Lilacs

I have been blog distracted since we returned home.  It does take a bit to resettle and we have had house guests all week which has sidetracked me.  But I did want to end my blogs about our trip with a post of the lilacs.  It is the lilacs that drew me to Mackinac.  I had read a magazine article years ago about the lilacs and have always wanted to go.  So we decided to make it an anniversary trip since our 30th is this August.  I think we timed it about right…you can never be sure about when things will blossom.  And Mackinac is further north and colder so it is hard to gauge.

The lilacs were all over the island…at the Grand, in the town and all around the Park.

These steps are at the Grand and lead to the garden, lawn games and swimming pool.  The lilacs here were not open yet, but I can imagine walking down these steps in another week and being overcome by their fragrance! 

What amazed me was that the lilacs were more like a tree than a bush.  Around here the lilacs are taken for granted accept the couple of weeks they are in bloom.  They are just overgrown and not very attractive in people’s yards.  Also on Mackinac the lilacs are quite old. I read most are in the sixty year range but some are close to 200 years old.  It is believed that these were planted by the Jesuits.  Just look at these lilacs…

This is believed to be the oldest lilac on the island. 

And this is the top of it…

Our last morning we took a quick walk through the gardens at the Grand.  They were putting in the flowers for the summer display where the tulips had been.  We met the head gardener, she was rather young!  It was interesting to chat with her.  Here’s some advice if you have a lilac bush…she said after it blooms you cut it back by a third.  We’re going to try and train ours so it might look nicer and have more blooms.  I absolutely loved looking at the lilacs and enjoying their fragrance! 

Summer Cottages

Mackinac Island became a place to get away after the Civil War.  In 1875, it became America’s second National Park.  (BTW, Yellowstone was first)  With many people coming to the island, The Grand Hotel was built.  And soon after, summer cottages were also built.  They started out small but with the luxurious Grand Hotel established and the Victorian Era, they were remodeled becoming mansions.  They were big enough to house large families and a housekeeping staff for the summer retreats.  I just loved looking at them, the porches, yards and gardens.  Wally enjoyed the roofs, shingles and gutters! 

These are the original cottages on the bluffs

The end of the street runs into the Grand Hotel and those are lilacs on both sides of the road.  I think I would want to just stay year round in homes like these!

Biking Around

Thursday the weather improved only slightly.  The rain was gone, but it was still cloudy and kind of cold.  But we went for our bike ride anyway.  It is eight miles around the island on a paved road.  But there are many trails through the State Park.  We probably rode about thirteen miles.

Here’s some action shots of us biking…not too bad, huh?

This is British Landing, the point where the British landed---makes since, right?  Still not sure why they cam this far west in the War of 1812.  I need to read up on that War.

I thought these trees were kind of interesting, they reminded me of a spooky forest.

This is The Woods, one of the restaurants of The Grand Hotel.  It was kind of hard to find and we were hoping to have lunch there.  But we were a little early in the season, they were only open for dinner.  It had a hunting lodge theme and was pretty neat. 

It also had a bowling alley…just one.  We had planned to have lunch and bowl a game.  But since they were not doing lunch and we were starved, we passed on the bowling too.

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!