Thursday was a shorter day as we drove into Ann Arbor to visit the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. In all other instances, the Presidential Library and Museum are co-located, but Ford’s is a bit different; his library is at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. His museum is 130 miles away in Grand Rapids which was his congressional district and boyhood home. We’ll catch his museum some other time, but the library had an interesting timeline of his life and a short video. There was also a special exhibit about sports, as Ford was likely the most athletic president, having played football at Michigan and been recruited by both the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions (he turned both down to attend law school). Gerald Ford is the only person to become US President without winning an election for either President or Vice President. He was appointed Vice President by Richard Nixon, after Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973, and then became President when Nixon resigned less than a year later. He did run for President in 1976, but was defeated by Jimmy Carter.

From there, we visited the Michigan Union and Law Quad at U of M. The Law Library was beautiful inside, and interestingly had the seals of law schools in the US and around the world adorning its windows. The building had a very Harry Potter-esque vibe to it. Turns out, it was considered as a filming location for the movies!

Friday was time to pack up and head to our 2^nd campground of the trip. It was about a four-hour drive, and conveniently, we had the perfect stopping point halfway there…Frankenmuth, MI and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland. I’ve heard so much about this place, and it was fun to finally visit, albeit briefly. Bronner’s is unbelievable. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Christmas and Christmas decorations, so this was right up my alley! They are considered the “World’s Largest Christmas Store”, and I believe it! The building itself is over seven acres – over 5.5 football fields! If there’s an ornament you can’t find there, then it doesn’t exist! The town of Frankenmuth is known as Michigan’s “Little Bavaria” filled with German architecture and an abundance of beautiful flowers all along Main Street (couldn’t get any pictures – there was no place to park the truck/trailer so we just drove through). This will be on our list to revisit when we can spend more time, for sure!

We continued our journey north to the Gaylord KOA in North Central Michigan. It’s a large campground full of tons of activities for kids and families. Our site is HUGE compared to our last campground, and there are some nice shade trees!

Saturday morning, we visited the local Farmer’s Market and then did some ‘regular’ grocery shopping. After lunch, we ventured out to explore more of Gaylord. Our first stop found us on the 45^th parallel, exactly halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.

Gaylord has embraced an “Alpine Village” theme and it’s a really cute little town. And, they have quite a large elk population. We were able to see a group of them (known as either a ‘gang’ or a ‘herd’ apparently), mostly enjoying the shade of some large trees. Their antlers are pretty impressive, and there was one that had a really light coat (maybe albino?)

We checked out a few of the local boutiques and a flea market, and then made a stop by Otsego Lake near the campground. It reminds me of a NY Finger Lake!

Sunday was another travel day, but a really short trip – just over one hour to our next campground. So, we stayed in place at the KOA until check-out time at noon, and arrived at our next destination at the northern-most point in the ‘mitten’, Mackinaw City. Our campground (#3 for this trip if you’ve lost count!), Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground, is massive! And confusing to navigate! Our campsite is really large and pretty private…quite the contrast from the first campground of this trip. It was such a treat to be checked in and setup by 2pm – usually it’s much later in the day after a longer drive!

We headed out for a walk to enjoy Lake Huron, which the campground borders. From the lakeshore, we could see Mackinac Island and the Mackinac Bridge (Mighty Mac!), and it was absolutely gorgeous weather along the lake.

Monday morning, day 8 of this trip, we were up and out early to get to the dock to catch a ferry to Mackinac Island. The island has been car-free for 125 years…since before cars even became ubiquitous! Quite a change from earlier in our trip which was all about Henry Ford and cars! The ferry ride takes about 25 minutes and was VERY windy. It goes through the straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. Technically, since the two lakes have the same water level, they are considered one lake. We enjoyed a beautiful view of the bridge as we rode over, and as we got closer, could see The Grand Hotel, Fort Mackinac, and some of the Victorian homes.

The town itself is so quaint and charming, although it was PACKED with tourists…on a Monday. I have to believe that a weekend brings Disney-level crowds! The photographer in me loves how photogenic the island is – the houses, the flowers, the horses…everything is photo-ready! So I took LOTS of photos…

The island was originally named Michilimackinac, which means “Great Turtle”. The French spelling is Mackinac, and whether it’s spelled Mackinac or Mackinaw, it’s always pronounced Mackinaw. The city and the island are spelled differently mostly to distinguish the two and avoid confusion. At the visitor center, we learned that Mackinac Island was the nation’s second National Park, after Yellowstone. But, when the Fort closed, there was no longer anyone from the military to act as park rangers…so it became Michigan’s first State Park in 1895.

We walked along Main Street, enjoying all of the horse-drawn carriages, boutiques, and fudge shops (Mackinac Island is known for their fudge). After lunch, we headed to one of the many bike rental locations and rented a tandem bike. We headed east on the perimeter road (also known as M185) to see one of the island’s most famous sites, Arch Rock. The 207 steps up were a good workout, and the view was gorgeous!

We rode a little further and then turned around to head back into town. We didn’t feel the need to pedal all the way around the island (8.2 miles), since there’s not too much to see on the north end. We returned our bike and started walking west toward The Grand Hotel which opened in 1887 and is known for being the world’s largest summer hotel, and for having the world’s largest front porch! It’s a beautiful old building up on a hill, with yellow & white awnings, red geraniums, and American flags. They charge $10 admission per person to walk around and see the public areas of the hotel – I guess they saw a money-making opportunity beyond just hotel & restaurant patrons! We sat on the porch for a while, enjoying the views of Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge, and wandered through the parlor, the dining room, and the terrace room. Of course, our visit wouldn’t be complete without a dish of ice cream at Sadie’s ice cream parlor (side note, Sadie is a Westminster-award winning Scottie dog owned by the family that owned the hotel in the late 20^th century).

We walked back into town along Market Street, the original center of town, and made our way back to the dock for a 4pm ferry return to Mackinaw City. It’s just a delightful place that takes you back in time, but something to keep in mind for anyone who decides to visit…you may not have to watch for cars, but you sure have to watch where you walk…there’s horse poop everywhere! Mark decided that the people who clean up after the horses must be called “Manure Managers”. Oh, and keep your eyes open for bikes and horses, too!

I took an early walk on Tuesday along the shores of Lake Huron. So pretty!

We spent Tuesday afternoon checking out the two towns that are connected by the Mackinac Bridge – St. Ignace to the North and Mackinaw City to the South. Driving to St. Ignace meant our first trip across the bridge that we’ve been admiring for the last few days. It’s five miles long and the 5^th longest suspension bridge in the world (and longest in the western hemisphere!). It took 3.5 years to build, opening to traffic in 1957. There are almost 4.9 million steel rivets in the bridge! The toll is $4.00 for cars, in each direction.

St. Ignace offers some nice views of the bridge, plus a lighthouse and “castle rock” which rises 195’ above sea level and has some good panoramic views (after a climb up 171 steps…not as many as Arch Rock yesterday, but it felt like more…I must be tired!). Most notably, St. Ignace is on Michigan’s “Upper Peninsula”, so we did indeed visit the UP, but only for about 90 minutes!

We returned to the “Lower Peninsula” and checked out two more lighthouses, the bridge view, and the bridge museum. And, we walked around the ‘downtown’ area where all the shops and restaurants are.

Tuesday evening, we headed to the lakeshore at the campground to enjoy a beautiful sunset…

There must be a lot of Manleys here in Northern Michigan…spotted these in our travels…

Wednesday was the first of our travel days to start heading home. Mackinaw to home is more than six hours, so we decided to split it across two days. We’re now at our 4th and final campground of the trip, just north of Grand Rapids. About three hours on Thursday and we’ll be back at home, and back on Central Time!

It’s been a wonderful trip – we saw so much and learned so much, too! Michigan is beautiful and we saw a nice selection of the “mitten”. We were really fortunate with the weather on this trip – it’s been absolutely gorgeous every day, with no rain (other than a few drops Tuesday afternoon) and perfect temperatures! We have a bit of a break coming up…just one more camping trip in 2023, but not until early October when we will enjoy some fall foliage in Wisconsin!