- 70.1 miles
- 6 hours 39 minutes
- 10.5 mph average speed
- 8-12 mph winds
We left Presque Isle just as the sun was rising and passed the Old Presque Isle Lighthouse on our way out of the marina.
We passed another lighthouse along the way:
We took the ferry from Mackinaw City to Mackinac Island (they are spelled differently but pronounced the same) with Susie and Misty and had a fabulous time touring the island together!
The Mackinac Bridge, “The Mighty Mac”, is longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere and the fifth longest suspension bridge in the world at about 5 miles long. The bridge connects the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan and opened in 1957. It takes seven years to paint the bridge and, once completed, the painting starts over again.
The Grand Hotel was completed in 1887 and has the longest porch in the world. The hotel was built by three railroad companies and a steamship company. In the 1930’s, it was purchased by the Musser family who maintained ownership for nearly nine decades until it was sold to a private equity fund in 2019.
There are no cars allowed on Mackinac Island, only horse-drawn carriages and bicycles. The first car was brought to the island in 1898 but it was so loud that it scared all of the horses so a ban on automobiles was enacted and remains to this day.
Fort Mackinac was built in 1780 by the British during the American Revolutionary War and they held it until thirteen years after the war when it was turned over to the U.S. It was later re-captured by the British during the War of 1812 during the first land action on U.S. territory of the war and was returned to the U.S. after the war and remained active until 1895. There are currently 14 original buildings, including the Officer’s Stone Quarters, the oldest building in Michigan. Fort Mackinac was the second national park in the country second only to Yellowstone.
Fort Mackinac
The McGulpin House is one of the oldest private residences in Michigan.
There is an abundance of fudge shops on Mackinac Island. The first fudge store on the island was opened by the Murdick family in 1887, the same year that the Grand Hotel opened. We stopped in and stocked up on fudge and peanut brittle!
We had a wonderful private horse-drawn carriage tour of the island.
It was impossible to get full pictures of the Grand Hotel other than the one we took from the ferry.
The Grand Hotel Stable houses a magnificent collection of working carriages, most from 1890, as well as the horses used by the Grand Hotel carriages.
The Ransom Carriage was used to deliver the ransom for the first prominent kidnapping in the U.S. in 1900.
