Somewhere in time

And I'm back from the week-long roadtrip up north with R and his parents.

Urbana-Green Bay-Mackinac Island (two nights)-Munising (on Lake Superior)-Milwaukee-Chicago (just to hit the outlet mall)-Urbana

Here's just one highlight for now:



The lovely Mackinac Island, where cars are banned and people get around on horses, bicycles, on foot, and in the winter, snowmobiles.

The first two days were rained out but we braved the cold and damp and took a horse carriage tour around the island. (That's the Round Island lighthouse in the background)


The B&B (Haan's) was a gorgeous old 1830s house and was being temporarily run by a lovely Californian couple.

The breakfasts were just amazing, with homemade muffins and cakes and nutty coffee. And those oatmeal raisin cookies left out in the parlour at teatime! Oh so good.

The Grand Hotel is probably a highlight for most visitors, especially those who are fans of the Christopher Reeve movie Somewhere in Time.

The hotel's grounds are very pretty but the hotel was closed for some women's group which had booked it, all 385 rooms.

The island's pretty damn touristy, with its main street filled with fudge shops and souvenir stores. But we were a little early in the season so we managed to miss the main tourist crush (although there were many schoolkids on field trip) and get a good deal on the room rates.