It's becoming difficult to get away from it all Jim Waldron works on Tom and Mary O'Hare's 5,700 square-foot summer home under construction on Mullett Lake in Topinabee. The company's ferries, many of them loaded with tourists, will cross the Straits of Mackinac 9,135 times through Labor Day. Gordon Hayden's store in Mackinaw City offers more than 3,000 belt buckles.
Many sales are to repeat visitors.
To Detroiters, maybe north of 8 Mile. To those in Gaylord, maybe north of the Mackinac Bridge. It depends who you ask. AAA Michigan's travel advisers say anything north of Clare is Up North. That's good news to Clare, which touts itself as the Gateway to Northern Michigan.