Admit it. There's something irresistible
about a luxury hotel that's designated as a National Historic
Landmark and situated on an island that's home to the oldest
state park in the US. And so I find myself taking a 20 minute
ferry ride across Lake Huron to Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw)
Island in Michigan to experience the Grand Hotel.

Opened in 1887, when rooms
went for $3-$8.50, the Greek Revival-style building is one of the
few remaining wooden monolith hotels (in good company with the
likes of the Greenbrier Resort in Vermont and The Breakers
Palm Beach).

Expanded 33 times over the years, it now...