It is 9:00 PM and the sun is just setting in my little home in the woods. The day started early, rousting all nine of the family members currently here through breakfast in the Cook House, into cars, and on an hour's drive to St. Ignace to board the 10:00 AM ferry to Mackinaw Island, via a passage under the Mackinaw Bridge that connects the Upper Peninsula (UP) with lower Michigan. The weather was perfect! Once on the Island, which does not allow motorized vehicles, we rented bicycles to ride the eight miles around the island, mostly following the shoreline, but riding into the center of the Island to pass by hundred year old cottages and summer places of the rich merchants of the Industrial Revolution in the early 1900's. There is truly no place on earth like Mackinaw Island. Steeped in history as a stronghold the French and Indians fought the English for; it remains much like the days of old. Once debarking from the ferry, visitors can take horse and buggy transportation, or rent a bike. Bike riding around this Island with my family, enjoying the sea, sun, and sights was happily memorable in every aspect.
My van is parked in what was "the orchard" in my grandfather's day, when the island was not vehicle accessible , and my Grandfather had cleared the area in the center of the island and planted apple trees. My childhood memories of learning to bake apple pies from those apples passed to my daughter Angela, who became the Chief pie maker. Time waits on no one, and the apple trees have all died. Pie making continues, but now the apples come from the store in Cedarville. How I love this place, so much a part of my family roots! Love, Liz
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