range lights. Westbound lighthouse-loaded afternoon. into or east through cruises promise up-close views of the 316 E. Central Ave. Macki- . Try to book your reser- lights at the Old Mackinac Point, naw City vation in advance, as prime seats on St. Helena Island, White Shoals MackinawsPizzaPalace.com the top deck are filled in the order in and Gray’s Reef. Car-sized boulders 231-436-5462 which reservations are taken. and a ribbon of shallow green water Volunteers from the signal danger for anyone getting too Lighthouse Keepers Association close to the abandoned Waugoshance narrate the cruises and share facts Shoal Light, but the captain gets near about the 100-million ton Mackinac enough to show off the lighthouse’s Bridge, the Straights of Mackinac crib. Built of interlocking stone and the history of each lighthouse instead of concrete like its neighbors, spotted on the cruise. You’re also the crib gives Waugoshance a castle- likely to see a few of the hulking like appearance. For more informa- freighters that regularly traverse the tion and to make reservations visit Great Lakes, hauling limestone from www.sheplersferry.com Rogers City to Chicago. One can hit the highlights all in one day, or savor the genteel pace of a time gone by and find enough to enjoy for an extended stay. His- tory, sports, natural phenomenon, music--every turn on Mackinac Island shares a new delight.

What To See and Do On Mackinac Island

Fort Mackinac made it … Guess why? Read more about this story of adventure, disaster, Kids and history buffs alike will want to include a visit to deception and treason at: http://www.mynorth.com/My- Fort Mackinac for a glimpse 19th century daily life. Expect North/May-2010/Were-Mackinac-Island-Explorers-the- 1780's soldier re-enactors, hourly rifle and cannon firings, First-to-Look-for-the-Northwest-Passage/ soldiers’ life tours, a court martial re-enactment, live bugle music and more. Explore the 14 original buildings includ- Your Thumbs Could Go Kaboom?! ing a hospital, soldiers’ barracks, schoolhouse and quar- termaster’s storehouse. The kids will love the hands-on You might be chosen to help fire the cannon at Fort exhibits, interactive displays and Victorian-era games. Mackinac. If you do, make sure to put on your thumb And be sure to share these fun—and sometimes gory— guard—imagine a sock for your thumb. The cannons fire facts with the young ones: blanks today (so your thumb won’t be in danger), but if Move over Lewis and Clark: John Carver tried to find the cannon were firing a ball and you weren’t wearing the Northwest Passage before you did—from Mackinac. your thumb guard, that kaboom! might send more soar- People once believed that you could paddle a canoe from ing into the air than just the cannon ball!! all the way to the Pacific Ocean! In 1766 a party set out to do just that. But, um, they never What to see and do

A Lovely Day of Lacrosse Turns gunshot at the fort in 1822, there? They’ve found old buttons there, Deadly for the British. many people believed your stom- too. How do you think those got there? ach mechanically ground up the Can you think of a better plan for food you ate (big teeth in there?!). taking over Fort Michilimackinac The wounded soldier's hole in his Respite with a View-Fort Mackinac than the way Ojibwe and Sauk Na- stomach would not heal. It stayed Tea Room tive Americans did in 1763? The a gaping hole. While this was hor- Native Americans began a game rible for the patient, Dr. Beaumont Housed in Fort Mackinac’s original of baggatiway (similar to lacrosse) saw it as an opportunity to learn stone 1780 Officers Quarters, the outside the fort walls, then threw about how the stomach works. He oldest public building in the state of the ball over the walls—pretend- dropped a piece of meat tied onto Michigan, The Fort Mackinac Tea ing that it happened accidentally. a string through the hole in the Room is a delightful and scenic set- When the British soldiers opened the wounded man’s stomach, and with tings on Mackinac Island to enjoy gate to let them retrieve the ball, the that, Dr. Beaumont proved that food lunch. After touring this historic Native American women who’d been is digested through gastric juices. Be site, relax afterwards with soups, watching the game pulled weapons sure to visit Dr. Beaumont's house salads and sandwiches and an excep- out from under their blankets and on Mackinac Island. Read the tional view of downtown Mackinac handed them to the warriors. Read whole story with colorful details at: Island. Sit under yellow umbrellas the blow-by-blow (sometimes gory) http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/ overlooking the details in Deadly Lacrosse Game May-2010/Deadly-Lacrosse-Game- and quaff a rich milkshakes topped at Fort Michilimackinac in 1763 at: on-Mackinac-Island-at-Fort-Michili- with a turban of fresh whipped http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/ mackinac-in-1763/ cream. Admission to Fort Mackinac May-2010/Deadly-Lacrosse-Game- Is Fort Mackinac haunted? Some is required. Indoor seating available on-Mackinac-Island-at-Fort-Michili- people think so. Rumor has it that also. Luncheon is served between mackinac-in-1763/ toys put away in the Officer’s Stone 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Reopens Also, British trader Henry Alexan- Quarters at night are strewn ev- for the season on May 5, 2011. der hid in the Langlade house at Fort erywhere in the morning and that For more information about visit- Michilimackinac during the Native strange apparitions resembling ing Colonial Michilimackinac in American attack of the fort in 1763. young soldiers haunt the guard Mackinaw City and Fort Mackinac Once you’ve seen the house, imagine house. Ghost hunters have even on Mackinac Island contact the hiding there. Could you have thought traveled here to check it out. What Mackinac State Historic Parks: 231- of a better hiding place? do you think? 436-4100, mackinacparks.com. So you think YOU have a stom- What's hidden beneath the Fort? achache? Before Dr. Beaumont, the Archeologists once dug up a petrified Fort Mackinac doctor, looked inside chicken’s egg in the old latrine pit at the stomach of a man wounded by a Fort Mackinac. How do you think it got What to see and do

Grand Hotel

No trip to Mackinac Island is com- Note: non-hotel guests must pay (of course) a romance movie shot plete without a visit to Grand Hotel. $10 to enter the hotel or stroll the on location, As Time Goes By (from There's no place quite like it. On an veranda, unless dining at Grand Casablanca), Moon River and Blue island without cars, the atmosphere Hotel. Hotel guests must observe the Danube Waltz. at the Grand is more leisurely and hotel’s dress code at dinner—tie and Tea is included in the price of genteel. Opened in 1887 the Grand jacket for gents and skirt or pantsuit your room if you’re a guest of Grand boasts the world’s longest veranda for ladies. Hotel. Otherwise tea is $25 each and (660 feet). Perhaps you spotted it as includes tea, plus sherry or cham- you approached the island by ferry. Tea at Grand Hotel pagne. Younger guests may choose Be sure to allow some time to hot chocolate and sparkling juice. stroll through the gardens. They are For a pinnacle point in any special Shortly after you order the staff will replete with century-old lilac, white afternoon on Mackinac Island, try bring you great trays of teapots, cedar and maple trees, perennials having tea at Grand Hotel. You are glasses and plates of tiny sandwiches and annuals. Thanks to the ideal cli- greeted with warmth inside Grand and sweets. Even with the delicate mate of a Mackinac summer, during Hotel. After climbing the red carpet bites, the spread seems gluttonous. any one visit you may see more than steps, the doorman waves you inside The savory bites may include a vari- 150 varieties of flowers, including ge- with a deep bow. The smiling staff ety of tea sandwich (think cucumber, ranium, rose, peony, coleus, garden greets you with warmth and gen- egg salad, prosciutto and cheese), heliotrope, cosmos, lily, daisy, and tility while they set out a glorious a stuffed mushroom cap, smoked begonia. The gardening staff plants display of food and drink. salmon. Sweets may include a more than 125,000 bedding annu- The lobby area has many groups chocolate-dipped strawberry, creme- als each year and one ton of bulbs in of colorful wing chairs, velvety filled pastries, chocolate mousse, and the fall, including 25,000 tulips and couches and highly polished coffee a fruit tart--our favorite. 15,000 daffodils to create the many tables. Sink into one and wait for the While you may be inspired to dress gardens on Grand Hotel grounds. tuxedoed waiters to take your order up, many people enjoy tea in casual Grand Hotel has been used as anytime between 3:30 pm and 5:00 daytime attire coming in from a day a film location including the 1947 pm. There's no need to rush to be at of biking, hiking and horseback rid- movie This Time For Keeps starring the start of tea; arrive when you will ing. However you decide to arrive, Jimmy Durante and Esther Wil- and enjoy the civility of a custom you're sure to leave with a memory liams and the 1980 film Somewhere long vanished from today's busy to cherish. in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, schedules. Take a video tour of Grand Hotel Jane Seymour and Christopher Expect background music befitting on Mackinac Island: http://www. Plummer. That movie now has a the mood of the island. Often it is a mynorth.com/My-North/Septem- huge following, with a fan club that harpist whose repertoire includes ber-2008/Grand-Hotel/ meets at Grand Hotel each October. the theme to Somewhere in Time What to see and do It's AlwaysButterfly Sunny Inside Mackinac Island's Houses

Butterflies and bugs, what could be better? A fun whole family can enjoy for an affordable price. The But- learning environment for the entire family, Mackinac terfly House is located on McGulpin Street behind his- Island's butterfly houses are one of the few places in toric Ste. Anne's Church, a short walk from downtown, Michigan where visitors can walk amidst exotic but- past famous Fort Mackinac and the beautiful marina, terflies from all over the world. And there are two on towards Mission Point Resort. $4 for children, $8.50 for Mackinac Island! adults.

The Original Butterfly House of Mackinac Island Wings of Wonder Butterfly House With classical music and falling water in the back- ground The Butterfly House of Mackinac Island’s fairy Wings of Wonder is located just past Grand Hotel at tale room is nothing short of magical. Witness up close Surrey Hills Carriage Museum. Many carriage tours more than 500 butterflies from four continents as they include a stop at the Wings of Mackinac. By bike or foot, flutter among the fragrant flower blossoms. To encour- travel a short distance up the hill past Grand Hotel and age butterfly interaction we recommend you wear light the Carriage Tour barns on the right side to the beauti- colored clothing and pretty scents. The Butterfly House ful yellow building with the attached greenhouse/conser- shares its quarters with fish, turtles and toads, too. Keep vatory. Ask the friendly staff or consult the informative your eye on the nature pond, and you’ll be sure to spot signs to learn more about these incredible insects. Or them swimming. Although they are in cages, insects in find a spot to relax, listen to the instrumental music the adjacent Insect World provide more family entertain- and view the butterflies as you enjoy the conservatory. ment. Boasting loads of giant insects, Insect World gives Finish your visit in the gift shop where you'll find many you a chance to study up close the world’s heaviest bug. souvenir related gifts, a large selection of books for all So, whether you’re into the elegance of fluttering butter- ages and butterfly inspired gifts and jewelry. Call ahead flies, the shells of fresh water turtles or the camouflage for group discounts or to book your wedding in the Wings of exotic insects, The Butterfly House has something the of Wonder conservatory. $3 for children, $6 for adults. What to see and do

ArchArch RockRock

This dramatic and extremely rare its own way, Arch Rock still offers fear. Once you round the corner to geologic formation of brachiated visitors a huge dose of beauty and the backyard, you’ll spy the lovely limestone, rises 146 feet above the awe. garden bistro. Choose from umbrella water. That’s about 15 stories. Brec- To get to Arch Rock, follow Arch tables or sit under the warming rays cia limestone is very rare as a mate- Rock Road east past the fort. of the sun. The fare ranges from rial forming natural bridges in the $8-$14 with salads, sandwiches and Great Lakes region, and this forma- Quench Your Hiking Hunger at Ice burgers rounding out the menu. The tion was the source of many Native House Bar & Grill staff favorite is the steak Sicilian-- American legends of both reverence shaved ribeye steak served with sau- and fear. The powers that followed Tucked in the back garden of the teed mushrooms and onions, provo- in Michigan recognized the rock was Island House is the Ice House Bar & lone cheese on a baguette. Cold beer unique and protecting it was one of Grill. Enter through the hotel itself served in ice-filled buckets and sweet the deciding factors in naming the or take a short walk up the driveway potato fries are among the choices of Mackinac National Park in 1875, on the left of the house. Walking sides. later becoming the Mackinac Island up, it might seem you’re headed for State Park in 1895. Left to evolve in the maintenance shop, but don’t What to see and do

Golf a Historic Course on Mackinac

Tee off at Wawashkamo on Mackinac Island, which opened in 1898 and Island is Michigan's oldest continuously run golf course. Pull up in a horse-drawn wagon, rent a hickory stick and a gutta-percha ball (invented circa 1850) and try your luck. Designed by Scottish architect and two-time U.S. Open winner Alex B. Smith, the course presents such quirks as a four-foot-high bunker that stretches completely across the center of one fairway, narrow fairways designed to magnify the effects of slicing a ball, tiny greens and the “choco- late drops”—grass-covered mounds of rock that golf course builders couldn’t remove by horse. Come ready for battle—fitting, since the British and Ameri- cans fought on this ground in 1814. Open for public play (modern gear wel- come, too). 906-847-3871, WAWASHKAMO.COM. What to see and do

VISIT Anne's Secret Tablet

Take an off-the-beaten-path tour writer Constance Fenimore Woolson. the wild larches the tall to a shrine in the woods celebrat- Your bonus reward: a magnificent spires of the spruces ing 19th-century writer Constance view over the harbor and the Straits. bossed with lighter green, Fenimore Woolson. About 180 paces Once you’ve oohed and aahed over the gray pines and the off Huron Road running in front of the landscape turn your attention to rings of the juniper. Hear the Victorian East Bluff cottages, an the bronze plaque, titled “Anne”. It the rustling and the laugh- inconspicuous sign points westward illustrates in bas relief a young wom- ing of the forest and the toward “Anne’s Tablet.” Follow the an reaching for a spruce branch, her waves of the waters on the trail through cedar and ironwood loose-fitting dress swirling around pebbly shores. and basswood, over limestone rills her. Accompanying the illustration covered in myrtle. In June and are poetic lines from Fenimore Wool- The text at the bottom of the July, watch for a million, hand-high, son’s popular first novel, Anne, the plaque reads, “In memoriam, Con- floating yellow star blossoms of the first half of which is set on Mackinac stance Fenimore Woolson, 1840– northern yellow lungwort. You’ll Island: 1894, Author-Traveler, who has arrive at one of Mackinac Island’s expressed her love of this island and remaining secret places: a dell con- She loved the island and its beauty in the words of her hero- taining a shrine to the 19th-century the island trees; she loved ine Anne,” dated 1916. The shrine What to see and do

begs this question: why in 1916 As well, Constance suffered many loved sites might be lost, conspired would someone memorialize a writer documented bouts of depression. to place commemorative plaques in who, though her fame among her Whatever the cause, the rebuff from spectacular locations to frustrate contemporaries ran deep, is remem- James sent her reeling into despair. future construction. Four such bered, until recently, only here? We’ll never know what they wrote plaques, including Woolson’s, were Her family had visited Mackinac to each other—they both burned the erected in the 1910’s, and each still from Cleveland several times in her letters. What we do know is that, in stands. youth, early tourists staying at the 1894, she fell—by accident but more Today Constance Fenimore Wool- old Indian agency. Her memories likely by design—to her death from son is undergoing an inspiring from those days infuse the beauty her rented villa in Venice. renaissance. Her once best-selling of Anne. But she spent most of her Unlucky in love, she was hugely novel, Anne, has been reprinted and writing life in St. Augustine, Florida, successful in her time as poet, travel sells briskly at the Island Bookstore. and Europe. writer and novelist, selling far more Fenimore Woolson’s personal life books than James. Yet while James’s Yankee Rebel Tavern was full of romantic heartbreak. star remains among the highest in She herself may have fallen in love the literary firmament, Woolson’s The Yankee Rebel is located on As- with a soldier at the fort, as does her disappeared with her death. tor Street in the heart of downtown character Anne, only to have him Except on Mackinac Island. In and just a short walk from all boat stolen away by a French-Indian vix- 1916, her wealthy nephew, Cleve- lines, churches and most lodging fa- en. Later, while living and writing land industrialist and East Bluff cilities. It offers spacious seating and in Europe, she set her sights on the cottager Samuel Mather, donated is open daily for lunch and dinner unattainable “Master” of American funds to memorialize his aunt. But, offering an eclectic choice of regional letters, Henry James. They corre- according to island historian Frank favorites of appetizers, soups entrées sponded daily for years, and shared Strauss, there was a second motive. and desserts. a villa in Florence for two months in The Mackinac Island State Park This video tour takes you to the 1887. But James was unable to re- Commission, then as now hungry Yankee Rebel Tavern on Mackinac spond to her romantically—perhaps for revenue, had leased land in the Island, an island mainstay where due to a closeted homosexuality, or 1880’s and 1890’s where the great families are welcome: a private deformity, or, as he always cottages of the East and West bluffs http://www.mynorth.com/ said, his heart held room only for were built and still stand. Some My-North/September-2008/ love of his art. islanders, worried that more be- Yankee-Rebel-Tavern/ Remember Your Trip

After all your island adventures, painted turtle outside it's doors-- Main Street. Did the Island's history you will most likely find your self don't worry if the little ones scram- capture your interest? or perhaps downtown before you board the ferry ble on top--this great turtle has seen you'd like to read Michigan authors? for the mainland. Save some time it's share of riders. or pick up something light to read to mill about the shops and pick up on the beach, like the latest copy some sweets to take home to family Take Home Sweet Lilacs of Traverse, Northern Michigan's and friends. Magazine. You'll find all that and Lilacs and Lace offers a wide more wrapped up with a cup of coffee Things for Kids variety of unique Mackinac memo- and a helpful smile. rabilia as well as Victorian items. It There are many wonderful shops is related to the Victorian Summer Doud's Grocery where you can get the little guys a Gallery where one can find original toy reminiscent of the trip. Check oils, watercolors and acrylics by local Really, a grocery? It is Michigan's out Great Turtle Toys, a store with artists as well as hand blown glass oldest family-owned grocery. Five a dynamic environment where kids and hand made jewelry. If original generations of the Doud family have and adults are encouraged to play! art is out of your budget, pick up one provided groceries to the people of The music is lively, the décor is of the Lilac Festival posters. historic Mackinac Island, including bright, and our atmosphere is all fresh meat cut daily, fresh Great about FUN! We sell interactive toys Lakes fish, organic foods and local for all ages, and each product is un- Read More About The Island, On produce and gourmet cheeses. The packaged and ready to be sampled! The Island year 2009 marked the 125th year The flagship store is located in the of Doud's service to the community. lobby of the Lilac Tree Hotel mall on The Island Book Store has been They even deliver! main street between the major ferry on Mackinac Island for 30 years docks. You'll know it by the large inside the Lilac Tree Inn entrance on Remember your trip

World'sWorld's GreatestGreatestFudge You smell it the minute your ferry docks at Mackinac boils, watch as the fudge makers pour it into a metal Island: the warm, sweet, intoxicating scent of fudge frame set on a marble slab until it thickens. It’s when wafting from the island's many fudge shops. Follow your they remove the metal frame that the fun really begins. nose down Main Street to the world's greatest fudge. The makers stroke the batter back and forth across the Clustered in the small downtown of an island whose marble, working first with a large wooden spade and total circumference is only 8 miles, Mackinac's fudge- then a smaller one, until the fudge sets in a loaf. Finally, making industry dates back to 1887 when island candy- measuring by the eye, the fudge maker cuts the loaf into maker Newton Murdick discovered that the combination half-pound slices. A professional, they say on the island, of the island's characteristically low-barometric pres- is correct to within two-hundredths of a pound. sure and the marble slab he used to set his hand-dipped Your only remaining task? Pick your flavors. Heav- chocolates contributed to perfect fudge. enly Goo from Murray's Hotel Fudge Company? Ryba's In the 1960's Harry Ryba brought his fudge shops to Chocolate No Nut? Triple Chocolate from May's? The the Island, and showman that he was, set his fudge mak- possibilities are ers in front of a glass window so everyone could watch endless, and it the tantalizing operation. Since then, it's become tradi- doesn't really tion among the fudge companies to create their sweet matter. If the treat in full view of passersby. fudge is made Stop in front of the big plate glass window—or better on Mackinac yet, slip inside the door—of any fudge shop to inhale Island, it has to the heady, sweet air as the sugar, heavy cream, butter be good. or other shortening, chocolate and other flavorings cook in a shiny 25-gallon copper kettle. When the mixture