ISLAND OUT OF TIME

  

 
The summer tour continued as we crossed Michigan's Mackinaw Straits, the four-mile gap where one Great Lake pours into another. Our campsite looked out onto the bridge we had just crossed and the boats taking tourists to Mackinac Island (pronounced "Mackinaw"). 
    If you haven't heard of it, the island is a rock three-miles wide emerging from Lake Huron. A fifteen- minute boat ride took us out to this place that time forgot.   Similar to Venice, cars, trucks, and trolleys are not allowed.  It's been that way forever. I felt like a nineteenth century spectator watching lumber, appliances, and people being delivered by horse-drawn vehicles. 


 
 Here is one that time forgot.
 

 To get around, you rent a bike, a horse, or walk.
 
 If you can't do any of these there are peppy rolling chairs.  
   
 The well-healed stay at the Grand Hotel.

 
  If you have reservations, this elegant carriage will meet your yacht.  After six, men must were suit & tie.  

   We walked the place for hours enjoying the scenery,
 well-preserved old homes, 

and this huge sculpture of Gerald Ford's head.  
   If they had a dozen of these side-by-side,  our country could have its own Easter Island.
   
Despite the presence of The  Presidential Noggin, the island is known as a romantic getaway.  My parents went there in '53.
   The time-travel movie, "Somewhere in Time" was shot on this pine-laden patch in the 70's.  "Going back" for the crew must have been easy.
   Mackinac Island hasn't changed much since 1895.  Let's hope it never does.