25th Celebration

 One would think that having an anniversary on July 31st would be an easy day to celebrate, but it's usually the day one of us is gone at a church camp. This year Jason was on that backpacking trip. So we planned, or Jason planned, a little trip for just the two of us to Mackinac Island August 11-13. It's one of my favorite places to go and we haven't been for many years. 

We left Sunday after church. We ensured the kids had started making their chili dinner so they could eat at a decent time, otherwise they wouldn't have it ready until bedtime! We ate some sandwiches in the car during the 4-hour drive to Mackinac City. That's where we stayed, which is on Lake Huron, and included a complimentary breakfast, a fitness room, a hot tub, and a pool (we didn't use the pool, though). It was all lovely! Especially the sunrise over Lake Huron!

The night before.

The next morning, before the sun came up.

It was a little cloudy, but it made for some amazing colors!

Close-up on Jason's phone.

We left Monday morning to make the ferry to the island, where there are no motorized vehicles. I brought my bike, but Jason rented one. We toured Fort Mackinac and learned about the American and British military outpost that was built during the Revolutionary War. It was used to control the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and help control the fur trade. 

Ferry ride out.

A little lighthouse.

Beautiful Mackinac Island!

From the fort.

On the right is the fort, overlooking the town.

The Grand Hotel.

Afterward, we ate lunch at The Mustang Lounge which was originally built in the 1780's as a fur trading warehouse. When it was remodeled in 2008 they used some of the original timbers, making it Michigan's Most Historic Tavern! We had some delicious sandwiches there, but I forgot to take pictures. 

We embarked on our bike ride on the island next. If you ride the perimeter, it's 9 miles, but we rode around most of it, and then through parts of it so we could explore some other areas and do a couple of mini hikes. We rode around 12 miles and hiked a few miles, plus climbed about 400 steps. The weather was perfect and the air is so clean up there!

St. Ann's Church is along the route.

The famous Arch Rock! Formed by the water cutting through the rock thousands of years ago. It's 50 feet wide and 146 feet above Lake Huron. 

The Mackinac Bridge.

The road through the island.

A little adventurous hike.

Crack in the Island: formed by water seeping through the earth and eroding away the limestone over the years.

Cave of the Woods: formed 10,000 years ago when it was on the shoreline and the waves eroded away the limestone. It is now in the middle of the island!

Sugar Loaf: also created by erosion about 11,000 years ago and used to be connected to some other cliffs that aren't as distinguishable.

We hiked up to where Sugar Loaf was connected to. It's more of a hill than the cool-looking rock formation that is Sugar Loaf.

The walk back down.

From one of the neighborhoods, near the Grand Hotel.

The Grand Hotel.

We had dinner at The Seabiscuit Cafe and got some delicious white fish chowder and a shared a very scrumptious salad. We had to eat light so we could enjoy our Ryba's Mackinac Island ice cream and fudge for the road. You can't go to Mackinac without indulging in some ice cream and fudge!

The next day we went to Michilimackinac, which is not a typo. It's a fort where the fur trading occurred along the Straits of Mackinac. First among the French, and then the Britsh. So many goods were traded there! It was abandoned in 1783, but they are still excavating and discovering little treasures to this day! They have costumed guided tours among the historic buildings. We really enjoyed the tour and learned a lot. The most interesting fact was that 50,000 pelts (beaver fur) were traded annually there. The amazing thing is that beavers are still around, they aren't even extinct! Yet, passenger pigeons, which the settlers enjoyed eating, went extinct in 1914. 

Playing cards from the 1700s they found excavating. They said the number cards didn't have numbers on them, just the suit.

We enjoyed looking at the gardens.

And the demonstration of a meal they would have made.

The excavating team.

Before leaving, we enjoyed a very delicious lunch at Scalawags WhiteFish and Chips, which is a very popular casual eatery in Mackinac City that harvests its whitefish, perch, and walleye from the Great Lakes.

We arrived home relaxed and refreshed to our house still standing- success!