Happy Tuesday, y’all! What did you guys do this weekend? I hope something epic =]
If I tell you John and I spent the weekend kid-free for the first time in 2 1/2 years, would you believe me???
Well, we seriously did.
Every year, on the last weekend of October, we pack our bags and make the 8 hour trek up to Mackinac Island in Michigan. We’ve been doing this for the past 5 years or so and we look forward to it all year. We have taken Alex with us the past two years, but this year, we made it a plan to leave both kiddos with my parents. I didn’t even cry when we left, aren’t you so proud of me???
After staying the night with my parents, we took off Friday morning to finish the second half of our 8-hour drive. Even though it’s quite a long haul Up North, the drive is really beautiful in the fall and it goes by pretty quickly.
If you’re not familiar with Mackinac, it’s a little island in the straits between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. It’s almost like a step back in time because there are no cars allowed on the island (aside from a fire truck and ambulance) so, if you want to get around you have to walk, ride a bike, or catch a horse and buggy taxi.
You take a 30-minute ferry ride over to the island from the mainland and, upon arrival, you are greeted with the clip-clop of horse hooves and the smell of delicious fudge (among other horse-like smells; but you get past that pretty quickly).
We’ve stayed somewhere different every year we’ve vacationed here, so it’s been a new adventure every time. This year we opted for the new hotel right on the main strip, called Bicycle Street Inn. It did not disappoint! We may even have a repeat stay there next year.
Shortly after we checked into our hotel and dropped our luggage, we took off to explore some new parts of the island we had never seen before. John had heard about a fort at the very highest point of the island and we couldn’t resist searching it out. It boasted panoramic views of the island a surrounding sights. Who could pass that up??
Just about a mile from town, we found Fort Holmes. It was pretty spectacular at the top.
From there we walked through the woods (while FaceTimeing with Alex) to find another scenic overlook and a few more treasures a little more inland.
We came upon a few cemeteries with some pretty old gravestones from the 1800s. It was a little sobering walking through and seeing how young some of these people were, but so interesting to get a small glimpse into their lives.
From there, we hiked back to town for some shopping, dinner and drinks. Then, like any married couple without their kids would do, we went back to the room and took a nap! Not kidding, both of us totally conked out at 8:00. We were just resting up for the rest of our night out, which lasted til 11:00pm! Party. Animals.
On Saturday, we woke up and with coffee in hand, were able to take in some more sights before some of our favorite people arrived!
There is always a race the weekend we are up in Mackinac, The Great Turtle Run, (John and I took the year off; I bought sunglasses with my race fee instead, fair trade) and my best friend, her sister and dad were all planning to run the half marathon. We were so ready to cheer them on!
They took off, and we got to walking around the island to catch up with them throughout the course. There was a little picture taking, talking and carrying a stroller down an insane amount of stairs, while both my friends’ kids stayed asleep.
After the race, which they all totally rocked, we were able to walk around a bit, grab some food and do some much needed catching up! Love these wonderful friends =]
To wrap up the day, john and I sat and watched a gorgeous sunset behind the Mackinac Bridge.
So, there’s a little peek into our weekend! It was so great to have that time with John, we really need to do it more often! But, I was very glad to hug my babies when we got back on Sunday afternoon!! Not to worry though, they had a blast with their YiaYia and Papa, playing with their cousin and going to pumpkins parties and eating candy (of course!)
