We started the 4th day by going to Fort Michilimacinac.  It was very fun, and the gift shop was great!  When we left the fort, it was about 53 degrees.  After driving about 10 miles, it was up to 84 degrees!  What a quick change!  We arrived at Ludington late in the afternoon.  Finally, it was sunny!  We went to eat dinner at House of Flavors, one of my favorite restaurants.  I got to have the wonderful Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream.  Yum!!!  We went down to the beach to stick our feet in the lake.  I knew it would be cold, but I couldn’t spend so many days in Michigan and not get in a lake at all!  Well, it was even colder than I thought.  We stuck the tips of our big toes in the water and then quickly retreated to the warmth of the car.  We went back to the beach later to sit and watch the sunset, again from INSIDE the warm car.  It was beautiful:

The word of the day: COLD! It was so cold our second day on Mackinac Island. We took a carriage tour which was fun, but the cold and wet weather really put a damper on things. We decided to head back to Mackinaw City after lunch. When we got to the hotel, it was not nearly as grand as the night before. Just as a reminder, this was our view from the doorway of our room at the Grand Hotel:

This was our view from the doorway of our room in Mackinaw City:

Pitiful, isn’t it?

It turns out that besides having inferior hotel rooms, Mackinaw City doesn’t have a lot going on. We couldn’t find very many places to eat dinner, so we settled on the Dixie Saloon because we figured it sounded horribly tacky (especially with the possibility of watching townies doing karaoke) and therefore interesting. As it turned out, no one was doing karaoke, and it actually had pretty good food. And we had never been to a place with a higher butter to rolls ratio. Impressive!

So the next day we drove up to Mackinaw City to take the Arnold Ferry to Mackinac Island. It was pretty cloudy, but we sat right at the front so that we would have a really good view. With the clouds though, this was the best view we got:

So after the boat ride, we arrived on the island. Mackinac Island is unique because there are no cars. The main street is basically a giant state fair like atmosphere with all kinds of shops selling junky souvenirs and junk food. And of course there is the fudge. Literally, there is a fudge shop just about every 10 feet. My personal favorite is Murdick’s Fudge. Even in this unusual atmosphere though there was at least one familiar sight. It’s comforting to know that even though cars have not made it to the island, Starbucks has:

After buying lots of fudge and souvenirs, we decided to walk up to our hotel for the night. We got to stay at the Grand Hotel! It was truly grand. There were geraniums everywhere! Everything was beautiful! When we got to our room, “The China Suite,” we were amazed. I still can’t believe we actually stayed in such a fancy room:

We got dressed up for dinner (we were scared to get caught out of our room after 6:00pm in our regular clothes!) and explored the rest of the hotel. Then we went to dinner. We were served from Menu # 2. It was delicious! Especially the dessert. I had a the Grand Pecan Ball (it;s tradition, after all!), and Brian had chocolate creme brulee – probably the best dessert EVER!

We’ve made it all the way to Holland. We didn’t even fly.

Our first view when getting into our hotel room was this…

We’ve got a friend trying to get in. I’m calling him Emmit the bear. The Best Western at Holland has a bunch of bears hanging off the front of the building.

Then came the Dutch Village. I’ll let Sally talk about that…

This was actually my third trip to the Dutch Village. The first time I was here, I was about 4 or 5 years old. I had never been to an amusement park before, and when I saw the big fake horses and wagons that you could actually sit on, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I loved it! So I was very excited to return several years later (I think when I was in college). However, I was totally underwhelmed at my second visit. First of all, the place was TINY. I guess things look much bigger to a 5 year old. But, they have tasty fudge, and it was still fun in a hokey kind of way. So, when we needed a place to stop halfway on our way to Mackinac Island, I thought it would be the perfect place. I tried to prepare Brian for the stupidity of it all. I tried to explain to him that he would be underwhelmed. Upon arriving for my third visit, I was shocked to find that it was EVEN smaller than I remembered from my second visit. I think we were the only people there too. I was under underwhelmed! But, again, we got some tasty fudge and cheese. Besides, without stopping here, we never would have met Emmit! So I guess it wasn’t a total wash out.

I can’t wait to see what happens next?