Vacation in Mackinaw City

We just got back from celebrating our 10th anniversary up north in Mackinaw City, Michigan. We had a babysitter for the kids so it was great to have some alone time and to be able to eat when we wanted, sleep when we wanted, and just see all the sites without worrying about naps and tantrums. We have never visited northern Michigan and were impressed with the beautiful drive, huge bridge, quaint island, and pretty beaches. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip...

We ate at a yummy Italian restaurant called Nonna Lisa's the first night, it was decorated cool and had pretty good food at affordable prices. I think the best part was being able to eat my food while it was still warm and not trying to force my kids to eat something or be quiet.

The next day we took the ferry to Mackinac Island, about a 20 min ride.

They don't allow any cars on the island so you have to walk, ride bikes, or take horse-drawn carriages everywhere.

There are also a million fudge shops (17 to be exact, as one employee told us) on the island and we stopped at several and got free samples. At one place they told us that during the busiest time of the summer, all the shops combined sell almost 10,000 lbs of fudge a DAY! This place was pretty cool since they show you how they make it right on the marble slabs. It smelled so good and tasted pretty good too!

We walked up the hill to Fort Mackinac

This was the awesome view from on top of the hill

We walked for about a mile through a pretty forest to see Arch Rock, which was beautiful.

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Then walked a mile in the other direction to get to the Grand Hotel, where they filmed "Somewhere in Time", that early 1900's movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

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Here they had beautiful landscaped gardens and tulips and it was pretty fancy. We didn't stay at this hotel since it costs almost half as much as our monthly rent for just one night!

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Riding the ferry back to the mainland with the Mackinac Bridge in the distance, which is almost 5 miles long! It had rained while we were on the island and had just started to clear up as we rode back on the ferry so it was pretty cold in the wind!

We then found a little public park to eat some lunch and enjoy some hot chocolate while walking on the beach and enjoying the view. Notice the kids in swimming suits behind me. It was only in the 50's with lots of wind and they were swimming, crazy!

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The nice view, both the lake and bridge and Jared:)

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Walking hand in hand on the beach, ahhhh!

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I finally got brave enough to take my shoes off and go in the water a little. It was a nice feeling, warm sand on my toes. Makes me miss the warm sunny beaches of southern CA! (I lived there for a while when I was younger and we have visited my Dad a couple times in San Diego)

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The beautiful sunset on Lake Michigan. It was freezing cold that night too, our car said low 40's after the sun went down! Next time we go, we're waiting until July or Aug!

The hotel we stayed at was right on Lake Huron
And we had a jacuzzi in our room, which came in very handy since it was much colder than we expected most of the time.

The view from our room in the morning

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It was an awesome vacation and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't ever been there, if you live near Michigan. Just go later in the summer, it should be much warmer, I hear. Oh, and if you're confused if it's Mackinaw, Mackinac, or Michilimackinac, join the club. There were signs everywhere that said different things and so we finally asked and were told that the mainland, the southern Michigan side is spelled Mackinaw, the island goes by Mackinac (but the c is silent so they still pronouce it with -aw), and Michilimackinac is the original Indian name for the area. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (UP) uses Mackinac, which we did spend about an hour at after driving over the Mackinac bridge, which separates Lake Michigan on the west and Lake Huron on the east. For a visual image, go here: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Mackinaw+City&state=MI . Anyway, that's your geography lesson for the day!