A Day For Shepler's Ferry, Mackinac Island, The Mackinac Bridge, A Shrine And Nun Dolls.

When you drive 8 hours north to Michigan you might as well take a day and head up to Mackinac Island, the land that time forgot.  In order to get there you have to hop on the ferry from Mackinaw City to the island.  Our generous ferry captain today gave us a little more bang for our buck by driving the boat around the Mackinac Bridge.  Everyone else seemed thrilled about this bonus trip.  Being stuck on the bottom of the boat longer than expected and heading towards the bridge made me want to puke, but thankfully I was able to hold it together and not create any major scenes. 
We decided today was a good day for our trip to Mackinac because it was the end of the boat race from Chicago.  Two years ago we just happened upon this event and were able to get into the Grand Hotel and look around.  Typically you would have to pay just to get on the porch of this hotel, but because of the finish line party there we just sort of roamed around for free.  Whether or not this is technically ok with the hotel is up for debate, but it worked again this year.   
After hours of walking around in what was some pretty intense heat for Northern Michigan we decided we might as well go all out and head for the bridge.  I loathe the suspension bridge at home and this is a super sized suspension bridge.  Luckily I apparently got all the crazy out of me on the first ferry ride and managed to hold it together for the roundtrip on the bridge.  Since we made it through all that it seemed only right that we stop by the Cross in the Woods on the way home.  It’s hard to feel like a trip’s complete without seeing what I believe is the largest crucifix in the world and the largest nun doll museum in the United States.  The girls probably could have spent all day looking at the nun dolls.  The gift shop at the shrine is also pretty entertaining.

Too close to the bridge for my liking :(

Seriously what is the deal with this creepy sculpture of Gerald Ford?

Maturity at its finest.

Love Arch Rock and the cool hike back down to town from here.

Lots of walking and lots of sun make for some exhausted little ladies.

It is so hard to explain to kids how to look through these.

Checking out the marker for a scene from Somewhere in Time.

What's vacation without walking up hundreds of steps?  Gabby counted just over a hundred and then started over, but we're pretty sure she was only counting every other step.

Riding on one of these all the way from Chicago sounds like pure misery to me.

They loved this seat last time too.

Checking out the fancy finish party.

Trying to figure out chess.

How could you not take pictures of these guys?

And she's out.

View from the top on the way back. 

Heading back from 2 minutes in the UP.

WORST JOB EVER!!!!!

She insisted on having her picture taken in front of all these.

Gabby adored the Sister of Perpetual Adoration because of their pink habits.  Mom thought they might take a vow of silence so I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have a prater of joining their order.

Before all the walking and steps. 

The Journey North: Our Annual Trip to Michigan

I find little more thrilling in life than getting a good deal on a hotel on Priceline.  Sadly the rule for Priceline seems to be that it is only really effective in large cities.  Ann Arbor and Traverse City do not qualify as large cities.  Finding someplace for our two pit stops on the way up north was a struggle at best.  We took two days to make our 8 hours drive up to Walloon Lake.  Stop number one was to visit friends in Ann Arbor and stop two was to check out what Traverse City had to offer.

On the list of most disgusting places to be with children, public restrooms and hotels, cheap nasty ones especially, are running a close tie in my book.  The first part of this trip was unfortunately full of both.  At least with the bathrooms you’re in and out in a matter of minutes, whereas in the hotels they have time to touch everything :(  Watching kids sit on the floor in a hotel room is enough to make me want to have a serious nervous breakdown.  I guess the upside is that there is not better motivation to get up and move in the morning that the thought that you and your children are sleeping in other people’s filth.  At the Red Roof Inn in Ann Arbor during my bed bug check I found a few stray hairs, a large stain that I made myself believe was coffee, and then there was the finger nail clipping that I think I dislodged when searching the bedding.  This hotel got two stars and cost about $50 and it probably deserved negative star.  Luckily we had a nice time visiting friends and finally got to see what all the hype was about at Zingerman’s deli. 

Blessedly the 2 1/2 star hotel in Traverse City was light years nicer and we were all actually able to sleep peacefully in a comfortable bed free of hairs, stains and finger nails.  I guess you get what you pay for since it cost three times as much.  Traverse is a lovely place to visit and I am shocked that in my 20 or more summer trips to Northern Michigan we have never been there before.  Unfortunately we had less than 24 hours to check it out before we headed to Walloon.