Mackinac Island Road Trip

I recently ventured towards upper Michigan, which includes Traverse City, Sleeping Bear Dunes (in the city of Empire), and Mackinac Island itself. The drive was about five hours, but that's only because everyone insisted on getting coffee. My sister was like "Nice, let me have a sip." She gulped it down like someone who has never drank coffee before. She burned her mouth and then had to stay quiet for the rest of the trip because talking was painful. (The rest of us were eternally grateful.)

    We went for a day and some hours, because we're busy people like that. No time for vacationing.

    Really though, there wasn't enough to see for a full-on week trip, so we packed our bags and left. I packed in my usual manner, with an extra pair of everything because anything can happen. My luggage was starting to overfill, and my brothers were severely disappointed in me because they were intent on going and coming back in the same clothes. They took about three seconds to pack because all they did was pack themselves into the car.

   My sister, on the other hand, is completely absurd in the art of packing because she doesn't pack, no, she moves houses. If we're going on a weekend trip, she's moving all of her things to the hotel, because goodness knows, that pearl bracelet was made for Mackinac Island. She literally had a jewelry bag that she insisted on taking. I felt like this was an issue that needed to be addressed, but my mother insisted on letting her do it her own way. I said okay and glared at her three comb set.

Before the trip, I baked about 50 cookies to eat throughout the trip. They lasted all the way through. My siblings were not amused.

I feel the need to write about the car ride as well, because it is a complex business that is not to be tampered with. I sit in the second row, behind the passenger seat, next to my little sister. My two brothers and one sister (who can't drink coffee) sat in the back, where they took every opportunity to shove how much fun they were having in my face. They can have their fun, but I'm the one in control of the windows and the one with an intense amount of legroom. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

After a while, everyone started getting hungry, so I gave them a cookie each. They probably glared at me, but they were in the back so I couldn't see. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We stopped at Traverse City and played on the seaside (lakeside) a while. Where we live in southeast Michigan , the beach is like forty minutes away and always seemed to be populates with the entirety of Michigan, so I've only gone there about three to four times. I splashed water and watched people fail at paragliding. I also collected seashells and then threw them to the ground in .1 second when my mom casually stated, "make sure to look out for bugs."

After staying there a while we drove to Empire, Michigan, which is known for the enormous sand dunes. It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Since I am a resourceful (and a very responsible and cool) blogger, I'm attaching a picture I took.

   :O How cool is that ?!? (very)

We also drove on a nature trail and I got this cool blurry photo:

Blurry photos are their own kind of beautiful. (That's my excuse as well as profound wisdom.) 

Three hundred and forty-seven pictures later, we headed out for St Ignace, where we would stay for the night. On Sunday, we'd go up north.

We left the hotel about ten a.m. From there we headed to Shepler's Ferry service. I took like 456345 pictures of the water, but with good reason. 

(My instagram never looked better) (@skiiies)

We spent about an hour walking until we realized that everyone was giving us skeptical looks that meant hahaha! good luck walking those eight-point-three miles!! don't die!

No one said that, but you could feel it in the wind that blew in your face as their bikes zoomed by.

We ended up going back to rent bikes. Everyone was pretty skeptical because they looked like they were from the 70's. They didn't have any other choices though, so we had to suck it up and enjoy history.

Mackinac Island was pretty cool in itself. I'm lame at adjectives but that's why I brought pictures.

There was horse stuff everywhere and everything smelled like horses but after it wasn't noticeable because it had infiltrated everyone.

(Horses are the kings of Mackinac.)

At one point we passed stairs that led to a haunted house and I wanted to go in but my brothers profusely refused. That's all I'm allowed to say.

After boarding bikes we went on the trail for the 8.3 mile ride around the island. Mainly, we wanted to see Arch Rock but missed the sign. My little sister yelled (when we were five minutes past the sign) "HEY I SAW A SIGN!" 

My brothers and I looked over and gave her this look:

(Also, I am doing so well with graphics today.)

In hindsight, we all need to get our eyes checked and she's actually the only one without any sort of eye wear.

Since we were far past the sign we did not turn back. We did stop a couple times during the road, though, because there were several entrances to the shores of Lake Huron. It was like a convenient water bottle. The water was so PURE AND CLEAN (at least it looked like it) so we drank it and splashed it.

The trek was long and I wanted to give up about 4590345 times in the middle. After we rode up a hill I was completely over all adrenaline whatsoever and was ready to set up camp and live there for the rest of my life. My brothers kept on encouraging me which was probably supposed to be a nice thing but such a rare occurrence which made it feel like a taunt instead. Plus, they did not want to drag me out of there. I had to survive all alone in the wilderness.

Every mile a wooden post would mark the distance and then everyone would cry and look up into the heavens. (That was just me.)

Soon after, (it was not soon and we ended up having to pay two hours/per bike) we saw sign of life...civilization...stores...food...humans...horse. We had done it. We had arrived in America. The year was 1620 and the Mayflower had arrived on Cape Cod.

This sounds like an exaggeration but it was exactly how I felt. After eight-point-three miles I was ready to sleep for forty-eight hours straight. Birds sang, the sun said hello. I had come back from battle, alive and in one piece. The townsfolk rejoiced, the mayor organized a party for all of the warriors. It was a happy time in the kingdom.

--

A couple more pictures below. The last one is my favorite. It was taken around the St. Ignace Area.

Mackinac Bridge with weirdly placed lines in the middle because it was taken from the backseat. I hoped it would go with it but it did not and was, in fact, very noticeable. On a further note, my friend frantically asked me what I was thinking when I  took this picture and then I realized how it must look to other people. It was taken in the backseat and I did not stand in the way of an incoming car to take this picture. I like to think I am dedicated, but fortunately, not that much.

       

JoAnn's Fudge Shop

Weirdly angled photo because my family was leaving me behind to fend for myself.