Mackinac Island/Chx Venetian Trip, Part I

Originally posted September 13, 2014.

Our summer/family July trip this year was GREAT.

(Since Brian's family lives in Charlevoix, visiting them is vacationing in a beach town. It's the best - seeing their wonderful faces, parking in the marina like we own the place, and going to the BEACH. It's AWESOME!)

We stayed home over July fourth weekend. Normally, we'd go see Brian's family, but we were supposed to be able to help my parents move. The closing was delayed, so we relaxed at home. Plus, we knew we were going to be heading up north toward the end of July anyway.

Wednesday, July 23, we drove up to Mackinac Island for MIAPPA, Brian's work conference. We stopped at Nana and Papa's for a few hours to eat dinner and give everyone hugs.

The four-ish hour drive to Chx was actually great. Barrett, who's usually very unhappy to be stuck in his carseat, sucked his thumb and dozed in and out all the way to Gaylord, where I finally let him have a break and fed him. Will fell asleep on the curving road from Gaylord to Chx. About 5 minutes before we reached Nana and Papa's house, he woke up very cranky. We passed Castle Rock Farms, where we'd visited Memorial Day weekend to see the trains. He'd fallen in love with a little clown fish train car, who his cousins informed him was called Nemo. Anyway, to assuage the crankiness, we called, "Hi, Nemo! Will, say 'hi' to Nemo!" He didn't say it, so I said again, "Will, say 'hi' to Nemo!" He mumbled, "Hi, Nemo..." and then threw up all over himself.

My poor guy! He's never done that. Never been car sick, and has only thrown up once before in his life. He didn't know what to do with himself. Thankfully, we were ALMOST there, and soon I stripped him down and cleaned him off in Nana's shower while Brian took care of everything else.

Soon he was himself again; I was so relieved he wasn't sick! I think it was carsickness, the combination of eating a ton and falling asleep on the winding roads.

We left Nana and Papa's around 5:30 and drove to Mackinaw City to catch the ferry. We got there a bit too early, so we walked around for a bit with the stroller.

Will and Daddy on the 'big boat'

Baby selfie

I packed a LOT for this trip. I've never been to Mackinac and I had no idea what I would need; plus, we were going to be going back to Nana and Papa's for three more days after MiAPPA was done. Brian did some last minute luggage consolidation before we boarded. He, for some odd reason, did not want to take the duffel bag of library books I'd packed (you know, in case it rained and we couldn't leave the hotel!).

That first night, we pretty much just walked to our hotel room (Mission Point Resort), got all set up, watched a bit of TV, and then crashed. 

The next day, Brian had to attend the conference from about 9 until 4. I joined up with another one of the wives and her two kiddos, a girl and a boy who were about 8 and 5. William LOVED these kids. Hanging out with them was probably the highlight of Mackinac for him.

First, we visited the Original Butterfly House. Will walked into the hot room and began throwing his arms up into the air. "Butterflies! Butterflies!" he cried with every gesture. (It sounded like, "bu-fies!") He liked seeing the butterflies, but he got a major kick out of trying to climb any climbable structure there. He also enjoyed applying his sticker to things, then pulling it off and finding a new place for it. He was certainly disappointed when it stopped "working."

He enjoyed climbing this stone "wall."

He tried to climb this iron fencing

He was a little wary of the butterflies when they flew too close

It was fun when one landed on my hand! William wasn't interested in having it on himself; he was content to watch from a distance. You can see his yellow sticker on my bag. Its home was there for a bit before he moved it again.

There's the sticker in his hand. The only butterfly he wanted to touch.

You can at least see Barrett's foot.

Admiring a cool lizard.

After the butterfly house, we checked out the Insect World and played in the gift shop. Then it was off to play at the park in front of the fort, where Will grew more courageous by the minute. The little girl helped him down the slide and before I knew it, he was even climbing on the climbing wall, to my horror. Ha. I don't know why I get to tense around playground equipment. I'm all for being adventurous... but that stuff is treacherous.

We walked back to the resort together and decided to visit the Bistro for lunch, since kids eat free if they're Mission Point guests. We had a wonderful lunch. The kids took William around the golf course and checked everything out while we waited for our food. 

After lunch, we all parted ways. It was back to the room for naptime for us!