Mackinac Island

Friday, July 8th

Had a little rain overnight, but nothing too significant and we were nice and dry in our cozy tent (thank you Steve!) One of our campsite neighbors mentioned that her parents had the exact same tent and had major problems with leaks. Fortunately, we didn't have the same problem.

After breakfast, we drove about 25-30 minutes to Mackinaw City to board Shepler's Ferry to take us across Lake Michigan to Mackinac Island. The ferry left every 30 minutes or so and despite the surprisingly long line of people waiting to board the ferry, we didn't have to wait very long.

Shepler's Ferry Entrance (this picture was taken on a different day, but on this particular morning it was just as overcast)

In just a few minutes, the sunshine starting breaking through the clouds.

Shepler's Ferry has an upper and lower deck, and of course Amaya wanted to sit up on top!

And she loved every minute on the boat!

It was only a 40-45 minute ride to the island. We had spectacular views of the lake as well as the Mackinac Bridge. As we got closer to the island, we got a good view of the Round Island Lighthouse. I found a painting of this lighthouse in an art gallery on the island as a souvenier.

We were full of awe and excitement as we caught the first view of the island.

Once we got off the ferry, our first reaction was, "Man, there are A LOT of people here!" And our second reaction was, "Man, it smells like horse poop!"

Transportation on the island boils down to walking, riding horse led carriages, or biking. There are about 500 people who live on the island and among them are only one doctor and two vets. I can't remember if they mentioned how many horses were on the island, but it's gotta be more than 500, right?

I absolutely fell in love with the homes, hotels, and bed and breakfasts!

The Lilac Tree Hotel

A Floral Shop

Another Bed and Breakfast

Since it was approaching lunch time, we ate at the Seabiscuit Cafe - delicious! We also had a coupon for some free fudge, so we went to Joann's Fudge shop and had their peanut butter chocolate fudge. It was pretty good, but I still think my fudge is better.

We were planning on spending two days on the island. The first day to sightsee and shop, and the second day to bike around the island and catch what we didn't see the first time. Our first day included a horse led "carriage" ride that toured the major scenic areas of the island.

Our carriage

The ride overall was great to get an overview of the island. It was a little long though - over 2 hours with breaks in between. The ride took us through the Mackinac State Park. We enjoyed getting to see the the beautiful flowers and trees. There isn't a lot of wildlife on the island - mostly small animals. At one point, they tried bringing deer over, but once the winter hit and the ice froze, all the deer left the island. I particularly enjoyed the various flowers.

One of our stops was at The Arch Rock with an overlook of Lake Huron.


The water was so clear and so blue!

Steve and Amaya at the overlook.

Happy Little Girl!

There was another stop at Fort Mackinac - a fully functioning fort that unfortunately was another steep fee to tour - we figured a picture was good enough.

Gorgeous landscaping and flowers...

Once our carriage ride was over, we walked downtown to do a little shopping. I was a little disappointed in the shopping. After nine fudge shops and ten t-shirt/souvenier shops, I was about done. I was hoping for more gift/antique/art gallery shops - something different than the typical touristy shop. Oh, well... that didn't stop us from finding a few treasures!

We ate dinner at Mary's Bistro overlooking the water. Gorgeous evening to enjoy dinner with your family and an overall good end to the day.

We headed back to Shepler's Ferry and you guessed it, we sat on top. This time it was much, much, much more windy!

And we caught a better view of the Mackinac Bridge.

As usual, we were exhausted by the time we got back to the campsite at 9:30pm. Instead of going to the movies at the campground, we had hoped to go straight to bed. Unfortunately, our days of being by ourselves was over. Two additional pop-up campers had moved in right next to us and unfortunately, they were VERY, VERY loud! It didn't stop Amaya from going to bed, but Steve and I were up past midnight. So much for falling asleep to nature's noises...

Another Day at Jellystone

Thursday, July 7th
Got a little chilly overnight... had to use another blanket to stay warm!

We stayed around the campground again. I took Amaya to the playground and she met her first official "camp friend." Amaya and I were playing tetherball and a little girl came over and asked Amaya if she wanted to play. Her name is Trinity and she's 6 years old. When I asked where her mom was to make sure it was okay to play she said, "I have no clue." Hmmm.... I looked around the playground and sure enough, I was the ONLY parent around! There were maybe 20 kids running around and no parents, just me! Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm just a little overprotective, but I want to know where my kid is at all times! Anyway, Trinity and Amaya played on the swings and at Yogi's house until Trinity went off with some bigger kids to play "Evil Princess". Not sure I want my sweet little girl playing "Evil Princess"....

We went swimming again... this time I went in.... and we managed to stay warm for 1 1/2 hours! Amaya had a blast playing tag and "chasing" us around the pool. After swimming, we quickly got dressed and met near the Ranger Station to go on a Wagon Ride with Yogi and Boo Boo Bear.

Ranger Kim came with Yogi and Boo Boo and had us singing a various assortment of songs. Amaya got to sit right next to Yogi, but she was a little afraid of them. After the ride around the campground, we had a chance to get a few snapshots with Yogi and Boo Boo.

As you can see... Amaya was a little hesitant.

For whatever reason, she liked Boo Boo Bear a little better than Yogi!

After the Wagon Ride, it was still a little too early for dinner, so we decided to play a round of miniature golf! I really don't care for miniature golf because I'm just not that good and I don't have the patience, but Amaya REALLY liked it!

Here's the beginning of the golf course.

Steve helping Amaya with her swing.

Amaya enjoyed the different obstacles... Yogi's picnic basket and this lighthouse!

Almost made it in!

After mini-golfing, we went back to the campsite and Steve made another amazing fire while I started dinner. We had hot dogs with mac n cheese, corn, and for dessert - smores!

A nice picture of Steve by the fire.

After dinner, enjoyed the fire a little and then got ready to go to Cindy's Cinema to watch a movie! The same little boy without a shirt and mullet wanted to sit by Amaya again, but knew that her Daddy would be sitting by her, so he chose to sit in front of her instead.

Showers then off to bed! Another great day!

Jellystone Campground

Wednesday, July 6th

Gotta love sleeping outdoors in a tent! I love the crisp cool weather and hearing the leaves rustle in the breeze, but both Steve and I could do without the noisy woodpecker in a neighboring tree at 5am!

Steve got up around 6am and left us sleeping beauties, sleeping. He got everything else set up and organized and I was amazed at how good our campsite looked! We invested in a new tent - one that Steve can stand up in and one with plenty of room. We also got a screened in tent so that we could spend more time outside without being bothered by mosquitos and other bugs.

Here's a quick little tour of our campsite:

Our tent (which stayed dry despite rain!)


Steve and my bed

Amaya's Bed (and storage for our clothes, toys, etc.)


The end of our beds and lots of room!


Our screened-in tent (a lifesaver from the bugs, but not for the raccoon - more later on this!)

The picnic table in the screened in tent.

My stove!

Dishwashing station.

Water source.

A special place for our bikes.

Steve and I have collectively been at numerous Jellystone's in our lifetime and we were anxious for Amaya to experience Jellystone herself. We have such great memories of sitting in Yogi's picnic basket, watching old movies, and meeting Yogi and Boo-Boo. So for the next two days, we decided to relax, unwind, and enjoy all that the campground had to offer.

After a "hearty" breakfast of cereal, hard-boiled eggs, milk, juice, and coffee - Steve realized that he forgot a belt! Which meant... road trip to the nearest Wal-Mart in Cheboygan (about a 20 minute drive). We needed to go to a grocery store to pick up a few things anyway, so this was about the best time as ever to discover Cheboygan. After Wal-Mart, it was nearing lunch time, so we used the GPS to take us to Great Lakes Buffalo Company. Unfortunately the Great Lakes Buffalo Company is not a restaurant anymore, just an old house with a big ole buffalo in the front yard. Once again, we used the GPS to take us to the Great Lakes Grill. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a little shady and perhaps inappropriate to take a 3 year old. So... we turned around and found Alice's Restaurant and it turned out to be pretty tasty food! We found an advertisement for a used bookstore and the three of us couldn't pass up an opportunity to find more books - so off we went. Steve found a Stuart Woods book and Amaya and I picked out a small stack for her. What a great find!

We headed back to the campground and headed straight for the pool. The pool was in the shape of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the bottom of the pool had a road map labeling the biggest cities in Michigan - quite a clever and cute idea!

Once again, the water temperature was a little on the chilly side and even though it was a warm day (lower 80s), I still wasn't brave enough to face the cold water. Steve and Amaya had a great time though while I watched and threw balls to them.

Amaya also had a blast jumping off the edge of the pool!

After swimming, Amaya tried riding her bike around the campground, but it was pretty sandy, so she kept getting stuck. Instead, we decided to walk around the campground and explore. The campground wasn't very full - we only had one pop-up camper next to us - we think the campground cleared out after the 4th of July.

Since we had a big lunch, we just had salami and cheese sandwiches, chips, and applesauce for dinner and then got ready for CANDY BAR BINGO! Every night at 7:30pm, Ranger Kim leads a game of BINGO. Admission to play is one candy bar - hence the name! If you win BINGO, you get a stash of candy bars. Amaya won a Hershey Bar and then after we finished, a little boy gave Amaya another candy bar! How sweet!

Here's a picture of the Bear Pavilion where all the games and activities are held.

After Candy Bar BINGO, we had a small fire and roasted marshmallows. Steve is absolutely the best fire maker/starter ever!

And he's the best marshmallow roaster too! Perfectly flame kissed!

At 9:30pm, we trekked down to Cindy's Cinema to catch a couple Yogi Bear cartoons. Steve bought me some popcorn and they got Superman ice-cream to eat during the movie. It was a little chilly watching the movie, so the next time we brought a blanket. There was a little boy - we call him "the boy without a shirt and mullet" - who wanted to sit by Amaya, but told him she was saving her seat for her Daddy. I think he had a little crush on her!

After the movie, trekked back to the campsite to grab her soap-on-a-rope and headed to the showers. She liked taking a shower much more tonight, not sure what changed her mind. Then off to bed for another great night's sleep!

Green Bay - Indian River, MI

Tuesday, July 5th
There's nothing like your own bed... especially when it's a Tempurpedic. Steve and I both had a poor night's sleep.. the beds and pillows weren't very comfortable, but irregardless of how tired we were, we had a full day of travelling ahead of us. We ate at the hotel and by 10am we were off and running again.


Before leaving on vacation, I was warned to make sure that we had a full tank of gas and empty bladders prior to leaving Wisconsin, because the towns in the UP were few and far between. Add to the challenge: a sweet little three year old who waits to the the very last minute and lets us know that she has to go potty! Amaya had her first "deposit" on the side of the road shortly after crossing the Michigan border. Isn't that a rite of passage?

Around 1pm, our tummies started growling, so we plugged in "food" in our GPS (an awesome graduation present for Steve!) and found a quaint restaurant in Escanaba, MI serving PASTIES - pronounced PASS-TEES. My aunt Jewel and cousin Sonja encouraged us to try this Michigan speciality, although it came with a warning. Depending on the pasty, some may or may not taste all that great! A typical pasty has a combination of beef, potatoes, carrots, and rutabega wrapped in type of dough pastry. The name of the restaurant was, "Gram's Pasties" and we hoped that it would be one of the good ones. All three of us tried a Pizza Pasty - with pepperoni, ground beef, pizza sauce, and mozarrella in the inside. Surprisingly, it was very good... although I can't quite understand the fascination of them. Seriously, instead of seeing signs for "cheese" we now saw sign after sign advertising "Pasties."

The highway followed along the coastline of the UP and was absolutely breathtaking and reminded me quite a bit of northern Minnesota. We saw quite a few gorgeous lake homes and I wouldn't mind owning this one!

Shortly after Nabinway, we came up upon a traffic jam. Seriously? In the Upper Peninsula? Where there has been literally no one else on the road? We weren't sure what we were up against, so he turned around and used the restrooms at the gas station in Nabinway. One guy mentioned that he had gotten further ahead and said it was a bad accident and he was going to use his GPS to divert him a different way. We were getting so close to St. Ignace to cross the Mackinac bridge over to the Lower Peninsula, that we took our chances to go back and wait it out. As we neared the accident, Steve was able to see several police cars and an ambulance. Sure enough, it was a bad accident... a truck and gone off the road into the woods and smashed the trailer up pretty good. This picture is about the best I could get without slowing down the traffic even more.

Since we were already behind schedule quite a bit with the accident AND the time change that we didn't account for, when we saw a sign for a scenic overlook, we thought - "it's all about the journey, so we'll stop."

Simply beautiful...

Arrived at St. Ignace, shortly after 5:30pm getting ready to go on the Mackinac Bridge leading to the Lower Peninsula and hopefully to our campground! My mom told me I've been on this bridge before, but I just don't remember... and you would think I'd remember something as big as this bridge!

The Mackinac Bridge is 5 miles long and there is a $3.50 toll to cross the bridge. What surprised me the most was how high up we were - it was a little scary, but magnificent!

At 6:30pm, we finally arrived at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground in Indian River, MI!

Both of our families did quite a bit of camping growing up, and one of my favorite memories was checking out the camp store and the entire campground! This trip was no different with the exception of having Amaya along who was just as anxious to check out the store and the souveniers.

First order of business: set up the tent. Steve masterfully got our tent set up quickly.

While Steve got the tent set up and our camping stuff organized, Amaya played cars and I hunted for mosquito repellent!

Steve found our cooler and campstove and quickly started a fire around 8pm, so we had hot dogs, chips, pears, and smores for dinner. Amaya was absolutely fithly and was in desperate need of a shower. She HATED the shower! She was screaming and shouting and I basically had to hold her under the water to get her cleaned off. In the shower next two us was a mom and a 1 1/2 year old little girl taking showers. This other little girl was a perfect angel in the shower - very, very obedient. I mentioned her behavior to Amaya in hopes that I wouldn't have to hold down Amaya every night!

Pretty soon, we were ready for bed!

And after a long day... we crashed!

Home from Michigan!

Welcome back! I absolutely love the anticipation of vacation, and this year was no different. Especially considering that I was able to get two weeks off during the summer! Last year, we wanted to combine our Chicago trip and head up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but with only a week - we had plenty to do in Chicago. This year we tackled the state of Michigan - centrally located in Indian River - not too far from the UP.

Monday, July 4th
As usual, we rented a minivan. Our two cars are a little too small to handle a vacation, especially when we're camping. Plus, it doesn't really help that I'm a heavy packer! I planned for every scenario and every type of weather! I even had two first aid kits - one for the minivan and one for the campsite, but when I needed a bandaid for Amaya on Mackinac Island, was there one to be found? Nope! Lesson learned: I'll have to pack extra bandaids for my purse next time!

Anyway a little before 9:30am, my dad took Steve out to the airport to pick up our 2011 Chrysler Town and Country with only 3000 miles on it! It was complete with all the bells and whistles, with the exception of a DVD player. We weren't expecting or planning on having one, so it wasn't a disappointment. Besides, I had packed a huge rubbermaid container full of books, Color Wonder, coloring books, lacing animals, stickers and paper to keep Amaya entertained during the drive! (She's an AMAZING traveller - didn't complain at all about being bored or sick of being in the car!)

Here's our ride! (Beautiful isn't it?!?)

Because I packed so much... Steve had a challenge getting everything in the van, plus our three bikes and bike trailer. (Steve wasn't crazy about using our bike carrier on the van and didn't want our bikes to be a temptation to anyone to steal, so it was a high priority to get it all in the van) Amazingly enough, he masterfully got everything in with the exception of our bottled water and 2 cases of pop.

Can you tell this girl is ready and anxious to go? (Her "friends" were pretty excited too!)

Shortly after noon, we were on the road and ready for lunch! We swang by a McDonald's to pick up lunch to go. Once we got across the Wisconsin border, we saw tons of signs advertising, "CHEESE!" One of my favorite stops was near Omro, WI at a garage sale in the country. Initially, I didn't want to stop and lose more time, but Steve convinced me that vacation is all about the journey - so we stopped. And we're glad we did! I found 2 books, a brand new purse, and Amaya picked up a brand new stuffed animal named, "Ducky" - all for 75 cents! Score!

The remainder of our drive to Green Bay was uneventful. We checked in at the Hilton Garden Inn about a block from Lambeau Field.

The first thing on our agenda after checking in was to find a place to eat. We had heard about Brett Favre's Steakhouse and were hoping to eat there, but it was closed. The hotel desk attendant gave us directions to one of the main roads and we ate at a Texas Roadhouse. We both ordered the "fall off the bone" ribs and they were DELISH! (And the best ribs I've ever eaten!)

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to swim, Unfortunately, the pool water needed to be about 10-15 degrees warmer for me to get in, so I spent the entire time in the hot tub! Amaya didn't seem to care about the water temperature and had a great time! The shallowest part of the pool was 3 feet deep, so Amaya could walk around on her tiptoes and chase after the balls I would throw to her. After all her swimming lessons, she's getting a lot more confident in the water!

Since it was the 4th of July, we were hoping to catch some fireworks, but no one in Green Bay really knew where we could park, sit, etc. Steve noticed that our hotel room faced the Fox River - where the fireworks were going to be held - so were able to watch some amateur fireworks and then a little bit of the real production later. We oohed and aahhed over the fireworks just the same as if we were sitting right by the river. By 10pm, we were exhausted and crashed in our beds.