As part of my tour to the Midwest my first stop was Chicago, Illinois as shared in my previous post, 24 Hours in Chicago. Well, from Chicago we drove to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit The Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and to rest overnight at Hotel Canopy by Hilton on our way to Mackinac Island.

Now so many things can be said about The Grand Hotel but here is a breakdown of it’s history and the images will tell you the full story!

The Grand Hotel opened on July 10th, 1887 and was built by the Grand Rapids & Indiana and the Michigan Central railroads and the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company through the efforts of Sen. Francis B. Stockbridge. It is built of Michigan white pine, and has an extraordinary colonial porch which is the longest in the world. It’s important to note that today it’s known as is one of the outstanding landmarks on the Great Lakes and it’s also known as the world’s largest summer hotel.

And let’s not forgetLol that there are no cars allowed on the island and the only transportation is the bicycle or what a carriage pulled by horses which I liked to callLol Horse Uber!i

So let’s check out the photos…

Half of the porch!

Here’s the other half.

The porch looks over Lake Huron.

Here is the main entrance to the hotel.

Here is the main parlour.

Here is The Dining Room.

Here is the main ballroom where dancing with formal dress only (also required at dinner) starts at 9:30pm.

And here is their ice-cream parlour, named Sadie ‘s after the Scottish terrier belonging to Mr. and Mrs. R.D. Musser, who were prior owners of the hotel.

So just to fill you in here are some fun facts about the hotel. https://www.grandhotel.com/press-media/grand-hotel-and-mackinac-fun-facts/#

Enjoy!

• Grand Hotel is 332,500 square feet.
• No motorized vehicles are allowed on Michigan’s Mackinac Island. All transportation is provided by horse and carriage or bicycle.
• Mackinac Island is accessible only by ferry boat or plane.
• More than 150,000 overnight guests stay at Grand Hotel each season.
• The 5,000,000th guest in Grand Hotel history checked in on June 26, 2006.
• While nearly 1 million people visit Mackinac Island each year, the Island has less than 600 year-round residents.
• It takes 500,000 gallons of water to fill Grand Hotel’s swimming pool, which was named for actress Esther Williams when she starred in the 1947 movie, This Time for Keeps, shot at Grand Hotel.
• The 1980 film Somewhere in Time, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer, was filmed on location at Grand Hotel. The movie now has a huge following and fan club that meets yearly at Grand Hotel in late October.

• There are more than 500 horses on Mackinac Island.
• Six U.S. Presidents have visited Grand Hotel: Presidents Biden, Clinton, Bush, Ford, Kennedy and Truman.
• Grand Hotel’s kitchen staff of more than 100 people prepares and serves as many as 4,000 meals per day.
• During the 2019 season, Grand Hotel used 9,000 pounds of prime rib, 102,500 pounds of potatoes, 5,500 pounds of rack of lamb, 6,400 pounds of bacon, 42,500 pounds of strawberries and 6,000
• The Grand’s famous Front Porch flowers include 1,375 geraniums in 147 planting boxes with 12 yards of potting soil.
• Grand Hotel uses 2,500 geraniums, its trademark flower, in all its flower beds combined.
• 24,120 bulbs are planted in the fall, including 18,000 tulips.
• The Secret Garden contains 8,000 hyacinth bulbs and 1,000 daffodils and tulips.
• More than 125,000 bedding plants (annuals) are used to create the many gardens on Grand Hotel grounds.

• Our award-winning 18-hole golf course, The Jewel, is the only course in the world that transports guests from the front nine to the back nine via horse-drawn carriage.
• Knights of Columbus has the longest-standing meeting tradition at Grand Hotel, dating back to 1954. The organization has visited for 65 years.