(WWJ) If your vacation dreams include tranquil blue waterfront, a slower pace, miles of bike paths, the clip-clop of horse-drawn carriages, the smell of fudge wafting in the air, you might be from Michigan.
And you might be disappointed.
Freep.com is reporting the summer start for Mackinac Island has been pushed from the last week of April to the last week of May ... to late June by COVID-19.
After first announcing they would open in May, the Grand Hotel -- the mainstay on the island -- appears to be pushing back the starting date to June 21
"Full throttle, I'd say it'll be on the 21st because that's when the Grand Hotel is doing it," Todd Callewaert, whose family owns the Island House Hotel, told the newspaper about their own plans to reopen. "We just don't know until the governor lifts her stay in place. Things are still up in the air. Unfortunately, that's just where we're at right now."
That coincides with an announcement from the sailors at Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, whose race in July is expected to attract thousands to the island. They said in their May 1, 2020 Bayview Mackinac Race newsletter that the island was looking at re-starting the third week of June, three weeks before the race, per the Freep.
And they're indicating, at least at this point, the race will go on ... The letter says, "Does Mackinac Island even want us on the island and can they accommodate us? The answer to both of these is a resounding yes! The Mackinac Island economy has been severely impacted. They want and need us to support them."
Social media is awash in comments from people who are dreaming of a return to Mackinac and some sense of normalcy.
Until then, ferry service reopened last week for essential workers to carry out maintenance and construction projects on the island.
Crew members and passengers remain six-feet apart, wear masks on the trip, and have to schedule theh ride in advance. Ferries are washed down between trips.
"We're asking that anybody who is sending workers over call us ahead of time so we can arrange among the different boats that we have so we don't have one big group on one boat," Jerry Fetty, the CEO of Star Line Mackinac Island Hydrojet Ferry told Up North Live. "We're spacing them out as much as possible."
