Mackinac Island, Michigan: 9th Anniversary Trip

By Michael

We set out for Castle Rock in St. Ignace and spent the day there. Thomas and I climbed the stairs to the top, past the fenced overlook, for the long view down over the highway and the water toward the Mackinac Bridge. Kathy kept the camera busy, the two of us on the bench by the entrance, and the big fiberglass Paul Bunyan and his blue ox standing guard at the gate.

Late in the day we checked in at the hotel in St. Ignace. From the balcony we had our first look at Mackinac Island, the straits calm and gold with the evening light and a cluster of hotel roofs showing through the trees on the far shore.

We got back to the hotel and the kids went straight for the pool. Thomas rode on my shoulders and Lisa climbed up for hugs in the water, both of them laughing until the pool closed on us.

By Michael

We caught an early ferry over to the island, watching the Mackinac Bridge slide past from the top deck. Once ashore we walked to the butterfly house, where Lisa held still with her hand out until a monarch and then a swallowtail landed on her, and came out grinning with a cold drink.

A team of draft horses was being watered outside a carriage stand, since no cars are allowed on the island and everything moves by horse or bicycle. We walked out along the bluff road to Arch Rock and looked down through the limestone arch at the beach below, and later a carriage took us out to Sugar Loaf, the big rock standing by itself in the woods.

The day took in Fort Mackinac and Arch Rock. Inside the fort the kids posed behind a cutout of a soldier's family, watched a marching drill, and we had lunch on the terrace overlooking the harbor. Afterward Lisa and Thomas climbed the playground at Marquette Park while we watched the boats come and go below.

We rode the ferry back in the afternoon spray, Lisa's hair blowing loose at the rail.