Meeting Mackinac

Last Friday I told you we headed out on a fall adventure…to the Mackinac Island area! We don’t normally take a fall vacation, but we did so this year so we could participate in the Mackinac Island Bridge Walk.

                As excited as I was about that, I was also really excited to visit Mackinac Island. It’s been on my list for years! And this was my year. 😊

                We actually went to the Island two different days, so today you’ll read about the first visit. Fun fact, in case you’re planning your own visit someday, it turns out that the day before Labor Day is the second busiest day of the year on Mackinac Island, right behind the 4^th of July. Tuck that away if people-filled islands are not your jam. It was packed. I still loved it and had a lot of fun, but I admit some parts of the experience were not as enjoyable on Sunday because of the sheer volume of people.

                But I’m jumping ahead…

                Can we just start by appreciating the view from the breakfast room at our hotel, and our breakfast? I miss my magic breakfast fairy that made all this deliciousness appear in front of us every day! (Food at this hotel was very good.)

                We got ready and headed to the ferry terminal. Here’s a little more info for you if you’re planning to visit. This day we used the Arnold Transit Company. They have different versions of ferries, and we chose to take the slow boat. It was cheaper to ride but took longer to get there. This did not matter to me at all, as I wanted to enjoy the view, and not have my hair blowing over my face until I couldn’t see! We purchased our tickets online, and when we arrived to wait, Ryan actually left to go across the road for coffee. While he was gone, the guy came through line to scan tickets, and I didn’t have ours! Ryan was able to forward the email to me, and I checked us in…and then I was terrified he would not get back in time to get on the boat! There was much sweating.

                Mark, Lynnette, Juliana and I all boarded and I kept texting Ryan to tell him to hurry! I was never more relieved to see him standing beside me, coffee in hand!

                (Two more ferry notes: we did have to pay to park in their lot for the day, and I believe it was $10 for the lot we used. Additionally, we were permitted to have food and drink on the ferry. This was not true of our adventure later in the week with a different company.)

                We sat up top and enjoyed our ride over to the Island. I had a little friend who wanted to help me take a lot of pictures! The water was calm, and we all enjoyed the ride.

                Arriving at Mackinac was one of those take-pause moments for me. I couldn’t believe I was really there! (With half the state of Michigan!)

                We walked around a little bit when we first arrived...

                Juliana wanted to go see the butterfly garden, so we went there. It was hotttttttttttttt in there, but the butterflies were quite active and so pretty!

                By that time, we were getting hungry, so we decided to find some lunch. We landed on Patrick Doud’s Irish Pub! Ryan had a burger and I had chicken, and it was all very tasty.

                Our afternoon adventure? Renting bikes to go around the perimeter of the Island! There are bike rental spots all over the downtown area, so we just picked one. Ryan and I reprised our honeymoon date of renting a tandem bike!

                It was crazy congested in the downtown area, and honestly, it wasn’t much better once we got on the outside of the Island, just because there were so many people. We hit a big traffic jam and saw a bunch of people staring up into the trees. We heard someone say something about a guy falling, and we read later on the news that a gentleman had fallen from a trail above and was hanging on for dear life. Though Mackinac is a vehicle-free island, they did bring out the fire truck and ambulance to rescue him. We had passed through by that time.

                We stopped a couple of times to take in the water views, and then we kept going.

                When we got back to town, we found some coffee (pronto!) at the Mackinac Island Cookie Company. (We didn’t try the cookies, but they were HUGE!!) We did a little more exploring on foot and then we all shared some ice cream. (They were having a BOGO sale, so we split an order with Mark and Lynnette. The servings were enormous.)

                Everyone was pretty tired by that point, and we had an EARLY morning waiting on us the following day, so we caught a return ferry back to St. Ignace. Our ticket was round-trip, and the ferry ran every hour.

We were so full from our day of eating, so we actually grabbed little protein bowls from the store and ate in our hotel room!

Despite the Island being so full, we had a great day there!