Respite

My husband and I got away for a weekend to a place I’ve wanted to see since I was a child. Which made it a loooonggg time coming.

Mackinac Island is 3.8 miles of of heaven in Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas. It doesn’t allow cars, which makes it my kind of place. Conveyance is by foot, bicycle, or horse-drawn carriage. Percherons with hooves as large as platters haul supplies, baggage and people all over the island. The horses were kind of tuckered out by the end of the season, and most get shipped off the island to rest over the winter.

Showing off his considerable travel planning skills, my husband booked us into the Grand Hotel. It lives up to its name! The architecture, service and decor are beyond compare. One of its claims to fame is that major portions of the movie Somewhere in Time were filmed there. We rented it before we left. Even though it was very sappy, and I kept saying “I won’t cry, I won’t I won’t I won’t” I did anyway at the end.

We stayed in a gorgeous room overlooking the lake. One afternoon we watched a storm brew up, then send sideways sheets of water past our window. As wimpy Californians, we are profoundly impressed by such dramatic acts of nature.

When I wasn’t ogling weather or horses, I did get a bit of knitting in. I’m working on a pair of socks for my friend Madeline. The Grand’s front porch is the largest in the world. It takes a lot of rocking chairs to fill up 600+ feet of veranda. I took the sock there for a visit.

I felt a little silly photographing the sock in the hotel’s fabulous Parlor, with its lush design and sophisticated mural. But I sacrificed my dignity in order not to lose sight of AudKnits being a knitting, not a travel, blog. But still, if you get the chance to visits Mackinac Island, by all means go. Oh yeah, don’t forget your knitting.