Mackinac Island

The Grand Hotel--only $900 per night!

Beautiful gardens, crystal blue waters, warm summer breeze, creamy fudge...oh yeah, and watch out for the "road apples"! These are just a few memories that come to me while I sit here and drift back to the island.
Mackinac Island (pronounced mack-in-aw) was perfect!

We woke in the morning to catch an early ferry over to the island from St. Ignace U.P. Michigan. Well, we had good intentions of catching the 8am ferry that would take us under the "Mighty Mac"...but as usual we were getting off to a slow start. So the 8am ferry turned into the 10am ferry, and it was a photo finish!
As we were pulling into the parking lot, the last horn blew to load the ferry! Imagine four adults and a 2yr old dashing across the lot (We must have looked like O.J. hurdling obstacles in the airport). They did hold the ferry a moment so we could purchase tickets and board- whew!
The ferry ride was breathtaking. What a sight of the Mackinac Bridge.

It is a bit hard to see here, but the Mackinac Bridge is just above the picket fence.

The water, so clear! I've never see water so crystal clear and blue before. You could see all the way to the bottom! We then passed the Round Island Lighthouse and the Round Island Passage Light on our way to the island. I wish I would have gotten better shots, but I think I was too taken by the picturesque sites around me.



Yummy fudge- if you've every been to the Mackinac area you know what I'm talking about! The whole island is ONE HUGE FUDGE FACTORY! Every third shop on the island is a fudge or candy shop that gives FREE samples! Our tour guide told us if you stopped and had a sample at every fudge shop you would have eaten over a pound of fudge! Now there's a challenge I'm willing to take!


Oh, and watch out for "road apples"! There are only 3 motor vehicles permitted on the entire island; an ambulance, a firetruck, and a police vehicle. Every other mode of transportation on the island is either man-powered or horse-powered (and I mean the hairy-hay fed type, lol). Even the street sweepers are horse drawn.


The island if full gorgeous gardens filled with blooming flowers. I could sit and sway in the breeze all day!
Our day on the island was very relaxing. I definitely will be back again sometime! I felt so at-home up north, I wish I could stay longer!

Taylor playing in the sun!

More to come!

Soo Locks @ Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan

Intriguing...That is one description that comes to mind about the locks the first time I saw them. Our family watched for hours as ships would come in and pass through. My mind couldn't help but wonder, where were they going, where had they been, and what an adventure they must be having.

Daddy and Taylor--She needed a mid-day snooze.

While at the Locks Museum we learned about not only the lock themselves, but how this to many crew was their "home away from home". In the small amount of time they spent passing through, a crewmen could get a haircut, check out a library book, pick up and send out post mail, etc. Of course, it was only a matter of minutes it seems it took for them to pass, but I imagine if you were agile enough you could get done what you needed. The tour guide was explaining that this was more evident in the earlier years, and now many of these resources are seldom used.

While here we also enjoyed a pasty across the street at a small diner. Pasty (pronounced pass-tee) for those who may not know, are a must-have local favorite when visiting the U.P. Much like salt-water taffy when on the coast, you gotta have at least one pasty when up north. Pasties I would say, are in the pot pie family. The easiest way for me to describe them is; imagine a gravy-less, stuffed full pot pie without the bowl. Yummy!



More to come!

Upper Penninsula, Michigan

Whitefish Point Lighthouse

Before I continue, I wanted to take a moment to thank our visitors and fans for stopping by..I truely enjoy the company. Thank you!

Our vacation to the U.P. was a very action-packed four day excursion. After we visited the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, we traveled into the forest to the Tahquamenon Falls State Park. There we hiked the trails to the upper and lower falls.

(excerpt from brochure)

The Upper Falls is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet and is more than 200 feet across. A maximum flow of more than 50,000 gallons of water per second has been recorded cascading over its precipice.
The Tahquamenon rises from springs north of McMillan and drains an area of more than 820 square miles. From its source, it meanders 94 miles before emptying into Whitefish Bay. The amber color of the water is not rust nor is it muddiness. It is caused by tannin leached from the Cedar, Spruce and Hemlock in the swamps drained by the river. The extremely soft water churned by the action of the falls causes the extensive amounts of foam which has been the trademark of the Tahquamenon since the days of the voyageurs.

I have to admit that I cannot pronounce the name of these falls, but due to the tint of the water, they have been given the nickname "tea falls". The hike was beautiful, the mosquitos could carry you away, but overall we all enjoyed our time.





My husband and I invited my parents to travel with us on this trip, so we didn't make it to as many lighthouses as we had hoped. For being a short trip we really had it packed full of activities.


We headed back to the "Mainland" that night only to find that Madonna was at the Traverse City Film Festival and every hotel within a hundred mile radius was booked. It looked very grim for us finding shelter for the night. My husband and I felt like Mary and Joseph- weery and desperate for somewhere to lay our heads. We checked every hotel and motel at numerous exits, picking up other room seekers at every stop. Finally, after hours of knocking on doors we found a small mom and pop motel (under 20 rooms) that had two room vacant. The small convoy we'd been traveling with continued on into the night, I wonder how far it took them to find rooms? Could you imagine four um.. full-sized adults and a toddler trying to sleep in our jeep? Oh I really don't care to imagine.
More to come.....

Shipwrecks and Lights.

After I finished my lengthy post the other day I thought, well maybe I could show a few more pictures of our vacation. So starting with this post, I am going to start with some of our vacation pictures.

This is a picture of the Lens that sits center stage inside the museum.

Here is a bell recovered from one of the shipwrecks.

This is Whitefish Point Lighthouse.
I will be adding more as time allows. I thought this would be a good way to let others view our pictures of our adventures.
Blessings...

The start of it all.

I've always loved lighthouses. From a very small age my parents took our family to a nearby lighthouse during the summer, but it wasn't too long ago that it became much more. Back then it was just that...a lighthouse. Something beautiful to go see on a Sunday afternoon if we were up by the lake. In the past few years my husband and I had become more frequent visitors to that very lighthouse, even taking our newborn daughter. To be honest, she has been places her mother has not, twice! She has climbed the tower with her grandparents (something her mother and father have not done yet). It wasn't until a more recent trip we've taken to Whitefish Point (Paradise, U.P. Michigan) that my love for lighthouses flourished into an obsession.
I've looked at lighthouses as landmarks for years as a place go and see, but that trip changed my perspective. There is alot more than the beauty of the structure, there is the purpose.
Whitefish Point is also the home of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum. Rich with history, the museum houses pictures, stories and artifacts of ships and crew that have met their fate on the great lakes. The famed Edmund Fitzgerald is nestled approx. 17 miles offshore from here. After seeing the most heart-wrenching documentary of "The Big Fitz" we then toured the light keeper's quarters and walked the beachfront which seemed to stretch for miles. Over and over the call from the ship stuck with me. If they could see the light, they would be safe. The lighthouse that night meant home, safe and nurturing like a mother. There was no light that night, the storm had made the lighthouse dim. With this the lighthouse became so much more to me. Not just on that night, a sorrowful November 10th, but on many nights everywhere they are looked to for hope. With this seed began a conquest.
As the months flew by I began researching shipwrecks and lighthouses. The two for me merged into an obsession for learning and seeing all that I could.
I know realistically we may never see ALL of the lighthouses, but it is a goal we are determined to shoot for.
This is just the beginning......