Walk-About

Our first afternoon on Mackinac the weather was gorgeous.  But we woke up on Wednesday to a thunderstorm and rain.  We lazied around the hotel for a bit and then decided to take a walk.  There was a tour of the governor’s home so walked there first.  The rain returned and we took cover in one of the many horse stalls around.  I took a picture of theses lilacs during the rain.

Waiting out the rain made us a little late for the tour and they would not let us in.  The entrance was heavily guarded by the Boy Scouts.  So we walked over to Fort Mackinac.  It was also heavily guarded by the Scouts.

It was actually used during the War of 1812.  Not sure how the War got that far west, but apparently it did!  We passed on the $10.50 per person entrance fee which would have put us in the midst of several school kids on their field trip.  We kept on walking.  Most of the Island is a National Park and very scenic.

This was Sugar Loaf, a rock formation :)  Also a very pretty overlook.

Arch Rock, another rock formation.  Also the highest point on the island with a nice view of Lake Michigan below.

Lots of pretty flowers.  This is Lady Slipper.  Really looks like a little slipper too.

And this is a little blue flower that was growing all over.  I think it is Forget Me Not.

And this little yellow flower is the dan-de-lion.  Also known as scourge of the earth…according to Wally.  We were surprised how many dandelions were growing, many already gone to seed. We wondered why they were left to grow instead of removed.

The cemetery was tucked away on one of the back roads and an old cemetery from Fort Mackinac.  They keep the flag at half staff for the unknown soldiers buried there

We circled the island and came back into town, also very picturesque.

Twice we passed this are outside of town where it looked like flowers were dumped and women were digging through the pile.  We thought maybe they were just wanting the flowers.  We found out later, the hotels and innkeepers dig up their spring bulbs and leave them there for people to take.  They usually change their designs each year and so plant new bulbs each fall.  I sure wish we had found that info out earlier, I would have brought some bulbs home. 

And we did quite a bit of lilac sniffing.

We had a nice walk about the island but were walking back to the hotel in another downpour.  As we started into the hotel door,  we were asked, “are you registered at the hotel?”  Guess they wanted to be sure we were not the riff raff we must have looked like!