Day 1 of our "Up North" vacation!

Last Tuesday we began our vacation adventure "up north", like good little Michiganders. We stopped at Wendy's for lunch and the girls had a lot of fun with their kids' meal toys!

On our drive up north, we stopped at Hartwick Pines State Park, to see the only remaining old growth pine and hemlock forest in the lower peninsula.

We had a lovely hike through the forest, and we learned a lot on our walk. The humidity and the mosquitoes were horrible, though...it was the worst hour of our whole trip in terms of comfort! We also went through their logging museum buildings and enjoyed walking through a re-creation of a logging camp. Katie's been on a real history kick lately, so it was neat to see things in person that she's only read about.

We got to our hotel in Mackinaw City in the late afternoon, and headed out to play on the beach right away. The girls could play in sand ALL. DAY. LONG. if given the chance! The water was cold, but they didn't mind one bit. They gathered tons of shells to add to their shell collection.

This picture is funny because you can see Chris, Katie, and Megan in the far back right of the picture, hopping waves on the sandbar. Every 15 minutes or so, a ferry would come in or leave, and it would create small (but fun) waves to play in. The waves were the most fun where they crashed on the sandbar; we spent lots of time hopping over and through the waves!

After swimming, we went on the first of many long walks that night. First we walked the whole downtown strip of Mackinaw City, then we stopped for a dinner buffet (we were hungry!), then we walked to the state park at the tip of the mitt. Here are the girls being silly in front of the lighthouse right by the bridge.

Here they are, right by the lighthouse again, but with the Mackinac Bridge behind them.

We walked around and let the girls play on the beach around and under the bridge. Then we took a nice, leisurely walk back to our hotel to unpack and get some much-needed rest!