Day 2 - Mackinac Island

Last Wednesday we took a day trip to Mackinac Island. The day didn't start out so great...we had planned to take a special ferry ride that went UNDER the Mackinac Bridge...but they had to cancel that excursion due to heavy fog that morning. So we got a regular ferry ride and couldn't see a thing til we pulled into the Mac. Island harbor.


We decided to bike around the island first, while it was still cool. I rode a tandem bike with Katie, and Chris pulled the other two in a trailer. It was a ton of fun!



We stopped for several sight-seeing hikes on our way around the island. Here is Jess and Chris hiking up to see Arch Rock.



Here are the kiddos in front of Arch Rock.



Here's Katie at the top of Arch Rock. The fog was so cool and eerie, rolling in and out. When we biked through patches of heavy fog, our hair and sunglasses got wet! It felt good when we got to the sunny patches, though.



I got brave and snapped this shot while biking. This is the only highway in the US that does not allow motorized vehicles! It goes all the way around the island, right on the shore. We loved seeing all of the houses, how I would love to live off this highway!

We stopped for a little break, and the girls found about a trillion perfect skipping stones at this beach. We stayed for a long time! The water changed into the most amazing shades of turquoise as the sun faded in and out of the clouds.

Jessi didn't want to leave!

I got brave again, and snapped this shot of Chris pedaling through the downtown. It was quiet when we arrived at 9am, but it got reallllly busy by noon!

We enjoyed lunch right on the harbor. Our waitress was a college girl from Rochester Hills! It's a small world...

Here's Katie by a beautiful garden.

After lunch, we trekked up the big hill to get to the fort. By this point, the fog had cleared, the sun was out and was cooking us, and the girls were ready for naps. We did manage to see everything in the fort, but it was only in quick little glimpses. Here we are at the top of the front fort wall.

Here are the girls at the top of the fort, with another view of the harbor. You can see that Megan is starting to melt.

The kids had fun in the kids building! But none of the buildings were air conditioned, so we couldn't stay long.

We watched soldiers march around and shoot guns, and then got a picture with a soldier.

Before leaving, we stopped to get some ice cream downtown. It was soooo good on such a hot day!

Megan got Supergirl ice cream! See??

So did Jessi. She was a mess! A happy, sticky, mess!

We sat on the top of the ferry for the ride back to Mackinaw City. It was windy!

Then we changed into our suits and ran down to the beach in front of our hotel. The girls had a blast finding seaweed (see Katie's head), rocks, and shells. And they played in the waves from the ferry boats that came in every 15 minutes.

This was the view from our hotel onto Lake Huron. Beautiful!!

That night, we walked to downtown Mackinaw City for dinner and fudge, then came home to crash. (I stayed up late, reading on the balcony, enjoying the peace and quiet and the sound of waves)