Last week we had our anniversary and instead of the tropical vacation we intended to go on, we decided to head up north to the Mackinaw area. Sure a tropical vacation would have been nice, but we also have some things around the house we want to work on, so we thought we'd save money going this route. It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time. It definitely was a bit weird being away from the kids for so long and not having to worry about their schedules and moving slower to accommodate their needs, but it's always good to have "us" time too. Plus, they had fun with Grandma and Grandpa Bush while we were gone, so it was good for everyone.
We left Thursday and headed up. We got there around 3pm, set up camp, had a quick dinner and then headed down to the bridge area to get some sunset photos. Of course Troy has the better pictures on his good camera, but here are some photos from my good ole phone:
We then went to find some ice cream. OMG it was delicious (so good that we went back on Sunday too!!)
On Friday we headed up to the UP and went to Tahquamenon Falls. We hiked a few trails and then scoped out the Lower and Upper Falls.
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| Part of the Lower Falls are way off in the background |
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| More Lower Falls |
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| Part of the Upper Falls, through the trees |
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| Clear view of the Upper Falls |
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| Bridge view from UP |
We then got a few bridge pictures from the UP side and then headed back. Another quick dinner and then we headed to the pool. The website of our campground claimed it was a heated pool, but I didn't think it was very warm! I just decided to hang out in the sun, on the sidelines!
Back at the campsite, we built a fire so I could have those long awaited roasted starbursts and of course a few s'mores. We met our new neighbors for the weekend and boy were they a hoot. They could take up an entire blog entry in itself, but I spare you those stories for now.
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| Boy that starburst looks itty bitty in this picture, but it sure was yummy! |
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| S'mores time! |
On Saturday, we hung out at the pool again, had lunch, and then got ready to go to Mackinaw Island. We thought we would go in the afternoon and stay for sunset to get a good shot with the bridge in the background, since our sunset shot on the Lower Peninsula side didn't work out because the placement of the sun and bridge weren't in line. We got to the island and rented some bikes to check out some popular sites. Among the usual sites (The Grand Hotel, Fort Mackinac, The Governor's House, etc), my favorite was Arch Rock.
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| Arch Rock |
After Arch Rock, we rode back into the main part of town to look for a spot to camp out at for sunset. We found a place and then took some lighthouse pictures and bridge pictures from there. We also saw these cool rock cairns at the beach we were hanging out at. According to our Mackinac biking flyer they are small mounds of stones and pebbles built to mark biking and hiking trails. Traditionally, each person that passes by a cairn is supposed to add a stone, to help counteract the effects of wind and weather. The habit is to only add to the top and to use a smaller stone or rock than the previous top stone. We saw quite a few of them along this beach, but this was the tallest one!
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| Lighthouse view from the beach |
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| A pretty typical site for an island with no cars. |
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| Awesome dinner!!! |
We had some time to kill, so we looked for dinner (the most scrumptious pizza!) and checked out the tourist shops to see if anything stuck out. We got a Michigan print and I got a travel journal that I hope to use to document our trip and then headed back down to the beach. Clearly, we were mistaken when we thought that the sun would set behind the bridge because from the direction we were at, the sun was going to set behind the Grand Hotel. NOT at all what we were looking for. So, instead of waiting around longer, we headed back to the mainland, but we were able to get some pictures from the boat ride back.
On Sunday, we didn't do too much at all. We again went to the pool, and started tidying things up at our site. We decided to go walk around downtown so we headed down there. We bought some fudge, a couple shirts, a cool new dice game and some puzzles for the boys (they are addicted to puzzles lately!) After dinner we went down to the lake to play our new game and then before heading back to our campsite, we had to get some more ice cream. The blueberry waffle cone is to die for!
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| Yup, ice cream again! |
Back at the campsite, we had a fire to use up the rest of our firewood and relax. Our vacation was nearly over, but it was the perfect length - I was definitely missing my boys.
Monday, we were up early, took the tent down and headed home. Boy were the boys excited to see us - and I think Grandma Bush was too! =) An awesome getaway, that's for sure, and hopefully one of these days I'll get the nicer pictures off of Troy's camera and post some of those.
