Michigan Trip

On June 25, me and my family (husband stayed home) left for Traverse City to visit my sister Sherrill. We drove in a caravan of 3 cars; my mom and me and my 3 kids; my dad and Autumn and her kids in his pickup; and my brother Josh, sister Stacy, and niece Miranda in another car. On the trip over, we only stopped at rest areas and gas stations. We also stopped along the road to eat lunch (sandwiches) and McD's for dinner. We left at 2am Saturday morning and arrived in Traverse City at 7am Sunday morning. 29 hours!! We visited Nauvoo, Illinois and Carthage Jail on the way home. It was a great trip and we all had a lot of fun! I took hundreds of pictures and couldn't put them all on here, but I had a hard time deciding which ones to include, so I'm still posting a lot!

My goal was to stop at every state sign and get a group picture. We only did some of them because others were harder to get to.

This was taken in front of the Michigan sign, but it was dark and the light reflected off the sign so you couldn't even see the kids.  In fact, we must have looked a little suspicious out there in the middle of the night because the town cop stopped to see what was going on.  When we told her we were tourists just trying to get some pictures, she helped out by shining her spotlight so we could at least see the kids in the picture. 

Sherrill's house in Michigan

Went to the beach on Lake Michigan the first day we were there

Had a barbecue in her backyard that night

On Monday morning, we visited a lighthouse

And ate lunch at Peninsula Grill

Later that night, we walked the downtown area of Traverse City. We browsed shops and ended up at Cherry Republic to get chocolate covered cherries, a fudge shop to get 6 pounds of fudge, and Cold Creamery to get icecream. I guess you could say we all had sugar cravings that day!

On Tuesday, we went to Pirates Cove. Here's a picture of Kaitlyn on the ropes course

 Rylee got stuck on the zip line when it wasn't going fast enough to reach the other side and they had to come rescue her



 We ate Jet's Pizza for dinner that night. So yummy!!!



 Wednesday morning, we rode a ferry out to Mackinaw Island

 Rylee posed for a picture in front of the beach.



 Then I made Kyra pose for one too



 This is The Grand Hotel where "Somewhere in Time" was filmed. We couldn't go in it though. Everything was really expensive so we didn't do much, but just walk around.



No cars are allowes on the island.  You have to get around by horse, bike, or walking.  We chose to walk.  Josh os severely allergic to horses and had some trouble breathing if he got to close to them.

Thursday morning we stopped at The Bear store to get a few more shirts (pick out your shirt and your design and they printed it out for you) and snagged a group pic before we headed for home

 We made it to Indiana later that day



After that, we hit Illinois

 We visited Old Nauvoo and started the day out with a free tour by horse carriage.  Josh chose to stay behind because of the horses.  It was over 100 degrees and the heat index was over 90%.  It was so hot and humid, we were sweating in no time!

 

 Nauvoo Temple...So Pretty!

We got to dress up as pioneers and play games and activities like they did back then!

 After we left Nauvoo, we went to Carthage to visit the jail

 Looking down from the window Joseph Smith fell out of

 The room where they were held in when the mob stormed the jail

The bullet holes in the door are still there

 After Carthage, we stayed another night in a hotel and then headed for home again in the morning.  Along the interstate, we saw signs for the Corn Palace in South Dakota, so we decided to stop there.

Sunset in Wyoming

 Almost Home