Girl Scout Trip to Mackinac Island

I got home last night from Mackinac Island, very exhausted from traipsing around with my daughter and her Girl Scout troop. We had so much fun! I have always wanted to go to Mackinac, so I jumped at the chance when the troop announced this activity

I was wishing I hadn’t paid for it once my husband’s summer class got canceled, but I am so glad we went now that it’s in the past. No regrets. Except that maybe I ate too much.

I took around 500 pictures! Here are a few of my favorites from the first day of our trip.

Our first stop was Marquette, which is about 2 hours from where I live. We found our first letterbox there, and my daughter was hooked for the rest of the trip and couldn’t wait to go on all the letterboxing expeditions. She liked it so much, that I am going to make sure we go often as a family this summer.

I took this photo of Lake Superior during that stop.

Then we got down to “The Bridge” which is approximately 5 1/2 hours from my house.The Mackinac Bridge is just 28 feet short of 5 miles long and used to be the longest suspension bridge in the world. It is still the longest in the Western Hemisphere and I have no idea where or what the bridge is that beat it out, but there you go. Fun facts about the Mackinac Bridge.

I love bridges! And I really love taking photos of bridges.

• Manhattan Bridges
• San Francisco: Golden Gate Bridge
• More Golden Gate Bridge

First, we stopped at a bridge view park before crossing the bridge.

Then we crossed the bridge into Mackinaw City (by the way, Mackinac is pronounced Mackinaw—not sure why the different spellings) and caught the ferry over to the island.

Our ferry was called The Marquette.

Here is our ferry pulling out of Mackinaw City and towards the island. I love the spray that they send out behind them.

Obviously, I had to catch another view (or twenty) of the bridge while we were on the boat.

A view of the ferry dock.

And, of course, The Grand Hotel. if you don’t know The Grand Hotel, it’s in the movie Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Love that movie. The hotel is pretty darn grand, too. It seems to take up the entire island as you are coming toward it on the water. this was also the only time I could get the whole thing in my viewfinder, since I was far enough away. Once on land, you can only get parts of the building—especially since you are charged $10.00 just to set foot on the grounds. Rooms are quite expensive, too, running from $500-$1000 per night. Dressing for dinner is mandatory.

But it sure is a beautiful building.

Once we arrived on the island, we went to a park by the lake (Lake Huron, fyi) to eat our dinner.  The seagulls were hoping for some handouts.  But, we obeyed the posted sign.

In fact, we obeyed all the posted signs.

After dinner, we decided to do some more letterboxing.  I used the time to explore with my camera, but the thrill of finding the letterboxes was also very cool.

My daughter thought so, too. Like I said, she fell in love with letterboxing.

There are no cars allowed on the island, so there are lots of horses and carriages around.

And there are bikes everywhere.

The real estate is pretty amazing, and just plain pretty.

I want to live in this house.

But the most magnificent views, were definitely the ones God Himself created. With maybe a little bit of help from man for a lighthouse or a streetlamp here and there.

I will post more. Just as soon as I can figure out a reason to live there for the summers.

Free and cheap things to do on Mackinac Island.