Personal Note: I loved reading back over this blog, first published October 31, 2009. Some of the businesses listed in this post are no longer open, and restaurants open all winter have changed since 2009. So please remember, if you’re planning a winter trip to Mackinac THIS (2017-18) winter, you need to check what’s open and what’s not!
Header Photo by Jill Sawatzki.
The Islanders Get Their Home Back
In Amy McVeigh’s book, Mackinac Connection, she quotes Jessie Doud, owner of Jesse’s Chuck Wagon Restaurant until this past year, who was asked about winter on Mackinac Island. Ms. Doud said, “The words I would use about winter are ‘quiet’ and ‘peaceful’. We get our home back. I don’t mean that as a slur on the tourists, because come spring we are ready for everyone to come back and for all the activity to begin again. I guess you’d say I can’t wait for it (the summer season) to end and can’t wait for it to begin.”
Today I want to share with you some pictures I’ve been taking this week as the “town” of Mackinac Island slowly closes its doors to all but the winter residents (around 500) and the few hundred tourists who come over during the winter to snowmobile and cross-country ski.
Yes, there are a few businesses still open. The city offices are here and working all year – the island still has to have lights and water and garbage pickup. The public school is open year-round, as is Doud’s Market and Alford’s Drug Store. The Village Inn will be open all winter, except for two weeks at the end of November (hunting season!). The Mustang never closes, nor does Sinclair’s Irish Pub. St. Anne’s Catholic Church becomes the social hub of the entire community now, regardless of church affiliation.
I noticed, even before the last Grand employee had left the island, businesses had begun maintenance work for next spring. One of the fudge shops was getting a new tile floor, another was getting new paint. The islanders stay as busy as possible with outdoor work right up until that first heavy snowfall stops all the activity in its tracks. Maintenance will continue indoors on some businesses until the cost of heating shuts everything down until spring.
La Galerie’s display windows, completely bare. The doors have special slanted mats in front of them to prevent melting snow from getting into the shop.
The sign on Goodfellow’s door.
Two empty shops on Main Street.
Shepler’s Ferry Dock – no boats, no people.
These workers were carrying the awnings from the Mackinac Island Bike Shop somewhere to put in storage. All the stores with awnings do the same thing. That’s easier that having to replace all those awnings that heavy snow would have broken during the winter.
Luggage carts from the ferry docks going to storage.
Decked Out, a very nice clothing store, empty and locked.
Murdick’s Fudge, getting a new coat of paint before the snow falls.
The lobby of the Chippewa Hotel.
The Pink Pony – two nights before this photo was taken, it was full of costume-clad goblins.
Sweet Anna. I finally got to photograph her somewhere besides in front of the Grand shoveling up horse poop. She was leaving the island, on her way back to college.
Jill took this shot early one morning this week, before she left. It’s boxes and boxes of empty beer bottles, waiting to be picked up for recycling.
Empty Main Street – Wednesday morning.
The other end of Main Street.
A new shop – opening in the spring!
It’s now Friday night – around 10:45 p.m. Ted and I have just gotten back from our date night. About an hour before we started to town, the rain started again. There are no taxis running after five o’clock now unless you have reserved one in advance. We didn’t. So we put on all our rain gear and started down the hill. We laughted as we walked, saying that back home in Georgia, we probably wouldn’t even venture out in our car on a night like tonight – we certainly wouldn’t think of putting on rain gear and walking somewhere. Yet, here we were, splashing through puddles with rain blowing in our face- and laughing about it!
We ate dinner at the Village Inn, and about 10 minutes before we were leaving, the wind started blowing like crazy. We walked up the hill with Ted holding on to me so I wouldn’t be blown away. That stretch of Cadotte behind the school where there are no trees to block the winds off Lake Huron is the worst, but we got home ok. So the last Friday in the month played itself out as the other Fridays in October did – with crazy weather.
Downtown tonight – just as we got into town, the rain stopped.
The Village Inn tonight. They have placed a pool table in the middle of the floor where about 10 dinner tables were this summer.
On the way up the hill tonight, we stepped into the little entrance gazebo of the Jockey Club to get a little protection from the wind for a minute. Behind Ted you can see a snow fence. It has been placed all along Cadotte bordering the Grand’s property. It will prevent snowmobiles from crossing onto the golf course.
Time to go to bed. We got a lot of packing done today – tomorrow we clean. Sunday we leave. Sometime tomorrow I will sit down and write the last blog of the season. I can’t believe that day is finally here. I just can’t believe it.
Going to the grocery store off-island is a little different from going at home (at least getting there is different). I called the taxi office at 10 a.m. and said I needed to be at the docks for the 11 o’clock ferry to Mackinaw City. Then I put on all my wet/cold weather gear, grabbed my lists and Ted’s lists, and went out to wait. As I watched people walk by in big coats and rain hats, I thought, “Every day on the island can’t be colorful and beautiful. There have to some gray days, and this is one of them. Just relax and go with the flow.”
the taxi with me was Aaron, who I introduced myself to and asked his life story (when you write a blog, you cannot be shy). He told me he was from California, and this was his second summer on the island as a bartender at the Grand.
isn’t going anywhere for at least 10 minutes. They are just going to stand there and get wet. How can you tell a local from a tourist? A local is going to stand around and talk until the last minute and jump aboard the ferry as the gangplank is being pulled up. A local is also going to go onto the ferry and sit at the back (to get off first), and read a book or a newspaper during the crossing (or take a nap). A local would not be caught dead taking a picture of the Mackinac Bridge or the Round Island Lighthouse through the windows of a ferry (I’ll give you more of these tidbits as the summer goes on.)
I arrived back at the ferry docks with about 400 Detroit Chamber of Commerce people who were going over to stay at the Grand for a few days. A porter loaded a cart with my stuff and groceries another lady was taking over. They shrink-wrapped the whole cart, then covered it to keep it dry on the trip over.
I finally made it home around 6:30 – with so many people arriving, the taxis were mega-busy (they are expecting a total of 1700 Chamber people to arrive tonight). I rode up the hill with a group of island residents and their children. One busy mom of three had been on the mainland all day with her kids and was planning on taking them to a play on the island tonight. I was in awe of her patience and good humor, and then I remembered I used to do that too – a long, long time ago. Janeen was in the taxi behind us, bringing other folks home. We happened to be in the handicapped taxi – that’s why you see bars. That bar thing lets down into a ramp so wheelchairs can be loaded.
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