Mackinac Island

For our 6 year anniversary, Jed and I went on a trip to Mackinac Island, an island in Lake Huron between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. It is a quaint and beautiful little island, where no motorized vehicles are allowed and the streets are dedicated to horse drawn carriages and bicyclists. We left our kids in the care of our friends, Ben & Jen, and soon they will go on a trip and we will take care of their kids. Great trade, huh?

We stayed in a little bed & breakfast type of place called The Inn on Mackinac. Isn't it the cutest building? Of all the beautiful little turreted and balconied hotels lining the streets, I thought ours was the cutest. :)

We took a ferry from the mainland to the island, and brought our bikes along. One of the first things we did was bike the 8 mile trail around the island. We took a break to sit on the beach and skip rocks. Even though the water was cold, Jed talked me into wading in with him. The water was crystal clear, so we spotted a big rock up ahead that we made our goal. Well, while we were picking our way to the rock, Jed saw a crawdad and we watched it for a moment. Suddenly I realized that the waves were reaching my rolled up pants and they were

already soaked by a couple inches! In

a panic, I raced for the rock to try to get onto higher ground, but I overshot it and went even farther than our rock. My pants were definitely

drenched by now, and as I was freaking out in my effort to get BACK to the rock, I nearly fell down in the water! Luckily I staid aright, but my pants were totally wet. (and the last half of the bike ride was about a million times harder than the first half, because of my sticky wet pants clinging to my knees!) What an oaf! Jed was dying laughing at my shocked expressions as I kept going in deeper and deeper!

We took another stop on our bike ride to hike up to Arch Rock, a geological phenomenon where the rock eroded away leaving a natural limestone arch.

After our bike ride we played some putting golf on the beautiful grounds of the Island Resort. That was very fun! Jed beat me on the first 9 holes and we tied on the last 9 holes. One time I got very close to getting a hole in one and some people walking along the boulevard near us started clapping. :) We didn't realize we were being watched by passers-by. Later another friendly couple asked us who won at the golf course because they said they had been watching too. I wish I had really whooped him!

The next morning we went to the Butterfly House, a fun indoor conservatory where they have over 800 butterflies fluttering around. They gave us an identifying chart with little squares to cross off once we spot that type of butterfly. Jed and I had such a fun time trying to identify the different butterflies and crossing them off our chart. I loved it, and Jed got into it too because he loves me so much. :)

One of the best parts of our stay on Mackinac was when we snuck onto the grounds of the Grand Hotel. :) Yes, we were trespassers. You have to pay $10 to get past the front entryway, even to walk on the carriage road beside it. This is a famous hotel, and they don't want tourists descending on their patrons all over the grounds, which is understandable. BUT, as Jed and I were biking up the road to see the Grand Hotel, we saw a little forest bike path leading off the road. We took it for fun and wandered through some pretty ferned and cultivated forested area. We came to a bike rack, so we parked our bike and followed a walkway that led right through the fence and into the grounds. We passed people at the entrance but no one stopped us. We walked right onto the grounds and, to our great pleasure, we discovered that they had games of bocci ball and croquet set out for their patrons to use. No one was playing, so we started playing bocci ball. Some friendly Grand Hotelers came and chatted and took our picture for us. Others appeared and sat on the benches. We started playing croquet after our bocci ball game ended, and by the time we were done lots of people were playing bocci ball and hanging out at the benches. I think we must be trend setters. :) Little did anyone know that we actually weren't rich patrons of the Grand Hotel. :)

Jed was about to jump into their fountains, but luckily thought better of it. :)

By the way, the Grand Hotel is famous because (other than the fact that it is huge, old, has beautiful grounds, and has a golf course and other resort-type amenities) it was the filming location for the movie A Moment In Time with Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour. The whole island is obsessed with the movie (in a quaint, funny way) and the movie plays over and over on its own dedicated channel at most of the hotels. :) (With that being said, may I warn you, I thought the movie was a bit slow. I watched it when I first moved to Michigan because, after all, it is Mackinac Island's claim to fame, but I was't that impressed by the end of it.)

After our games on the lawns we walked up the staircase to the hotel itself and wandered to the front of the hotel and looked around in the floral shop (where they make all the fresh floral arrangements for the hotel) and the golf club house. When we were ready to go back to our bikes, we tried to go the way we came and the 'guards' stopped us, saying we had to pay $10 if we wanted to go any further. Hmmmm.... So, we turned around, walked down the hill and turned at the forest path and retrieved our bikes. We laughed about how we should go back across the lawns and up the staircase and past the 'guards' as we were walking OUT of the grounds, and say, "Goodbye!" :)

We stopped at a bench in the woods to eat our lunch before we headed back to the wharf and boarded our ferry off the island. (What a handsome guy with such a studly bike!)

We drove to Bellaire, a town near the tourist center, Traverse City. We stayed at the Shanty Creek Resort, where we are friends with one of the managers there, and stayed in The Kings Court room for a great discount! :)

When we were driving to Bellaire Lake and nearby Torch Lake, our GPS was taking us for some wild rides! We were going on deserted dirt roads that wound through the thick forest, and we even had to skirt a fallen tree at one point! I made Jed stop the car and take a picture of me on our adventurous travels through the woods!

The next morning we were scheduled to play in a golf tournament with our friend on the resort's nice course, but we got rained out. Instead we went to an Arts Festival on the shore of Torch Lake. This lake was rated as the third most beautiful lake in the world, according to National Geographic. (I'm standing in front of it in the picture above.) The Arts Festival was SO FUN! Again, Jed enjoyed it with me because he loves me so much. :) There was jewelry, painting, woodwork, pottery, and all kinds of other creative things. We saw some amazing furniture (Jed enjoyed the wood artists the best) and I almost bought a ceramic serving bowl that was pretty cool. Anyway, I was excited that the Arts Festival just happened to be going on that day, and that they didn't cancel it even though it was drizzling all morning.

And that's our trip. We had a great time! It was nice to be together, just the two of us. Happy Anniversary, Jed! I love you! You are the best husband in the whole world!