Nick's job had a weekend getaway in Traverse City, MI last month, and since that is so close to Mackinac Island, we decided we would do our Michigan trip at the same time and visit the island and the forts on our way. We drove up through Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula to get there, a drive we did five years ago on our honeymoon.
The girls were pretty good on the drive, despite it being so long.
We stopped on the way to eat a picnic supper at a beautiful spot on the lake. It was very windy and chilly, but the girls enjoyed getting out and stretching their legs, and we even got to see a rainbow!
The next day we spent on Mackinac Island. Our hotel didn't have breakfast, so we got on an early ferry ride and decided to eat breakfast on the island. After that we hiked up the very large hill to tour the fort.
Mackinac is very understaffed right now (where isn't?), so there were only a few male historical impersonators, and none of the ladies. This was very sad to Gwen, who was looking forward to seeing "princesses" at the "castle." We did get to see a cannon demonstration though.
Inside some of the fort buildings were coats and hats to try on, and the girls got a kick out of that.
Gwen was also enraptured by this painting of the "red lady," and we had to go back and see her before we left the fort.
Philippa was entranced by the many horses, and always stopped to watch them go by. Living up to her name!
One of the girls' favorite parts of the day was the butterfly exhibit. They loved looking at all the different butterflies and flowers, and trying to coax a butterfly onto their fingers. Whenever they succeeded at holding one their smiles lit up from ear to ear.
Walking up to the fort and then over to the butterflies took a lot out of us, though. We walked back and got some ice cream (and got news on the house that the sellers didn't want to fix any of the things that came up on inspections- pooh!), and by then we were too tired to walk much farther, so spent some time at the lake before taking the ferry ride back.
Gwenny especially loved the ferry ride. On the way back she wanted to sit on the top, so we did. She loved the wind blowing in her hair and the spray coming up from the water.
For supper we simply ordered pizza and ate on our hotel balcony overlooking the lake:
The next day, after a breakfast that took forever (thanks understaffing problems, once again), we went to the fort on the mainland, getting a nice view of the bridge on our walk.
Here too there were very few people working. We did get to see the musket demonstration though!
Then we drove down to Traverse City for the work weekend getaway. We stopped at a great diner on the way that had the best food we had had so far, and the girls were obsessed with the "bendy guy" blowup that was outside the window.
We went on a nice boat tour of the lake, and the girls were excited to go on another boat ride, although it was long enough that it tested their patience a bit. They were able to color and eat and talk to some new friends though, which definitely helped!
We also played at the beach with them, which never gets old.
For supper we went to a very fancy restaurant, but it was a disappointment to say the least. Our reservation was at 7:00, which is already late for the girls, but appetizers didn't arrive until at least 8:30 (none for the girls), and our main meal didn't come for another hour after that. By then the girls were bored out of their minds, extremely exhausted, and not in the least hungry. When Gwen saw her mac & cheese (they forgot to even bring Pippa's) she almost cried while saying "I didn't want noodles, I just wanted cheese." I could barely eat any of my food either because it was so late. We were so thankful to sit at a table with Nick's coworker who also has children, otherwise our kids would have had absolutely nothing to do. We finally left about 10:15 or so, and this was the first and only time we have successfully transferred a sleeping child from the carseat to a bed without waking her up (Pippa).
But despite that disappointing experience, the trip was very nice, and we have now crossed off 6 states from our goal of visiting all 50 together!
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