Delightful Delicious: Mackinac Island again

When we got home from our trip, Dave surprised me by saying how sad he was that he had missed out on Mackinac Island, and that he'd really like to go. We looked at the calendar and tried to figure out a good day to go, but the only day we could come up with was a Sunday. We felt pretty bad about skipping church, but we also decided that it would be okay to enjoy a day together as a family. So, bright and early, we headed up to Mackinac Island.

Riding the ferry once more! We used a different ferry line, since they were offering a two-for-one adult ticket deal. It was the coolest ferry. The boat is like a huge jet-ski, and the water comes out in a huge rooster tail behind the boat. We LOVED watching the water shoot out the back.

The beautiful Mackinaw bridge

Dave and the boys having fun on the ferry

Here's another ferry like ours, heading from the island to the mainland. Isn't that tail beautiful?

It was a gorgeous clear day and the wake and the tail kicked out all sorts of rainbows. So pretty!

We docked right next to a really nice hotel. It was so pretty, albeit windy.

We headed back to the park to eat our lunch. The boys were thrilled that the seagulls came to lunch and had a great time throwing out crusts of bread for them. Jed would wait til a whole bunch of gulls gathered close and then he would run at them, squawking and yelling, and make the gulls fly up and screech in alarm. It was so funny.

Then Jed decided he needed to be a gull too. Dave threw out some pieces of sandwich and Jed would race the gulls and get to the sandwich and gobble it up. At least we know this boy will always have a strong immune system!

There are so many little places to explore on Mackinac. I want to go into the fur trading center (above) the next time we go, and to the fort. I am happy to have an excuse to go back!

We decided we wanted to get a view of the whole island on this trip. Dave didn't really care about the Grand Hotel, and since I'd already been so recently, I was okay to skip it. So, we took our bikes, got some good maps from the visitors center, and set off down a dirt road.

Hank happily rode in the trailer and we rented a "tag-a-long" for Jed. It's a kid-sized bike contraption that hooks on under an adult bike's seat, effectively turning your bike into a tandem. We have been thinking about purchasing one but wanted to try it out first, so this trip was the perfect opportunity. Jed really enjoyed himself. I had to remind him to pedal, that he wasn't just along for a pleasure cruise, but by the end of the day he was awesome.

It was SO beautiful with all the fall leaves! We took a route that took us from one end of the island to the other, across the middle. The island has a large bluff in the middle, so getting up and down the hills was a bit strenuous, but it was a really enjoyable ride. I loved being off the beaten track and enjoying the quiet.

We got a little confused at one point. We ended up being exactly where we thought we were, but it just took us a few minutes to figure it out. Jed had a good time taking pictures while we conferred and Hank enjoyed reading the visitors guide in his trailer.

We rode down a steep hill to the British Landing. Mackinac island had an American fort, but was invaded and peaceably overtaken by the British during the War of 1812.

The boys really enjoyed throwing rocks and messing with the cannon at the British Landing.

We wanted to go into the nature center near the British Landing, but it was already closed for the season. The boys enjoyed climbing on the rocks instead.

We rode back across the island on a different road and enjoyed seeing the leaves and the old cemetery. There were graves dating back to the late 1700's! It was so peaceful.

We stopped to see Skull Cave, which sounds a lot more exciting than it actually was. It was just a small hole in some rocks where some bones were found at one point. Wahoo!

We also stopped to see Arch rock, which was beautiful. The Great Lakes used to be MUCH higher, basically an inland sea, and the different layers of rocks eroded at different rates, and this arch formed.

I enjoyed standing on the overlook next to the arch and looking out to the north, at the huge expanse of Lake Huron.

The formations off the north end of the island were really cool. Apparently you can take snorkel tours there during the summer.

Looking down at the road through Arch rock.

After we got done at Arch rock, we got back on the bikes and rode back to town.

Another beautiful church on the way into town.

Dave pulling the trailer in front of another bed and breakfast. Aahhh, it's so gorgeous!

I figured we better do something Somewhere In Time-related, so we rode through town to the grove of trees where Elise McKenna meets Richard Collier in the movie.

The movie crew donated this little plaque after the movie was finished shooting. The trees still look exactly the same! Now you can all be jealous because I've touched the same tree as Jane Seymore. Ha!

The boys were less than thrilled to be looking at a bunch of trees, so they ran off to the shore to try to find some Petoskey stones and throw more rocks in the water.

After we got done at the lake, we decided to take the tag-a-long back to the rental place, do some shopping, and get something to eat. The owner of the bike rental place asked how we liked the tag-a-long, and when we told him we loved it and were looking to buy one, offered to sell us last-year's model for a huge discount. We figured we'd better take him up on the offer, since they are incredibly hard to find, expensive when you do find them, and the shipping is high. So we ended up with a tag-a-long of our very own!

Hank was thrilled. He held on as I wheeled the bike around and dismounted quite successfully in front of the Pink Pony for dinner.

After dinner, some fudge, some souvenir shopping and meeting up with a girl from our branch who works at the Grand for a few minutes, we braved the cold wind and got back on the ferry for the ride home.