Mackinack Island

-->

A month ago we booked our annual vacation. Nick is very busy at work at the moment so we have a very small window of when we can go away and we were very undecided on where to go. Nick wanted to go to the Gulf Coast and I didn’t want to drive that far and leave Funf in the kennels for too long. I don’t know how or why but I stumbled across Mackinac Island on a Google search and instantly fell in love with the pictures of the island.

Today we headed off on our 6 hour road trip. To be honest 6 hours stuck in a car is about as much as I can stand, especially with limited scenery. We were aiming to catch the 3pm ferry but had failed to take into account the one hour time difference and we eventually arrived in Mackinaw City at around 4.30pm. The next scheduled ferry was 5.30pm and the Arnold Cruise staff made our trip across to the island very easy and very efficient. It cost $104 for 4 of us and two bikes to safely cross. The friendly staff tagged and stored our cases, ready to be placed on the ferry, while we headed to Mackinaw City’s Pastie and Cookie store. Delicious, but very hot!!!

We boarded the ferry at 5.30 and took a 20 minute choppy ride across Lake Huron. The first sight of Mackinac is the beautiful coastline, its very breathtaking. We were instantly greeted by a hotel porter who arranged for our bags to be taken from the ferry and transported straight to our hotel. That was a god-send as the girls would have had to have pulled two rather heavy suitcases or pushed our bikes.

We took a very picturesque 10 minute walk down the main street to our hotel on the South east corner of the island, passing hotels, fudge shops, bike rental stores and horse drawn carriage taxis. It seems we have been extremely lucky with the weather, a very warm 76 degrees and no wind. Perfect for long walks with icecream.

We are staying a Mission Point resort, quite a large hotel and we were greeted by British speaking staff at reception. After a rather longer then preferred check in we locked up our bikes in a holding area and headed to our room. (The holding area is just an outside lock up and personally I was petrified of something happening to my bike). We have a small suite with two bedrooms and a bathroom to share, perfect for a family of 4. The only downside was the hotel is very sprawling and the rooms wifi is very intermittent. Not good for blogging.

Once checked in we headed to the pool so that Emma could swim and then onto dinner at the Bistro on the Green. A restaurant located in the middle of a putting green where the tables were only outside – a fair weather restaurant indeed. The restaurants food was tasty and well presented, however, do not head there if you are extremely hungry. The main course portions were the same size as a typical American starter unless you order from the childs menu and then your plate would be topped up with fries. A bottle of the house white started at $28.

We ate dinner and headed back to our room for an early night, its not very often we eat dinner at 9pm. :)