Travels of the Rennhack family
🚗 Domestic 5/28/2007 – 6/1/2007
Double Family Vacation w/Phil's Family Memorial Day 2007
Kathy, Lisa and I set out for Tahquamenon Falls with Phil, Krissy, Kersten, Hannah and Nathan, the first of several long days on the road heading north.
We stopped to let the kids run off some energy at a playground along the way. Lisa went down the slide again and again, climbed the little wall, and got some help off the equipment when she needed it.
We kept driving into the evening and had Lisa asleep in bed by around nine.
We kept driving north from Tennessee, most of the day spent on the road. Late in the afternoon we crossed the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula, the towers and cables going by out the window.
We kept driving after the bridge, working our way toward Tahquamenon Falls for the next morning.
We started the day at Tahquamenon Falls, the falls tumbling brown over the rocks in the woods. After walking along the falls we followed the trail out to a pond, where the kids stopped at the fence and I paused to take pictures of the water.
From there we drove up to Whitefish Point Light Station on Lake Superior. Lisa played along the beach and peeked through the fence rails while the rest of us looked over the lighthouse and the grounds.
We drove on that afternoon and stopped for the night near Old Mackinac Point. Lisa walked around the grounds and we stopped to look at the flowers blooming there. Before dinner I took Lisa swimming in the pool, and she stayed wrapped up in a towel with her pacifier once we got out.
We started the morning at Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse, looking out at the Mackinac Bridge from the grounds. From there we caught the ferry over to Mackinac Island.
No cars are allowed on the island, so horses pulled the carts and carriages everywhere we went. We waited for a carriage near the dock and rode along with the group, Lisa riding along too. We walked Main Street past the fudge shops, then made our way up to Fort Mackinac, where Lisa got a look at one of the old cannons and I carried her up the fort steps.
The kids found a playground on the island and I stopped to take pictures from an overlook. We finished the afternoon walking past the tulips blooming near the fort before heading back down into town.
That night the three of us stayed at the Grand Hotel. Everyone dresses for dinner there, and Kathy and I had our portrait taken on the hotel's long front porch.
We spent the morning at the Original Butterfly House, walking through with butterflies landing everywhere, from small orange ones to the big blue ones that flash their wings open and shut.
After that we made our way out to Arch Rock, passing a rock formation along the trail on the way. We watched from the boardwalk above the arch and looked over the railing down at the water below. Dandelions and other wildflowers were growing all along the path.
Kathy took Lisa down along the rocky shore near the arch before we stopped at one more playground on our way back. Then it was the ferry back to the mainland and the long drive home to Powell, Tennessee, the end of five days with Phil and his family.
