Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island is a small island just to the right of the bridge crossing to the Upper Peninsula. 
There are several ferry companies that bring people accross, this is the one we went on.

This is a view of the Mackinac Bridge crossing from Michigan to the Upper Peninsula.

Some of the ferry lines used these jet propulsion boats.

We saw MANY red hat ladies there that day, must have had a special.

There are no motorised vehicles allowed on the island except for lawn mowers on your property, golf carts on the golf courses, fire trucks & ambulances, and of course snow mobiles in the winter.   Everybody gets to where they want by bicycle or horse & buggy.  See the street lined with bicycles.

This was a delivery person, he had a large horse drawn wagon and 2 little trailers attached.  I understand UPS has an office there and uses horses too.

There are several touring companies too, this one was a taxi.  I especially liked the color of the horses.

This is one of the fire carts they used to use.

The first leg of the tour was in a 2 horse buggy holding 20 people.  The second was in one of these buggies holding 35 people and drawn by 3 larger draft horses.

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I just loved the look and grace of these horses as they worked.  They all looked very well taken care of.  When I questioned our drivers, they said they work only 4 hours per day from May to October then they go to an area on the Upper Peninsula where they can go inside or outside, where ever they want and they don't work.  The first half of the 45 minute trip was mostly up hill.  The driver would stop often to let them rest.  They also had a spray bottle and sprayed them periodically.  They were also given water at least 3 times during the entire trip, maybe 4.

We stopped here where we could go on an overlook.  This is a natural rock formation.

I loved looking down on this victorian looking house

You have to enlarge this one.  This is the transportation for people comming off the ferry and staying at the Grande Hotel at the tope of the hill.  The driver is decked out with a top hat and black vest and the horsed have fringe over their backs and head dresses.