Michigan Blue - Spring 2021

Page 92

Mackinac Al Fresco

Island’s picnic-style food options expand for the new season

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f you have a chance this summer, spend a while on this magic isle, surrounded by turquoise water and ripe with plenety of good things to eat al fresco. My parents honeymooned on Mackinac Island in the early 1940s. Years later, they packed me and my six siblings into our station wagon and drove over the fivemile-long Mackinac Bridge the first summer after it opened. The view from above the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet, was so spectacular, everybody screamed at once. We ate our lunch on the island that day in 1958 from a cooler my mom packed with ham and Swiss sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper, and it was picnic nirvana. Today, the 4.4-square-mile island is one of the top tourist destinations in the

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By Patty LaNoue Stearns U.S. During the coronavirus pandemic, the island’s leaders and businesspeople have been highly committed to keeping visitors healthy and well-fed. Last year, the eateries and other businesses on the island established a winning protocol for “diligent and vigilant” precautions, says Tim Hygh, executive director of the island’s Tourism Bureau. He says Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s rules are in force for the 2021 season, as well. They include mandatory mask-wearing, plexiglass in markets, plastic sheeting dividers to separate horse-and-carriage riders, 11 handsanitizing stations, lots of A-frame signage explaining safety rules, and adhering to maximum capacities. Twenty-four island restaurants offer outdoor seating. Hygh’s favorite place for a picnic lunch can be found on the island’s southern bluff: Fort Holmes, which boasts Michigan’s old-

est building (the Officer’s Stone Quarters, circa 1780). “It’s the highest point on the island; you can hike it or bike it. There are picnic tables where you can eat and see the straits, the bridge, Boblo (Bois Blanc) Island, and all the freighter traffic. It’s wonderful,” he says. At the harbor, you’ll find Marquette Park below the fort. Nearby is one of the top delis on the island, Doud’s Market on Main Street. Pick up a box lunch filled with cherry chicken salad, crackers, sliced cheese, and red grapes, and ask fourthgeneration proprietor Andrew Doud about his favorite spots for enjoying your takeout — maybe Sunset Rock or Annie’s Table. Doud’s is America’s oldest familyoperated grocery store, dating back more than 130 years. At Windermere Point Park and the

BOTH PAGES, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRAND HOTEL, MISSION POINT RESORT, AND WATERCOLOR CAFE

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