Number of Miles Driven: 10 (to the ferry and back)
States Driven Through: Michigan
Hours Driven: 15 minutes
Today was a day I was especially excited for – we’ve heard
so many great things about Mackinac Island. It’s known as the “Fudge Capital of
the World” with 13 fudge shops on the small island, and there are no cars
allowed on the island – so all transportation is via horse/carriage/bike.
We had to eat, get ready, and pack up quickly because we
were trying to make the 8:30 ferry. We’ve gotten pretty good at it because we
woke up at 7 and were pulling out by 8:10. We pulled into the ferry dock around
8:20 and went straight to the ferry line, but I couldn’t find the tickets on my
phone. I had previously bought them, but I couldn’t find the email anywhere
(still can’t find it and don’t know what happened). I quickly ran inside to see
if they had record of my purchase and could give me paper tickets. They found
them (thank goodness – it wasn’t a cheap ferry ride), but only 5 of the tickets
printed out, so they had to call a manager over. Meanwhile, it’s 8:32 and
Michael comes inside to say “We have to go!” – well…we can’t go without
tickets. The tickets printed off at 8:35 – right as the ferry was pulling away.
Ughh…
We thought the next ferry was at 9 (which was our back-up
option in case we didn’t get packed up quickly enough), but it turns out it was
9:30 (even though the schedule said 9:00). So, we sat at the dock for an hour –
the kids got a little restless, but it wasn’t terrible. We discovered the lock
wasn’t on the uhaul and it had been left on top of the uhaul – luckily it hadn’t
fallen off in the short drive from the campsite. But, if we’d caught the 8:30
ferry, our trailer would have been unlocked all day. Silver linings?! A couple
next to us had on a Flying Bulls Brewery shirt and it turns out they were
Durham.
We ate pizza at a picnic table overlooking the Straits of
Mackinac and then headed to our hotel room. We intended to camp that night as
well, but I forgot to book a site for that night (not sure what happened) and
when I noticed my error (mid-April), there were no campsites available. So,
hotel it was – and, honestly, it was much needed. We were all dusty from
walking around Mackinac all day and a break from sleeping on the floor was much
appreciated. Andrew volunteered to sleep on the floor at the last hotel, so he
got the bed at this hotel – it was a good choice on his part.
There was an indoor pool at the hotel, so I took the kids
and worked on the blog. I finally got to upload entries to the website because
I had wifi! I hadn’t been to the website in two years, so I was a little rusty,
but it slowly came back to me. The kids loved the pool – especially the hot
tub.
We headed back to the room around 8:30, did showers, and
then put the kids to bed. Meanwhile, I repacked the packing cubes with enough
outfits to get us through the next three days of camping, and then I worked on
the blog a lot longer than I should have – but I got 5 days of posts loaded! We
won’t have wifi again until Friday, so I had to get as much done as possible.
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