Minis on the Mack

Sunrise Tai Chi on the shore of Lake Huron was memorable!  I have already enjoyed practicing this morning discipline in several places on this trip, rather than on the usual deck at home, and look forward to yet-undiscovered places to come!

 
We left early so that we could get in line with the hundreds of other Minis, who were supposed to start lining up at Little Bear Arena at 6:00 a.m., but still ended up about three-quarters of the way back.  Some eager “Mini-acs” must have slept in their cars because we talked to at least one driver who was in the top ten.  We spent an enjoyable morning lined up toward the back, catching up with old friends and meeting new ones parked nearby.

The rally was supposed to begin at 9:45 a.m., and indeed the first few cars may have started around then, but it takes a lot of time to get so many cars moving!  As it turned out, 1,124 cars were counted pulling out of the parking lot, not as many as hoped for but still a good turnout.

 

Lunch back at the arena was finished earlier than we expected, and we had the entire afternoon free.  On our “Mini Takes the States” trip in 2016, each day had included a morning meeting, an evening rendezvous, and a mid-day “Surprise and Delight,” and on this trip we kept finding ourselves discovering unplanned adventures that we came to describe as our Surprise and Delight for the day.  We had heard about Mackinac Island, which sits in Lake Huron between the Upper and Lower peninsulas, and which (according to a brochure we had found) consisted of hotels, shops, restaurants, a State Park, trails, and the 1780 Fort Mackinac, a cluster of military buildings at the highest part of the island.  We had also received in our packet the previous day a discounted ferry ticket from Sheplers, one of the oldest ferry companies transporting passengers to the island.

 

The main attraction on Mackinac Island is that it proudly prohibits vehicles.  The only transportation besides walking is by bicycle or horse-drawn carriage.  The story goes that when a smattering of motor vehicles first started appearing on Mackinac Island, a group of carriage men petitioned the village council to prohibit the “dangerous horseless carriages” that were frightening their horses. Village leaders enacted the ban on July 6, 1898, and it has been car free ever since.

 

It was a pleasant, sunny Saturday afternoon, and we enjoyed wandering up and down the main street where we had disembarked from the ferry, going into shops and checking out restaurants, while horses clattered along and bicycles whizzed by everywhere.  The Michigan Governor has a summer residence on the island, and a huge building on the hill above us, the Grand Hotel, is a well-known place that has hosted politicians, actors, entertainers, sports figures, and musicians.

 

I went into a bookstore and was surprised to find on shelves devoted mostly to best-sellers an entire shelf of Ernest Hemingway, before I remembered that the writer spent as much time in Michigan as in Key West.

 

 

One of my favorite Hemingway stories was The Big Two-Hearted River, about a solo fishing trip to northern Michigan.

 

Some of the older buildings were well-preserved, and there were costumed guides present to elaborate on their history.  We made our way up to the 18^th-century Fort, explored the old barracks buildings, listened to an account of the life of British soldiers there, and watched a musket-firing display.

 

We were enjoying ourselves so much that we decided to eat dinner there, at a little place right on Main Street called Verde's Taqueria, before making our way back to the ferry and across Lake Huron to St. Ignace and our hotel.  A memorable Surprise and Delight!