Ponies here we come!!!

So while Kris was still in Michigan for the two weeks following our vacation, I took another trip this time with one of my oldest (I mean within my lifetime, not her age!) traveling companions, my Mommy!! We headed down to Chincoteague and Assateague, VA to spend some time on the beach and see some pre-Pony Penning day activities. I ended up finding this adorable hotel to stay in that was right on one of the marshes. They even had a little dock then extended out into the marsh complete with fishing equipment and a picnic table so you could either try your hand at fishing or just sit and read a book. After checking in the first day of course the first thing we did was head to the beach!!! We got to catch some good rays that afternoon. We also decided that since we had sat in the car for quite a few hours that morning that a good nature walk was in order. Luckily on our nature walk we happened to hear some people talking about how they were getting ready to round up one of the herds of ponies and put them in the pens to prepare for Pony Penning Day later the next week. We followed the directions and ended up having a front row seat as the ponies were driven into their pens in front of us, literally because the only thing blocking us from the horses was a fire hose laid on the ground! During the drive itself it was a tad chaotic so we didn't get lots of good pictures of that but we did get a bunch after the ponies were in the pens.

The adult in this picture looks an awful lot like my Misty Breyer doll!

We felt so blessed that we pretty much stumbled into one of the coolest things ever!! That night after dinner we decided to play the required round of mini-golf which, if I am remembering correctly, I totally won. Then we laid our little heads down to sleep for what promised to be a very busy next day.

Final Michigan Trip Post

I realized I forgot to tell the whole story of when Kris and I tried to look at the Grand Hotel.....So we already knew that we wouldn't be allowed on the porch or inside the hotel without dining reservations but we figured we could at least walk around the grounds and see some of the gardens....but we were wrong. We started to walk down the street the hotel is on only to find out that you aren't even allowed to walk down the street without having reservations at the hotel unless you pay a $10/person fee. Needless to say Kris was fairly outraged that we were prohibited from even walking down the street! So these are the few pictures we could grab before we were quickly escorted off the premise....

The Grand Hotel has the longest porch in the world!

After biking to the Grand Hotel we continued around the Island to the Inn at Stonecliff , which also boasts some of the nicest accommodations on the Island (yet again out of our price range!) but at least we were free to roam the grounds without paying a fee...

The only way to travel!

We also found the Mackinac Island Airport...*chuckle chuckle* no Boeing 747's here. Although they do offer sightseeing tours through the air that sounds pretty cool!

After seeing some of the perks I have to admit a career in politics sounds more appealing once we learned the Governor maintains a year round vacation cottage on the Island...I have to admit if I was the Governor I might not get a lot accomplished!

Later on our way off the Island we took some final pictures as we sadly said goodbye!

The Grand Hotel from the water

My attempt to prove how clean and clear the water is! Much cleaner than any of the Three Rivers!

After returning to the mainland we took one last excursion....over the Mackinac Island Bridge...which is the only way to drive between the Lower Peninsula and the Upper Peninsula. Kris was very excited that I could now say I had been to the UP....

I loved the clouds in this picture

St. Ignaces is the other port that the ferries for Mackinac go to...

Sadly that is the last of our Michigan trip pictures. The rest of the time we were just visiting with some old friends (well old friends for Kris, new friends for me!). We did get to spend a day at the lake with Kevin and Karen and their kids plus lots of family members and we had a blast on the jetskis, the pontoon boat and water tubing (although we were very sore the next day!).

We definitely made the most of our week in Michigan and hope to return sooner rather than later!

Ghost Tours and Biking

So backing up to the day we saw Fort Mackinac....following the Fort we walked around the town a bit and saw a bunch of the historic homes. The coolest one was the one where they had a full time farrier working, we (okay mainly I)  got to have a great conversation with him about horses!
That night we took a midnight ghost tour around the island. It was pretty cool although if we had a different tour guide it probably would have been better. Apparently our guide had some personal experiences with some of the haunts on the island so whenever we got to those areas he refused to tell us stories and just kind of hurried us through. It was pretty neat because we did get to use some "ghost hunting" equipment in some of the areas so that was fun!

As I also mentioned we did rent bikes one night and bike around the island (it is approx 7 miles around the perimeter of the island). Besides the beautiful sunset we also got a chance to see Arch Rock from the other side and got some neat pictures....

There are a ton of natural springs all around the island...although technically "springwater" is flowing from them they caution you against drinking the water....still beautiful nonetheless....

Also as you may have noticed from the pictures the beaches on Mackinac were hardly "white sand"....try instead "grey stone"...so what do you do at a beach that offers rocks instead of sand???? Why build stone towers of course!!

Attention to detail.....

 Now before any of you think Kris and I have suddenly become artistically inclined we did *not* make those, we just found them!

On our bike ride we finally made it around to devil's kitchen. As with most natural formations on the island devil's kitchen has its own story. Allegedly the spirits who resided near the cave were cannibals who would capture and eat victims who traveled too close to the cave....I have to admit especially at night it is spooky looking....

Lastly on our bike tour we were able to capture some remaining sunset/moonrise pictures....

We had a beautiful night for biking and we were sad that we had to leave the island the next day....   :(

Sunrise, Sunset!

Okay so we really saw no sunrises (that's way too early for us to be up on vacation!) but the following day we did rent bikes at night and bike around the island....many of those pictures will be in the next post but for this one I decided to stick to our many pictures of the sunset, it was absolutely breathtaking! Enjoy!!!!

Brrr....Kris made me put my feet in the lake

Not the type of beach you'd want to take a barefoot stroll on