Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Mackinac Island Muckety Mucks

Photo courtesy Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce

It’s become cool in recent years to attend the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual “policy conference” on Mackinac Island. Each year politicians, business owners, lobbyists and clingers-on descend upon the 3.8-square-mile island for a few days, schmoozing and promising to get together for lunch and having their photos taken on the porch of the Grand Hotel and rubbing elbows with innovative keynote speakers and basking in their self-importance.

Now, thanks to Facebook, the movers and shakers get to publicly proclaim their coolness in advance: “Heading for the island” and “Packing for Mackinac – anyone know what the weather will be like?” (it’s apparently no longer possible to google the weather) and “So much to do before Mackinac...Ugh!”

There was a brief period in the early 1990s when I wanted to be one of the cool kids who got to party at Mackinac. Then I realized what really matters, and it isn’t kissin’ derriere up north. So have fun, Important People. Don’t forget to use your smart phones to tweet and post from the island because others are just dying to know your every thought and encounter and impression. I’ll be back here in Lansing with my loving family where I belong. I visited Mackinac Island already and the smile on my face was real.

2 comments:

  1. Being from TX, I have no idea what or where that is. .. now, if you said South Padre Island..? Well, that's a horse of a different color.
    No need to be important to go there...

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  2. It's located in Lake Huron at the eastern end of the Straits of Mackinac between Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, Rosey. It's cool 'cause no cars are allowed on the island; travel is by horse, bicycle, foot or snowmobile. It takes around 45 minutes to get there by ferry. Anyone who can afford the $22 round trip ferry ticket can go there but it's a typical tourist trap; now you even have to pay just to go on the porch of the Grand Hotel if you're not a guest.

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