Mackinac Island - Michigan

Hello everyone... summer is officially winding down. Many kids are already off to school.. we still have a few more days left to savor and I have so much to share.

Let's start at the beginning of August. We had planned a week in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We were flying out on Friday morning. We get on the plane.. all good and then they announce an issue about weather and a tower in the midwest being down and we sit on the plan for a good 30 minutes before they ask us to deboard. I am already on hold (60 minutes) with airline customer service. 

As we were doing most of the peninsula we were going to be spending our week spread out over 4 hotels, we had pre booked two activities and I was just imagining the fun times ahead.. canceling, rebooking, waiting for refunds.. like just yippee dee doo da! 

Customer service informs we they can't do anything because the flight is technically not cancelled yet. So we wait around for another 30 seeing if we can still get on this plane. They officially cancel the flight and we fast walk over to the guest services desk were the line is already 10 people long and of course only one person manning the three person desk. 

By the time it's our turn the only option is a Saturday evening departure landing us in Detroit vs Traverse City. We would lose two days of activities and have to make a 7 hour drive to get to our scheduled hotel (at 2 am) so that we can continue on as planned. We would fly out two days later and just rework the itinerary. We agreed and made our way back to the shuttle that would take us to the parking lot where we had left our car. (We rarely drive to the airport.. we usually Uber but things were actually going to work out just fine we just didn't know it yet)

M and I were both thinking things over.. the idea that we had to go back home and do this all again tomorrow.. what if there was a flight problem again? Plus once I am packed and in vacay mode it's hard to go back to home mode. 

While in the shuttle M jokes - we could just drive there. We could just drive there.. couldn't we? We do some quick math and guess what? We just drove there. We left the airport around 4:30pm the time we should have already been in Michigan and drove all the way to Medina, Ohio. We slept and woke up at dawn and continued the drive to Mackinaw City. We were there by noon on Saturday. In our alternate timeline we would have still been home. So this was a massive win. 

From there we boarded a ferry to take us to Mackinac Island. Mackinac Island, population 500, sits in Lake Huron, between Michigan’s Upper and Lower peninsulas. It is a car-free resort destination famous for its Victorian architecture, fudge, and horse-drawn carriages.

The ferry took about twenty minutes and you are immediately hit with the smell of horses and their excrement mingled with the sugary sweetness of fudge. The ferry docks are very close to the main street and there is a whimsical feeling seeing all the people on bikes and the horses. But before we partook in all that we needed to eat. We hadn't had a decent meal since our Friday morning breakfast. 

We choose Kingston Kitchen and boy did it not disappoint. 

and then we rented a few bikes and set out to explore. M and I got a tandem bike (first time) and it gave me the ability to take all the photos I wanted. 

We made a stop at the arch rock. A 207 step staircase take us to the formation caused by glacial water erosion over 1000 years ago.

Once we were done biking the 8.2 mile loop we returned our bikes and headed out to explore the many many fudge stores. There are 17 of them and all offering free samples.. 

We are not fans of fudge, that is until we tried Murdicks Chocolate Peanut Butter fudge.. so good we ended up buying a slice. 

Once we had eaten our fair share of free fudge samples we boarded the next ferry and returned to our car and started the two hour drive to Munising. Before checking into our hotel we first stopped at Pictured Rocks Pizza for dinner.. the prettiest pizza place ever. They had the loveliest flowers bordering their shop and their outdoor eating area. 

With this we were finally back on track.. and it was a relief knowing we were no longer playing catch up.

But I am still playing catch up on reading all your blogs.. soon I will be back on track with that too. 

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