Adventures in the U.P.: Day 3--Macinac Island

One thing that I wanted to do last time we were in the U.P. was to visit Macinac Island.  It's a little town on an island out in the middle of Lake Huron and the only way that you can get there is to take a ferry.  We weren't able to make it work last time so I really pushed for it to happen this time even though it meant driving over an hour back the way we had come and even though I knew it was going to be the activity with the biggest price tag.  Luckily one of the ferry lines was running an anniversary special for the summer.  They had brought back one of their original ferries and the price was half what the higher speed boats were going for.  We did not mind a slower pace at all.  In fact the ride over was probably what the kids enjoyed most!

The other interesting thing about the island is that there are no cars allowed.  You either ride in a carriage or ride a bike or walk.  The place was definitely a tourist trap but so charming and so pretty that I'm already wanting to go back again.

They had tons of beautiful old victorian style houses surrounded by lovely gardens and landscaping.

We did a lot of looking around in various shops and sampled lots of delicious fudge before finally buying a bunch of it at one of the shops.  Then we visited a fun little butterfly house.  It was so much fun to see so many, (literally thousands) of varieties of butterflies.  The kids kept trying so hard to have one land on them even though we weren't supposed to catch them.  The one who wasn't even trying was Taylor--who had one land on his nose!

His eyes were totally watering because the butterfly was tickling so much!

After the butterfly house, we decided to hike a ways to see this cool arch that we had heard about.  The girl in the butterfly gift shop told us it was only about a half a mile away.  My mom decided to find a place to sit down to wait for us.  I debated whether to go or stay since technically I was still recovering from surgery, but not knowing when or if we would be coming back anytime soon, I decided to make the hike with everyone else.

Well.  That may have been a mistake.  The half mile walk turned into one... and then two.  After we passed the 2 mile marker all I could think about was that if it was over two miles to the arch, that meant it was over two miles back!  We finally got there and realized that the steps to go up for a better look were closed off because a tree had fallen and broken a bunch of the stairs so not only did we walk WAY further than we thought we'd have to, but we had to settle for looking at it from the bottom!

It was pretty cool, but I think I was so exhausted and in such despair about having to hike back that I didn't appreciate it as much as all the people who were riding bikes around the island who looked like they were having so much fun.

I'm pretty sure I was contemplating stealing that bike from someone at this point.

The kids recovered their energy quickly though and had a great time playing on the rocky beach of Lake Huron.

Once we dragged ourselves back to town, we were all pretty exhausted after a long day and decided to catch the next ferry back.  This time we were able to take one of the higher speed ferries and made it back to the mainland in a fraction of the time it took to get to the island.  The kids thought it was fun but I think they enjoyed that longer ride on the smaller ferry even more. 

This was the Grand Hotel as viewed from the ferry.  I imagine the view from the hotel would have been pretty awesome too!

One of the homes on the side of the island.

It was such a fun day--even with the exhausting hike.  Next time I think it would be fun to take a couples-only trip like for an anniversary or something and actually stay in the hotel or one of the B&B's for a day or two and then actually rent bikes and ride around the island or go on one of the carriage tours.  Maybe someday...