Getaway

This isn't the most glamorous shot of Mackinac Island, even on my camera, but it's one of my favorites. Our island getaway surpassed expectations. Two of the best smells in the world, we agree, are the fresh-fishy smell of the Great Lakes and the warm, earthy, pungent odor of horses. With preferences like that, how could we fail to be happy on Mackinac Island? Is it the "real world"? There we disagreed. David thought that what he perceived as artificiality would become cloying after a while. (Certainly the crowds in July and August would be a trial.) I maintained that the island residents are living real lives, even if theirs is a tourist economy. After all, there are people who think Leelanau County isn't the "real world" and that those of us who live here live in La-La Land. I say that wherever people have their lives, make their living, spend their days, pay their bills--that's the real world.