Number of Miles Driven: 183

States Driven Through: Michigan 

Hours Driven: ~3-3.5 hours



We started our day at 7 am with the goal of being out of the campsite by 8:30 so we could get to horseback riding by 10 am. It’s not hard to get started early because we have natural alarm clocks with the birds chirping (screeching, squealing, shrieking, cawing – whatever one might choose to call it!) at 5:45 every morning – EVERY MORNING! I’m usually able to go back to sleep. Surprisingly, Michael doesn’t wake up to the obnoxious chirping. Carolyn was so excited that she was wide awake by 6:15 and made sure me and Dani knew it. She was reaching over me to look at my phone for the time because she was so anxious to get ready – she was fully dressed and sitting on her sleeping bag just waiting for us to “wake up.”

After a quick breakfast of cereal, we had everything loaded up by 8:10 – our fastest time yet. The pop-up tents certainly get things moving along more quickly. Michael wrestled with one of the tents for a short bit (and I happened to get that part on video), but he got them all packaged up. 

We had noticed the night before that two campsites down from us was decked out with Alabama gear. They weren’t there the night before (when we both had on our Bama gear), but we saw them this morning, so we said "Roll Tide" and they immediately echoed it back. Their daughter is attending Alabama and her boyfriend is from Alabama and they are all camping together.  

 We put the postcards in the mail, Michael grabbed some coffee, and then we made the 45-minute trip to CJ’s stables. Danielle rode Daisy which was the lead horse for our group. She was led by one of the handlers but everybody else steered their own horse. 


Dani and Daisy (who used to be a race horse)

Matthew rode Beau and pulled up the rear end because he was the slowest of the horses. Carolyn got Buster, a beautiful brown horse with large white spots – her horse liked to snack. Andrew got Henry – a large Belgium horse (pretty sure Carolyn was jealous he got the big horse). I rode Johnny and Michael rode Miss June – both large Belgium horses. 

Matthew on Beau - the slowest horse

Carolyn with Buster - one of the oldest horses there. It was CJ's (the owner) first horse when she was 2 years old. 


Andrew with Henry - one of the largest horses!

Desiree with Johnny (Cash)

Michael with Miss June (Cash)

Our trail ride was through woods on CJ’s stables’ property and lasted approximately 1 hour. At the end of the ride, kids got to brush the smaller horses. The kids seemed to really enjoy the whole experience, but Carolyn said the dune buggy ride was still her favorite. She preemptively claimed the horseback riding would be her favorite, but I think the novelty of the dune ride won. Dani said it was her favorite thing but it was her first ride.


Excited to go for a ride!






We're all checking to make sure Matthew is still behind us!

Carolyn's horse, Buster, is going in a for post-ride snack



She really wanted one of the big horses!



Dani and her race horse




Post-ride brush - it was a treat for the horses




After the horseback riding, we trekked north to Petoskey. Dan Roberts’ tips have been clutch for many of the things we’ve done in Michigan, and this stop is also thanks to his advice. On the way, all the kids fell asleep, so they were obviously exhausted because it was a relatively short 1.5 hour drive to Petoskey. 

Seems like Matthew might have been fighting the sleep here.

We went to Bayfront park which was along the coast of Lake Michigan, and we had a picnic lunch. It was a gorgeous day – light blue skies with not a cloud in sight – and the kids had fun looking for Petoskey stones along the rocky shoreline. These stones are the state rock of Michigan and are fossilized coral with hexagonal shapes on them. Andrew found several rocks that appeared to be fossilized sponge but they didn’t have the traditional hexagonal design. 


Lunch at Bayfront Park

Finding our version of Petoskey Stones




More waterfalls!

Walking along Lake Michigan (technically Little Traverse Bay..but it feeds into Lake Michigan)

Still searching for stones


Next, we walked along the bike trail that followed the shoreline for approximately a half a mile to visit the first Kilwin’s factory. The store was huge and smelled heavenly as soon as we walked in. Unfortunately, they weren’t giving tours, but we tasted their fudge and ordered some ice cream in fresh waffle cones. We’ve certainly had our fair share of ice cream these last few days. We walked back to the car with our ice cream, and then we stopped at a souvenir shop on the way out because Andrew wanted to find some polished Petoskey stones. We found a great little store and I bought a ceramic sign to look like the Hwy 131 road sign (because I like the number and it represents our Michigan trip because we’ve been on Hwy 131 or 31 so much of the time). Dani got a rubbing stone made from Petoskey rocks and we all grabbed some postcards. Andrew decided to not buy a rock because they were more expensive than he thought. 

Shocked at the size of the candy bar


Matthew wanted to show his "shocked" face too

Everybody's happy with their ice cream


Statue of Ernest Hemingway in Petoskey (he apparently spent a lot of time in Northern Michigan)

One the way out of Petoskey we took the scenic route (M-119) to see the Tunnel of Trees (another Dan Roberts’ suggestion) that followed along the Lake Michigan shoreline. We put in the address to see where it “started” and it dropped us right in the middle of the trek (but we didn’t realize that until later). So, we might have missed the most scenic part of the path (beginning in Harbor Springs), but what we saw was beautiful. It was a winding two lane road (barely...with no center line and no shoulders) and there was a canopy of trees over you the entire time. Very reminiscent of the road leading to the bat cave – just more light coming through.

We crossed over the famous Mackinac Bridge (aka Mighty Mac) – it’s on the Michigan license plate, connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and is the longest suspension bridge in the Western hemisphere (950 feet longer than Golden Gate). It also serves as the “border” between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, so this was our first view of Lake Huron. We arrived at Straits State Park sometime around 4:30/5. We used our pop-up tents because we had another early morning the next day to get an early ferry to Mackinac Island, so our set up went fairly quickly. We made dinner (i.e., reheated prepped vegetable soup) and then headed down to the campground beach which was right behind our campsite. The beach for Lake Huron was VERY rocky and the kids didn’t really enjoy it – even with water shoes on. They called it an early night and headed back to the campsite for s’mores. 


"Mighty Mac" Bridge

The Mighty Mac brought us to the UP

Our mostly private campsite


Splashing in Lake Huron - direct access from our campsite



Sword-fighting with sticks

The kids asked for the continued wedding story, so I gave them my version (e.g., the planning and then the details of the weekend’s events) and then Michael gave them his version (e.g., the food, the rain [“It was a dark and stormy night…”], the never-ending dancing).

Our campsite was surrounded by Poison Ivy, so there was constant “Don’t go there!,” “Watch Out,” and “Get out of there!” comments throughout the night. But other than that, we had a secluded and woodsy campsite compared to our previous nights’ sites, so that was nice.

We all walked down to the beach after the sun finally set (10 pm) and saw the Mackinac Bridge lit up with red, white, and blue lights. The mood was also blood orange.

We called it an “early” evening and were in bed by 10:30. 




PS -  We don’t camp like Michiganders do – we are surrounded by RVs and glamping set-ups with plants, food tents, quadruple hammocking. It's a hobby/lifestyle - which explains why I needed reservations 6 months ago.