Josh, Erin, Liam and London: Trip "Up North"

Josh and I finally went “up-north”. For those of you not from Michigan, up North is just understood. Even though there are several destinations north of us, nobody ever says where they went- it was just “up north”. Our particular trip was for a wedding of a friend of mine (Congrats Amber and Patrick!). After work one Friday, we loaded up the car for a weekend (now that we have Liam, we really do load up the car for the weekend- complete with stroller, pack and play, toys, food, etc.) and drove about 5 hours north to Mackinaw City, Michigan. We looked around and said “OH, so THIS is why people like Michigan!”

It was absolutely beautiful. Mackinaw City is located at the very tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan, on the straits of Mackinac- where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron join. The leaves had started to change color, and the weather was perfect- sunny, but with a bit of a chill in the air- not so cold that we were miserable.

On Saturday, before the wedding, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge. It’s the third largest suspension bridge in the world and connects the lower peninsula to the upper peninsula. We drove around and just looked at the scenery. It reminded us of some of the New England towns outside of the cities in Massachusetts, only it was in Michigan, and the towns were on the lake, not the ocean. The views were great, and we had a blast! We went to the wedding and reception on Saturday and then walked around in downtown Mackinaw City- famous for fudge and ice cream!

On Sunday, we went to Mackinac Island via the ferry. The Island is a great little place where there are no cars or motor vehicles allowed. Everyone either walks, rides a bike, or takes a horse drawn carriage. It’s famous for the Grand Hotel, Fort Mackinac, and the scenery. We went for a hike to see some of the highlights of the island, pictured below.

You will notice a photo of a stuffed monkey- Liam threw it out of his stroller sometime in town on the island, before we had gotten very far. We didn’t notice it until we had hiked up a KILLER hill (me holding Liam and Josh lugging our giant stroller). I hiked back down while Josh stayed at the top to feed Liam. I was asking everyone if they had seen a stuffed monkey, and at the bottom of the hill, I asked a Scottish woman. She said (in a thick accent) “Was he just a wee little’ guy? There was a wee little’ monkey sitting on a post in town.” I hiked back up and told Josh the bad news- that was at least two miles back. We decided to call the monkey a loss and continue on our hike. At the end of the day, when we were going to catch the ferry, the monkey was STILL on the post! We took his photo before we touched him. While we were waiting in line for the ferry, there were several children who said “look mommy, it was his monkey!” They had all wanted to take him home, but their moms wouldn’t let them- one little girl told her mom that if he was still there when they came back in two years, he was going home with them.