Return to the Land of the Living?

I'm back - I think. No plans this weekend, which is in and of itself, actually, a plan. I want to sleep in, and clean my house, and plant some flowers, and did I mention I want to sleep in?


The past month has been insane - beginning with the trip to Indy. Then Dave and I took off for a four day weekend over Mother's Day. As I mentioned, we took our bikes to Mackinac Island. He made me ride until I thought I was going to die. The very first hill we encountered was the hill leading up to the Grand Hotel which I thought was the biggest hill I had ever been up on my bike (little did I know). Dave sailed right up it no problem and I had to get off and walk my bike. It was humiliating. I mean I know he is in better shape than me, but this was unexpected.

Then we realized.

I'm a doofus and know nothing about the gears on my bike. It turns out I was in the most difficult gear. After a crash course on up-shifting and down-shifting, I was back in business and able to stay on my bike for most of the hills. That is when the real fun started.


Dave had procured a map of the island which revealed to us treasures we had never been aware of before. Skull Cave was the first one. So we trekked up what felt like 17 miles of hills to find it.

Folks, it's a bunch of rocks on the side of a hill. No skulls, no bones, no pirates, blood, gore or anything of the sort. It's sort of close to a cemetery, but that's it.


So we moved on to the next gem, the Battlefield of 1814. My hubby is a military history enthusiast so of course when he found out there was a battlefield on the island, we had to ride our bikes up 17 more miles of hills to find it. If you recall, we visited Gettysburg last fall, which is a vast battlefield. The Battlefield of 1814 is the size of my living room and is situated right across the street from the 9th fairway of a golf course. It's lame. I'm sorry, but it's true. And it took a lot of hill to get to it.


So onward to the Crack in the Island. Before we set out on this trek, we actually sat down on a bench to discuss whether we had the energy to go to the crack. Considering that everything else which sounded so cool ended up being so lame, we were hesitant. Plus this was going to require trail riding. Of course this is why we purchased mountain bikes, but hey, let's not split hairs. I wanted to see the crack. I was picturing the San Andreas fault and I decided that I wasn't missing it.


It's a ditch. If it had a little water at the bottom of it, I would call it a creek. 0 for 3.

Did I mention the second fort? There's a reason I left it out.


The only thing we saw that I actually thought was really nifty was the Arch Rock. Beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here. Jro asked is we went to it and yes, we rode our bikes up that hill too. I wanted to stay up there but it was our last day and we had to go back to town and catch our ferry. But it was so pretty. I'm sad to hear that it will be gone after Mother Nature and Father Time get done marching across it.

I'm poking a little fun at the island, but the truth it, Mackinac Island (and most of N. MI) is beautiful and we had a very relaxing time with each other. The worst thing that happened was I kept forgetting to bring the camera with us on our bike tours and missed out on some beautiful pics. Below is some of the few I got when I actually did remember to bring the camera.


We asked for and received a room upgrade to a lakeview. We were on the third floor and this was our view.

Gorgeous water on our leisurely bike ride on the bike path around the island. We stopped a couple times just to sit by the water. It was chilly, but still gorgeous.

Did I mention it was chilly? I was wishing I would have brought a warmer (and more fashionable hat). But when you are freezing, it is very easy to not care if you look lame. Or like a fly, in my case.

Okay, so that is my little recap on Mother's Day weekend. I have another riveting story regarding a gas station bathroom I encountered during my road trip last weekend with Mandy(you have to call her Miranda). But I have been up since 4:45 this morning and I am going to bed. You are all just going to have to wait for that juicy story. And I do mean juicy.