Why here

July 2016—A road trip with a bestie to Mackinac Island, Michigan. The drive is about 7 hours if you go straight there. This was a semi-planned trip, and we wanted to take our time along the way, stopping wherever seemed interesting as we drove. 

Along the way, we stopped at a cherry tree farm.

And a true farmer's market. Here I bought some homemade jam and then explored the farm a bit to see the animals.

We ended our first night in Traverse City. We checked out the Traverse City Whiskey cocktail bar. They also have a distillery that we did not visit, but we did enjoy a whiskey tasting flight and grabbed a bottle of their amazing cherry-infused whiskey to take with us. 

Our trip coincided with their annual National Cherry Festival, which we checked out. 

Our hotel for the night was at the Hotel Indigo, a newly built hotel (part of IHG) with a small-town chic rooftop bar. 

The next day we finally arrived at the shores of the lower peninsula. 

Here we caught a ferry to Mackinac Island, an island is situated in Lake Huron between the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan.

First, we went for a walk on the trails of Mackinac State Park that surrounds the 8-mile perimeter of the island. We walked about 2 miles and then decided to turn back, not wanting to commit to the full 8 miles. 

Most of the island is a park and trivia tidbit, this was the nation's second national park, after Yellowstone.

Arch Rock

Lake view from the trails

The island is completely car-free, so you can get around on foot, carriage or bike only. After our trail walk, we returned to town and rented a tandem bike. While here, marvel at the old-timey feel and architecture. Try the world-famous fudge and stop by Sadie's Ice Cream Parlor near the Grand Hotel. This hotel is famous not only for having the "world's longest porch." It was also the site for Christopher Reeve's movie, "Somewhere in Time." 

The Grand Hotel

Unfortunately, midway through our bike ride, our chain broke!

After a day's long adventure on the island, we caught the ferry back to the lower peninsula and found a hotel for the night. 

There are plenty of non-chain hotels on the island, so that is definitely an option if you choose to stay there for the night or longer, just make a reservation in advance if you are going during high season.

The next day we headed back home for what we thought would be an uneventful day.  We stopped at a sand dunes park for a brief walk around and then headed back to the road. 

Unfortunately, along the way home, we encountered a horrendous rainstorm, and then a once in a lifetime event occurred… our car was struck by lightning.  This completely fried the car's (a brand new Mini Cooper) electrical system, so we had to be towed to the nearest town where we spent the night. We got a rental car the following day and drove home, it took a few weeks before the car was fixed.