Seeing Mackinac Island With Mom

This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we'll have fun.

William Golding

View of the Grand Hotel and a section of the Island from a trail above

A gift

For you, we said

And the three of us pitched in.

And took our mom on a ferry to Mackinac

Island. We dragged her around from sight to sight:

forts, shops, restaurants, on carriage rides and through gardens

It seemed like we were always climbing or descending hills

Or stairs whenever we wanted to get anywhere

But mom kept up and never complained

and we laughed and said,

“What a gift”

Fort Mackinac during a cannon firing demonstration- one of the soldiers runs to get a new match to light the cannon after the first one failed

Success on the second try! The ground shook.

Arch Rock Trail winding through the woods in the Mackinac Island State Park

Arch Rock in the early morning light

Beautiful dark trillium in bloom in the Secret Garden on The Grand Hotel grounds

Bridge over a river of grape hyacinths in the Secret Garden overlooked by the Grand Hotel above

Masses of tulips bloomed everywhere on the island.

If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

For those of you who don’t know about Mackinac Island, it is a small Island where Lake Huron and Lake Michigan meet off the northern coast of Michigan’s lower peninsula. They don’t allow cars on the island, so transportation is by horse drawn carriage, bicycle or on foot. If you’d like to know more about the island and it’s history, check out their website here.

If I were to go again, I would love to run the entire circumference of the Island (I think it’s about 8 miles) and spend a lot more time exploring the natural areas of the state park, which makes up about 80 percent of the island. The carriage tour was fabulous, funny and gave our feet a welcome rest. The only stop on the tour I would recommend seeing on your own instead is Arch Rock. It’s much better to see without a crowd. That is only possible in the early morning, or in the evening after the tours stop running. I would also definitely recommend seeking out the Secret Garden on the grounds of the Grand Hotel. It was magical. I don’t know what it’s like at other times of the year, but it wasn’t too crowded for our early season visit and the flowers were blooming wildly everywhere.

This was the first trip my sisters and my mom and I have ever taken together as adults, with just the four of us. Mom flew in from Texas, my sister Rita drove up from Alabama, and I drove across the state to spend the night in Lake Orion, Michigan, at my sister Becky’s house, on a Sunday. Monday morning, we rose early and piled into Becky’s car for the four-hour drive to Mackinaw City, where we took a ferry ride to Mackinac Island. It was fun right from the start. We walked and shopped, tried the famous fudge, visited historic buildings and gardens, took an afternoon carriage tour and got dressed up for dinner every night at the Grand Hotel. We played cards after dinner in the trophy room, gave each other lots of grief and laughed until we cried. We went to bed late and got up early. It was exhausting and absolutely lovely. We’re already thinking about the next trip we’ll take together.

Thank you so much for being here. See you next week!

My crew of fellow troublemakers: from the left: me, my sisters, Becky and Rita, and my mom, Janet.

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

Elbert Hubbard

P.S. The poem was meant to be a “shape” poem (a diamond) which is a bit of a risk because I’m not sure if the format will come through when this page is converted to email by th messaging system.

Finding My Way in Granite Creek and the Grand Tetons

…Let us risk the wildest places, Lest we go down in comfort, and despair.

Mary Oliver (excerpt from the poem, Magellan)

Return

Walking

this wooded path

under the shade of pines

beside the cool river

I know

this is where I’ll return

when I return

to dust.

The Ranger at the Bridger-Teton National Forest told me - “we’re really happy about the wildflowers this year. - you came at a good time.”

A magpie, tussled in the wind, perched on the roof of a shelter where I stopped to eat breakfast and plan the day.

Granite Creek Campground - Bridger-Teton National Forest. The Fortress.

The Falls at Granite Creek.

First view of the Tetons in the Grand Teton National Park.

The smell of pine was everywhere.

A little girl said there were moose at the moose pond, so I went, and there they were, huge, beautiful beasts.

Hidden Falls. Cooling relief after a hot climb.

Gros Ventre Campground. Storms threatened the first night, but passed around the park.

The beginning of a hike to Cascade Canyon.

Hawk protecting his family nest.

On my hike through the canyon, I met a family who generously let me tag along with them so I wouldn’t get eaten by bears - and one of them took this photo of me to send to my family.

Cascade Canyon Trail - Weather started to turn while I hiked back to the trailhead.

A chipmunk at Inspiration Point - a stop back along the trail

Groundhog near the Moose Pond. Think he was startled to see a human in the rain.

What a difference a few hours can make in the weather. Arriving back where I started, the Tetons enveloped in clouds and rain.

Sunset from my campsite.

My last night at the park, another storm rolled through. I woke up in the middle of the night, praying a tree wouldn’t fall on my van. In the morning, although limbs and trees had fallen and the power was out at the park office, all my fellow campers and I were ok.

And that’s how it ends. My last morning in the Grand Tetons.

When I was here, I felt my mortality for so many reasons. Bears, remote and unnavigable roads, lack of cell service, storms. I think that’s why I began to think about where I would want my ashes to be spread after I die. If I could choose anywhere, it would be in the woods somewhere…

The thing is, if I were to die out here - in some beautiful remote place, doing something I love to do, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. Life itself is risky. I would rather take some risk than never dare. What do you think?