Back home!

Well Melinda and I made it home. :) We had a blast up in Mackinaw City.

After I posted yesterday we went down to the pool and spa for about an hour. We had the whole place to ourselves for about 20 minutes, which was awesome. Loved the spa!!! It as so relaxing. After that we went back to the room and ate a bit of fudge. YUMMY! Then we watched some Star Trek Enterprise on the laptop before going to bed.

This morning we got up early to get breakfast. The hotel we stayed at offers a free "hot" breakfast that is awesome! They have eggs, sausage, make your own waffles, bagels, different kinds of bread, cereal, etc. The waffles are quite good and fun to make. Its one of the reasons we like staying at this hotel. After an excellent breakfast we went back to the room to pack up to check out.

We then checked out and headed for Colonial Michilimackinac. Colonial Michilimackinac was "founded in 1715 as a French fur-trading village and military outpost, Michilimackinac was later occupied by the British who abandoned it in 1780 to establish a new fort on Mackinac Island." It is set up to show life in 1770's before the fort was taken apart and moved to Mackinac Island.

We used to go there quite a bit when we were little, but it has been a long time, at least 10 years since we've gone to the fort. We got there as they were opening and took a bunch of pictures of the Mighty Mac from the Lake Michigan side. We waited a bit for the Morning Salute Cannon demonstration. That was fun, though I jumped when it went off. After that we went into the fort and began wondering thorugh the buildings. At this point we realized that it seemed so much smaller now than it did when we were little. At 10:00 am then we went to watch the Musket firing demonstration. The same guys who did the cannon demonstration did the Musket firing. They also gave of the history background on the fort, which was nice. There were some funny moments. The muskets weren't as loud as the cannon. After that we wandered around the rest of the buildings. After we were done with all the buildings we actually went up to the walkway around the fort, which used to scare me when I was little. I actually also went up to the tower above the gate. We of course took photos of that to document this because I used to be so scared to go up there. It was sort of strange to walk around the fort. We only made it halfway around before Melinda wanted to go back down, which was fine with me. We then made our way back to the giftshop.

After the fort we went to the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse. We didn't do the tour because it looked scary, but we got photos from all angles. We bought our brother a few items since he likes lighthouses.

After that we decided to start heading home. It was a nice drive home. Not too much traffic. We had a nice lunch in Gaylord.

Overall it was a fun trip. It was strange because we had no definite plans. Normally when we travel we have it planned down to the minute practically. It was strange to just make it up on the fly, but fun. It was a relaxing, pleasant trip. And as much as I love Chicago, I think this trip was better than Chicago would have been. I liked the slow pace of it rather than the fast pace that normally is apart of our Chicago trips. We'll definitely plan another trip to Chicago. We tend to go at least once a year. Everything happens for a reason, so it was a good thing my brother's wife canceled because we had an amazing time in Mackinaw City.

Here are some of today's photos:

Mackinac Bridge from Lake Michigan side



Morning Cannon salute



Musket firing demonstration



Sunflower and Church



Buildings in the fort



The fort from the walkway



Me in the tower at the Fort



The land gate



Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse





Well thats all. It was a fun trip. Melinda and I both really enjoyed it and loved the relaxed, laid back feeling. Must go eat fudge now! Yum!

Later!
Melissa