Michigan Vacation Part I: Mackinac Island

Jake and I took a fun little vacation at the end of the summer. We wanted to take one last trip just the two of us before the baby is born. A lot of people out here have told us that they really enjoy northern Michigan. There are lots of fun cities and outdoor adventures up there. For this trip we decided to go to Mackinac Island (pronounced mackinaw) and the Upper Peninsula (locals call it "the U.P."). I'm going to split our trip into two posts, so this one will be about Mackinac Island, and the next one will be about the UP. The UP is the part of Michigan that is separated from the mitten-shaped part of the state by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. We went there to see the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, and we stayed in Munising. Mackinac Island is in Lake Huron near the bridge that connects the two parts of the state.

Source

We waited until the very end of the summer before we got around to planning our trip, so when we found out that the weather was not supposed to be very good up north, it was too late to change our plans. Jake was starting school soon. So it was overcast, rainy, and highs were in the low 50s while we were there. One upside to the situation was that the cooler weather had brought out some fall colors in the trees, so we got to see some pretty scenery on our drive.

We left on Thursday night and made the 4-hour drive from Ann Arbor to Mackinaw City (it's spelled different to confuse people), which is at the very northern tip of the mitten, on the south end of the bridge. We stayed the night and took a ferry over to the island in the morning. We even caught the ferry that takes a little detour under the bridge on the way to the island. It was a fun ride but very windy.

The view from our hotel room

Mackinac Bridge

The two middle lanes on the bridge are a grate, so you can see cars driving on it from beneath.

Now we're in Lake Michigan...

...and now we're in Lake Huron.

Mackinac Island is a state park, and they don't allow motorized vehicles on the island. So when we arrived, we took a little walk around to see what there was to see.

Horses and buggies are for rent like taxis on the island. We didn't ride one because they were very expensive, but we still had to smell them. Stinky, stinky.

Jake pointed out that this statue looks a lot like my brother, Ryan. Haha!

That hut is an old church.

The houses on the island were really cool.

It started raining soon after we arrived on the island, so we took refuge under the overhangs of shops along the street. We may have sussed out all of the fudge shops to see who had the best deal and the best-looking flavors, only because of the rain though. I forgot to mention that one of the island's claims to fame is their fudge. At our local grocery stores they sell Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream - vanilla with fudge swirls and chunks. It's pretty tasty.

When we saw a break in the rain, we decided to hurry over to the butterfly garden so we could enjoy an indoor activity while waiting out the rain. The Original Butterfly House and Insect World claims to have hundreds of live butterflies from four continents in their indoor tropical butterfly garden. We had a lot of fun! The first thing we got to see was a bunch of butterfly chrysalises hanging up in a case. Some of the butterflies had emerged and were practicing flapping their wings. Then a worker came and collected a bunch to release in the garden. This picture is not very good, but it was really cool in person.

The garden was really neat. It was so fun to walk around and see so many butterflies everywhere. I couldn't help but think of Brian Regan's jokes about the butterfly pavilion while we were there: "I had this yellow one landing lightly on flowers, and this purple one fluttering around and around. Like I don't know what he's up to!" Haha. He says, "You do stuff with your kids you probably wouldn't do otherwise, like take them to butterfly pavilions." Yeah, right. We would so do it otherwise. I found a video of the sketch in case you haven't heard it.

Before we entered the actual butterfly garden, they warned us to watch our step so we wouldn't crush any butterflies and to check our clothes thoroughly before exiting to make sure we didn't have any stowaways. Don't worry, we didn't step on any butterflies, but Jake did make a little friend while we were there. (So many butterfly pictures - I couldn't narrow it down any further!)

This little guy would not let go - an employee had to shake Jake's sleeve pretty vigorously to get him to fly away.

"Does this one like to eat?" Yes, apparently old banana slices.

Spot the butterfly!

You can see a hint of it here, but this butterfly's wings are blue on the inside. We didn't get a good picture of  the inside, unfortunately.

Insect world was less exciting, but there were a few fun things to see.

You can see the reflection of the top of my head in the upper left, just to give you an idea of how huge this was!

These beetles look like little Asian man masks with two legs and four arms.

This chameleon was quite the model - look at him finding his light.

When we finished up in the butterfly house, we found that the rain had stopped. So we decided to go on our bike ride. A really common activity on Mackinac is to bike to various attractions around the island. Some people will bike all the way around the island, which is just over eight miles. There were a lot of cool things that it would have been fun to see, but we didn't want to go too far in case I got too tired to bike back. I was about six months pregnant when we were there, and I was getting tired out really easily (this was before we found out I was anemic and got me on iron supplements) and having round ligament pain a lot. The pain would be worse when I would move my legs. We didn't want to get stranded, so we got a tandem bike, which Jake could continue to pedal if I needed a break.

I had never ridden a tandem bike before, and I was a little nervous. I couldn't reach the ground from my seat, so I had to rely on Jake to start and stop the bike and to hold it up while I got on and off. We had a really good time, though! It was fun to be on the bike together so we could talk as we rode. There may have been one embarrassing incident when I was belting Bicycle Built for Two as we passed another biker, whom I couldn't see coming since Jake was in front and blocking my view. Oops. Anyway, we biked to Arch Rock and a little further before heading back, about four miles round trip. It was really fun.

Arch Rock

Yes, we were the only people on the island who wore the helmets.

Our Bicycle Built for Two

It was a long, rainy day, but we had a great time! We bought some delicious fudge on our way out and snacked on it in our hotel room while we watched Food Network, one of the only reasons we miss cable. We stayed the night in Mackinaw City and left for the UP in the morning. Watch for part two soon!