The Hansens: Mackinac Island

The day had finally arrived....it seemed to good to be true. It had seemed like such a long time coming, but it was here. We woke early Tuesday morning and made our way down to the ferry dock. We waited patiently for our turn to board the Star Line; our ride over to Mackinac Island

Allie anxiously awaiting her turn to board the boat

Allie and Blake aboard the Starline; we rode up on top so we could be outside and enjoy the view

One boat a day takes a small detour and brings you underneath the bridge on your way over to Mackinac. We woke up early so we could take this boat and get up close to this monstrous 5 mile long bridge

After checking out the bridge we headed towards Mackinac Island

We finally arrived....I have no recollection of the island from when I was little; I only remember seeing pictures of me on a bike

It seriously felt like you were stepping back in time or stepping into a movie when you walked onto the island. There are no cars or motorized vehicles anywhere. The only mode of transportation is horse nad buggy, bicycles, or walking

The buildings were are beautiful; floral baskets hanging from all the balcony's. Everything was just pristine.

Since it was basically all of our first times on the island and we had one day we decided to hit it hard and do as much as we could. We arrived and boarded a horse and buggy to get the historical tour through town. Anxiously awaiting to board our carriage

Family photo op on the carriage

It was so crazy to see these horses all over and no cars; it would have been kind of fun to live back in the day when life was simpler

They have commercialized a few things throughout the island to entertain the tourists; the first stop on our tour was the butterfly house

Allie and Sophie always enjoy these houses for some reason

Love Sophie's face in this one....she had spotted another butterfly

We had to wait for another horse carriage to pick us up after this stop

We headed off to Arch Rock

We hit up the Grand Hotel next....one day maybe we'll splurge and spend $500 for one night to relax in this hotel. If you aren't a guest you can't walk further than we are in the picture; you can't walk in front of it, on the patio or anything. We actually pressed our luck and started to walk and a security guy realized a family with kiddos doesn't quite fit the mold of people that stay here; we were quickly guided back off

The kids standing in front of the sign that informs you off the dress code that you must adhere to while staying at the hotel; you could tell which people on the island were guests here because they were all fancied up

A view of the hotel from down the hill

I don't know how many fudge shops dot the island, probably at least 30. We stopped to watch some fudge be made since that is pretty much another tourist stop. Of course we bought some overly priced fudge too because that's just part of the experience

After lunch some of us rented bikes to tour the island by bike. There is a biking trail along the whole perimeter of the island, which totals a little over 7 miles

Blake toting Sophie in the trailer

Allie decided to be my partner on the tag-a-long. I should have gotten this kid her own bike; she was a little crazy for my pregnant body to handle

We stopped to view Arch Rock from the bottom

The biking trail is actually a highway M-185....it's in the Guinness book of world records for the being the only highway that doesn't allow motorized vehicles

Over 80% of the island is part of Mackinac State Park. It was fun to ride on the trials our horse tour didn't take us on and explore other parts of the park

We rode over to Fort Holmes... the highest lookout on the island; we then climbed over 120 stairs to get to the top of the lookout

We also made it to Turkey Hill Road and followed the instructions to walk our bikes back down to the city. It was such a steep hill, I almost sent the bike down by itself a few times as I was loosing control walking it down