Some highlights are the Fall Festival we went to a couple weekends ago and the biggest highlight is when we went to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island last week. We left early Tuesday morning and we were back at nearly midnight on Thursday! We had sooo much fun! The first day we arrived at about 2pm ( we had a break for lunch at Culver's, btw Culver's has the BEST burgers ON EARTH!!!!) We checked into our hotel and God blessed us so great because we were able to get a TWO bedroom suite for only $78 a night!!!! I didn't take any pics of the room though but it was right on the water/beach! As soon as we got our room we locked up the van after I grabbed my camera and went straight to the beach! Here are a couple pics I took on the beach:
beach views!
After being on the beach for a couple hours, we drove to Darrow's (one of our fav restaurants in Mackinaw) and had a delicious meal. My dad had there beef n gravy meal with mashed potatoes and stuffing, my brother and I split a country style sandwich and my mom and sister split the same thing. AJ just ate bits a pieces of everyone's food (mostly my dad's mashed potatoes). :)
When we finished dinner, we went to the Mackinaw Mall Crossings and just relaxed and walked around. At about 8ish we went back to our hotel, put on our swimsuits and we all went swimming in the huge pool (wish I had pics of it but I couldn't take my camera in there or it probably wouldn't be working right now.... lol).
After swimming for an hour or so we went back to our rooms and took turns using the shower. Now although the two bedroom suite had three beds (a king for my parents and two queens for us 3 kids to share... AJ was in his portable pack n play bed) since my sister and I didn't really have a choice we shared on of the beds so my brother got his own! Well let me tell you my sister does not sleep still!!!! She roles around about every 15 minutes and is constantly kicking, yes I said kicking her legs around the bed so just guess who took all the kicking! ME! The first night I was probably kicked in the back (you don't think I would sleep facing the kung fu girl do ya) at least a dozen times the first night and every now and then I would have to move her legs off of my legs! The craziest part is she didn't have a clue what she did to me while she was asleep! lol
Lets just say I didn't look forward to going back to bed Wednesday night! lol
Well on Wednesday we ate the complimentary breakfast at the hotel and then were off the the ferry dock to get to the island! We were all very excited! AJ liked the ferry ride and I liked taking tons of pics along the way! Here are some of the pics I took:
Once we were on the island, we decided to go to Fort Michillimackinac first. My mom was a bit nervous some of the time that AJ was gonna fall over the wall or something but after we got to the center of the fort (where there are no cliffs and high falling points) she was just fine. I still am amazed to think of how many people lived in that fort and more amazed at the lifestyle they had over a century ago.
Well we worked up quite an appetite with all that walking and learning so we went to a Deli shop on the corner of the street and we shared two rather huge sub sandwiches. My brother (the older one) made a huge mistake by simply throwing a tiny crumb of bread into the lawn in front of where we were sitting and less than 1 second later a million seagulls were all around us. Now at first we were rather worried of being attacked for our food (I was mostly concerned that one of those obnoxious creatures were gonna poo in my clean hair!) but AJ came to the rescue and had more fun than you'd think chasing the seagulls around in the grass. :)
After eating we strolled down the street and looked at the beautiful homes and then we turned direction for all the fudge shops and gift stores.
We bought 3 lbs of fudge from Joanns Fudge Shop because they had a special buy 2 get 1 free. It was definitely better than May's, Murdicks and Ruby's fudge!
We bought 3 lbs of fudge from Joanns Fudge Shop because they had a special buy 2 get 1 free. It was definitely better than May's, Murdicks and Ruby's fudge!
Then to go with our fudge (and to warm us up a bit since it was a smidgen cool out) I bought some Starbucks coffee (just plain decaf since all my fav foo-foo drinks were so expensive) for my mom and I to share and let me tell ya, no better combination than fudge and Starbucks coffee!
While looking in the shops I put on my sale scopes and found a great long sleeve t-shirt that was on clearance for just $11 and I liked it the instant I saw it! So of course I bought it! lol I will post pics of it later!
Well sadly, after so much fun on the island, we had to leave at 6pm for the last ferry ride back to the city. We ate dinner at the pastie shop and then went into the Crossings Mall. We looked in almost all the shops we hadn't seen the day before and in Devon's fudge shop I bought a hot chocolate for us all to share (they were kind enough to put it into two cups so I shared mine with my sister and my mom shared hers with my brother). Then once dusk settled in, we saw the Mackinaw Laser Lights show! After that we went to bed at the hotel because we were exhausted.
Thursday was our last day so we did everything we could that day. We went to Mill Creek and did the zip line and eagle bridge walk (soooooo much fun), watched the mill presentation (I will post that video and pictures shortly below this) and took a nature walk. Then we went to Mama Mia's Pizza for lunch because on Thursdays its 1/2 off any pizza day! After we devoured our delicious pizza and looked in the museum upstairs we went to Fort Mackinac. Here are some pics:
All in all, we had a wonderful time in Mackinaw! God blessed us with good weather and He kept us safe there and back.
Post more later,
Butterfly
