Mackinac Island

Since moving to Michigan I have heard a lot about Mackinac Island, and it has been on my list of "Must See" places in Michigan. For our Anniversary Eric and were able to go and stay in the Grand Hotel. It's the hotel that, "Somewhere in Time" was filmed. 

First we stopped at Mackinac City to see the old fort and light house. I read the girls a book about the lighthouse this summer during summer reading, so it was fun to see. And of course to take some pictures of the "Mighty Mac" as the bridge is called. It's still the longest bridge North America. It is 5 miles long. It's pretty impressive. 

Then we drove up to Saulte Sainte Marie. We have heard about the "Soo" from the missionaries. It is the most northern point of the Lansing, MI Mission and the missionaries say you don't want to get sent to the Soo for the winter! I guess it's pretty cold and dark during the winter. We went and saw the Soo Locks. They were super impressive. We were able to see a big tanker come and through the lock. 

We also found where the church meets. It must be a small branch because they only have a suite in an office building. 

Then we went back to St. Ignace and spent the night. They have fireworks every Saturday night long the bay that over looks Lake Huron. It was a nice fireworks show. 

Sunday morning we got up and boarded the ferry for Mackinac Island. We were able to go under the bridge which was cool. You could also see the Grand Hotel from the boat.
The island doesn't have any cars on it except for one ambulance. It is funny to see all of the luggage being pulled to the hotel by horses. 

We took the carriage tour of the island. Then we walked around downtown a bit and then we biked around the island. It's an 8 mile bike ride around the island.
The Governor of Michigan has a summer home on the Island and it's beautiful. 

Then we checked into the hotel and went swimming. The swimming pool was a warm 85 degrees which as you can see from my fleece that it wasn't really warm outside. The pool was awesome. They even had free snow cones and Eric liked jumping off the snake. 

Our room was the Versailles Suite and we were next to the "Somewhere in Time" Suite. 

The hotel has a dress code and after 6:30 the men must be in suit coats and ties and women in skirts or dresses. We dressed and went down to dinner. I felt like I was on a cruise ship. We had a nice 5 course dinner followed by after dinner entertainment by a harp player and then dancing. 

Sunday had another lovely breakfast in the dinning room, played croquet on the lawn and then headed for home. We got on the ferry just in time for a huge down pour. I guess we picked a great time to leave. 

It was also funny to see the delivery trucks on a ferry to make their delivery. 

We sure had a great time. 

Thanks so much Linda for watching the girls!!!!