Catching Up, Part 1

There are several posts we've been meaning to make over the last couple of months. We're almost to the end of the year now, so I think we should hurry up and get them posted before 2010. This is part one of our catching up: my birthday trip to Mackinac Island.


I turned 30 this year, and Randy surprised me with a trip to Mackinac Island. It's about an 8-hour drive from McHenry whichever way you go, so we decided to drive there by going south, around the bottom of Lake Michigan, and come home from the north, through Wisconsin. Our trip started off on a pretty promising note when we checked into our hotel Saturday night (still on the mainland of Michigan) and discovered that Washington had defeated USC.

Sunday (my birthday), we caught the ferry over to Mackinac Island. They don't allow motorized vehicles on the island, so the main methods of getting around (other than walking) are by horse and by bike.

We did both! We started out by taking a tour of the island by horse-drawn carriage. The town is very picturesque, and our tour guide told us about several interesting historical facts. (Bonus interesting fact: look at the link to see where Dr. Beaumont is buried!) After seeing the town, we headed into the interior of the island. Although the coastline of the island is very flat, it gets extremely hilly as soon as you turn inland. I was impressed the horses were able to pull our tour group of about 20 people up the hill with only a few short rests.


It was very pretty, and the weather was perfect. After our tour, we rented bikes and rode around the island. There's a highway that goes all the way around the edge of the island - it's about 8 miles in circumference. It was really, really pleasant to be able to ride without worrying about cars on the roads!


Our second day on the island was not quite as perfect - we still had a nice time, but it was chillier and kind of drizzling for a lot of the morning. We went up to Fort Mackinac and rode bikes again. We managed to get slightly lost on a tour of the island's interior roads, and ended up having to cut across a golf course twice in order to get unlost. I was kind of outraged to see a (non-horse drawn!) golf cart at one point.

We had a great time and I would definitely recommend the trip. I don't think I can overstate just how gorgeous everything was!


Tune in tomorrow for Catching Up, Part 2!