Sightseeing Around the Upper Peninsula

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So today I had to break down and clean house. YUK! We have been playing around for more than a month and so I thought it was time for a deep cleaning. Yesterday we went to Mackinaw Island. I really wasn't sure what to expect. Was it an old boring Fort or just a tourist trap of shops. Well, it really is a little of both but it is such a quaint and charming place that you can't help but be fascinated by it. You take a short 20 min. ferry ride (from the St. Ignace side) over to the island and it takes you back in time. There are no motorized vehicles on the island at all as you will witness from the pictures. You can rent bikes or you can take one of the many horse drawn taxi's. We opted to take the horse drawn carriage tour of the island which we felt was the best way to see the whole thing. It turned out to be well worth the time and money. It took about 2 hours and it wasn't outrageously expensive ($26pp) seeing as they have you on the island and what are you going to do? We were there for about 5 hours and for us that was plenty. The weather was foggy all day on the island but at least there was a breeze. When we got up that morning it was so humid and sticky it was 72 degrees and the humidity was 73%. As you will see from one of the pictures I do not know what to do with my hair. After I wash it and blow dry it, if I put any hairspray on it, it just turns to a sticky mess. Guess I just have to deal with flat hair......

Today as I said earlier we are just cleaning and laying low. This humidity and time change are catching up to me and I am feeling a little worn out today. We are on the road again tomorrow. Going a whole 90-100 miles to Traverse City. I got to talk with Braydon and Jamison today. I am really missing them. It felt good to talk with them and kind of gave me my fix. I know I have a long way to go as we aren't even half way through the trip. Hopefully Chris and I can get the webcam going soon. Well, I think we are heading to better weather in Traverse Bay, not so much humidity, and hopefully no more thunderstorms. (Yeah, right!) Hopefully everything is going well for everyone at home. We are living our dream. Just wish you all could be with us!

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Photos

Don & Karlie in MI
Don & Karlie as we enter Michigan.

Me & Karlie in MI 2
Me & Karlie as we enter Michigan.

Mackinac Island, Ferry
This is the Ferry that we took to the island. Don is sitting on the bench in the blue shirt.

Mackinac Island, From Dock
This is from the Ferry looking at the docks and the island as we are coming into port. The houses you see are private houses. Some people do live there year-round. The Lake freezes over in the winter and they can snowmobile to the mainland for things. Crazy.

Mackinac Island, Fort Wall
This is the side of the original wall of the Fort. The wood was added but the brick is the original. Not very high huh?

Mackinac Island, Fort
This is the same wall of the Fort that was in the previous picture only from the front.

Mackinac Island, Governor
This is the Governor's Mansion on the Island.

Mackinac Island, Mainstreet 2
This is a picture looking down mainstreet. Notice all the bicycles. Many people bring their own bikes over on the Ferry.

Mackinac Island, Mainstreet
Another mainstreet picture. Of course the pictures do not do it justice.

Grand Hotel Mac Island 2
This is the Grand Hotel. It is beautiful and reminds me of the Hotel Coronado in San Diego. This one however charges non-guests $10 to just walk on the premises so needless to say I did not partake. We just took a gander from our carriage as we drove by. The movie Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve & Jane Seymour was filmed here. I would have loved to see inside. Too cheap! There is a golf course to the left of this street.

Mackinac Island, St. Ann
There are 3 cemeteries on the Island. This is the Catholic one. There is a Protestant one and one for the soldiers. People can still be buried in all but the soldier one. The only requirements are you have to have been a resident of the Island for 15 years, be in good standing with your church and of course DEAD!

Mackinac Island, Soldier
This is the Soldier's cemetery.

Mackinac Island, Arch Rock 2
This is Arch Rock and you can see Lake Huron through the Arch.

Mackinac Island, MI 3
These are the horse taxi's lined up to take passengers.

Mackinac Island, Butterfly House Don
This is Don in the Butterfly House on the Island. This specie of butterfly liked Don's shirt I guess because it was the same color. They just kept landing on him. All the pictures of butterflies are in this house and they are flying around the room as we walked all over. It was quite amazing.

Mackinac Island, Butterfly House 5
One of the butterflies on the Butterfly House.

Mackinac Island, Butterfly House 1
Butterflies in the Butterfly House.

Mackinac Island, end of Mainstreet
This was the end of the road on mainstreet.

Don & Karlie
Don & Karlie are just hanging out after some cleaning. She is sitting on "her" chair.

Comments

[Nicki Chandler]

Loved the pictures
Karlie looks so cute sitting on her chair!