Surrey Hills Gift Shop — Local services in Mackinac Island

Look, are these the best donuts in the universe? No.

But the ones I had were soft and moist on the inside, just a teeny bit crispy on the edges of the outside, and well-smothered in frosting. For a quick snack in the middle of a carriage ride in the middle of nowhere, they were pretty good and held me over until we got back into town for lunch. This is, after all, a concession stand, not a gourmet donut shop.

We also got hot tea with our donuts, for which they poured the requested amount of water and then let us pick out the tea bags we wanted. There were only two options, regular black tea and Earl Grey. It was fine, the water was good and hot and didn't have any kind of a funny aftertaste. My family was concerned that we wouldn't be allowed to bring our drinks on the three-horse carriage, and while we ended up finishing them before we boarded, we did see other people bring their drinks onto the ride. I wouldn't bring a full cup on tea on - the lids are kind of flimsy and have a big opening and would definitely spill from the rocking of the carriage if the cup was full - but if you've got a bit left and want to bring it with you, I don't think it'd...

We've enjoyed previous visits here before, but this trip was interesting...be prepared to be crammed close together on the carriage tour taking you up to Surrey Hill, and not having a choice on where you are seated in the carriage. We were the second ones to board the carriage and forced into a back middle row. The Murdicks was closed, we were misrouted on a carriage tour leaving from Surrey Hill that was delayed, and then refused to take us back to our starting point downtown. We ended up being dumped out in the pouring rain to navigate the steep hill adjacent to the Governor's Mansion to get back downtown to catch our ferry in time. The 1.5 hour tour estimate...

Mostly just a couple tourist trap-y stores flanked by two food stands. I have to admit one of their names got a laugh out of me: The Feed Bag. A bit on the nose. The other foodstand was nondescript and I didn't pay it much attention.

The "carriage museum" is more like a bunch of old black and white photos with no captions or descriptions, and a bunch of horseshoe tools and other paraphernalia, also without captions or descriptions. There are a handful of old time carriages, but color me unimpressed. The island's single hearse carriage is kept here on display. Now that was...