Mackinac Island

This summer, Stef and I thought it was time to test the boys with a road trip. We wanted to start relatively small, so we decided to spend three nights camping near Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw...stupid French) Island, which is at the far end of the upper peninsula of Michigan, about a 6.5 hour drive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Island). The drive actually went surprisingly well, and we set up our gigantic new tent without too much difficulty. The low point of the trip, however, was the first night. We had some severe thunderstorms that resulted in us "sleeping" in the car. Jack and Stef laid down in the back and I sat in the front seat holding Will. For any of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting Will recently, he's like a lead weight and he just about killed my left arm.

But things looked up from there. Nana came to join us the next day. The weather improved and we had a great time on the island. We visited historic Fort Mackinac, bought some fudge from a gift shop (which must be a big deal, since there were like 15 fudge shops on the main drag), and took a horse drawn carriage tour of the island (there are no public cars on the island, just two ambulances, two fire trucks, a cable repair truck, etc), which Jack had been very excited for and ended up sleeping through all but about two minutes of.

On the way back home, we stopped in Escanaba, MI, birth place of yours truly. I have no conscious memories of Escanaba, so it was cool to see where my life began. We even visited the corner apartment where I was born almost 29 years ago. It was still there, although I was a little disappointed to see that they haven't erected any sort of monument in my honor yet.