Best of Mackinac Island Your resource for planning your trip on Mackinac Island 2011 0709_TCover.qxp 6/3/09 2:43 PM Page c1 DINE on the WATER | 65 PICKS SUPER SUMMER BOATS BEST BUYS, RENTALS, CRUISES SURF • BIKE • CLIMB Try a new sport Find more ways to get on the water. MyNorth.com Ultimate Foodie Road Trips MyNorth.com plus HARBOR TOWN HOPPING p.38 HORSE SHOWS BY THE BAY p.13 SAVE THE COTTAGE. SAVE THE FAMILY. p.46 $4.50 NORTHERN REAL ESTATE Welcome to the Island Welcome to “The Best of Mackinac Island” from Tra- Mackinac Island became one of the nation's favored verse, Northern Michigan’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- Detroit 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 Mackinac Bridge 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 Lake Michigan or east through cruises promise up-close views of the 316 E. Central Ave. Macki- Lake Huron. 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 Great Lakes 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.