2025 Mackinac, Michigan Adventure

The trip was a Diamond Tours trip that was managed and escorted by First Choice Travel in Batavia, NY with the most amazing team of Kathy (tour manager) and Rachel (driver) on a purple Zona Tours bus!!!

I wasn’t sure how to pack for this trip…..in the week or so leading up to time to pack, I was watching the weather and it looked like we were in for mid-60s with potential rain on the day we would be on Mackinac Island! Then, it looked like it might get into the low 70s with that rain possibility hanging on…..so I packed long sleeves – a few heavy ones and a few lighter weight ones, a rain coat and a warmer jacket – just in case. As it turned out, we had AMAZING weather! It was 70s-80s every day and NO rain!!! Most of the stuff I packed was too warm for the weather, but it was all good! I take that back — on Friday morning, it was rather cool – low 60s, so I got to wear the jacket I brought for something other than a blanket on the bus! hahaha But, even that day warmed up as the day progressed!

So…..just a little preface, here…..you may have seen the name of places in this area spelled “Mackinac” and “Mackinaw”…..well, even in the area itself, you see it spelled both ways — Mackinac Island, Mackinac Bridge, Mackinaw City…..etc! But — no matter how it is spelled, it is ALL pronounced “Mackinaw”……if you’re heard saying “Mackinac”, they know instantly that you’re a tourist and “not from around here”! hahaha

Our group of 49 + our tour manager and driver equaled 51 on the bus…if I heard the count correctly! It was a great group of folks to travel with…..first, our tour manager, Kathy, is always amazing – I’ve traveled with her many times on day trips and overnighters, as well as one other longer trip – the 2024 South Dakota Adventure….then, we were very fortunate to get Rachel as our driver – she was also our driver for the South Dakota trip and is awesome – I actually had a dream Sunday night that she was our driver and was so excited to see that she WAS!!!….there were also several on the bus that were on the South Dakota trip, as well as some of the other shorter trips I’ve taken with First Choice Travel….and those that were first timers quickly became friends, as well. I’ve really come to love bus trips!!!

Tour manager, Kathy and driver, Rachel…..

….this was actually taken during our South Dakota Adventure…..because I neglected to get a decent photo of them together on this trip!!! UGH…where was my brain???!!!

Me – all excited after I got in my seat and the others were boarding the bus! I sat in the third row on the driver’s side…..woo hoo!!!

We pulled out of Batavia about 8:00 am and started on the drive to Michigan. I mentioned the “theme” and “sticker” before – here’s the explanation: Each day, Kathy started us off with the “theme of the day” and a sticker to put on our name tag to remind us of it! Most of the “themes” were actually quotes that I wasn’t fast enough to write out completely, but I made note of the important parts of each one so I could be sure the gist was conveyed! She does these cool little things all along the way to make things special and fun!!!

As I mentioned a bit ago, Monday’s theme of the day was: “Be kinder than necessary” and the sticker was a smiley face!

After a mid-morning rest stop (not sure where we were for that), we stopped for lunch at Culver’s in Avon, OH — I was a happy camper! We stopped at Culver’s a couple times on the SD trip…..it’s a great “fast food on steroids” place! Wonderful and diverse selection of food – famous for their “butter burgers”. I was hoping we’d get to stop there at least once on this trip and BAM – we did!!! I had the pork loin sandwich with onion rings and a vanilla milk shake – YUMMY!!! (It was this stop that I stepped up on a curb and that muscle in the back of my knee that I pulled the night before gave out on me and I thought I might not be able to go on….but, I did!)

After another short rest stop (somewhere along the way), we stopped for dinner at Bob Evens just down the street from the hotel we were staying at for our first night en route! I wasn’t very hungry…..so I just ordered the 1/2 salad and soup combo — I love their Wild Fire Chicken Salad and got the chicken noodle soup to go with it…..and, no, those are NOT all my biscuits – two were mine, but the others belonged to my table mates! hehehe! It was all delicious, but more than I could eat – I’m glad I didn’t order a whole salad cause I only ate about 1/2 of the 1/2 salad I did get!!! The poor staff at Bob Evens had their hands full — they had some kind of a major power/internet outage and had to do all the tickets and run credit cards by hand! But, they were good sports, handled it well (considering), and it all got done and we were full and on our way! BRAVO to them!!!

We arrived at the hotel in Flint, Michigan at about 7:30-ish. The Holiday Inn Express was a very nice hotel – clean and comfortable and a nice selection of breakfast items to get us started on day two of our adventure – my bagel and banana were just what I needed to get me going! I do have to mention, though, that the trend for hotels to update their beds to these super thick mattresses on high pedestals is not so good for us short folks! I had a bit of a struggle getting in bed – especially with a sore knee – but, I did it and the mattress and pillows were like sleeping on clouds and I got an amazing night’s sleep!!!

We had a wonderful day – the weather was PERFECT!!! After breakfast we drove from Flint, MI to Mackinaw City, MI…..stopping for lunch at Culver’s in Gaylord, MI on the way – this time I had the butter burger and a Pepsi. We also had a nice treat — a couple of our fellow travelers brought a bunch of Premier Honey Crisp apples to share with us from Ledge Rock Farms in Medina! They were sooooo good and really hit the spot as our mid-morning snack!!!

We arrived at our first activity – Colonial Michilimackinac (I dare you to try to say THAT three times fast) about 2:00 pm. The local Diamond Tours rep, Robert, got on the bus to greet us and tell us what we would be doing – first the self guided tour of Fort Mackinac and then a drive through of downtown Mackinaw City.

When I entered the Visitor’s Center with my walker, one of the staff asked me if I wanted to use one of their complimentary electric scooters to make my experience more enjoyable! So, yep, I used one – and it made all the difference in the world! I was able to see everything in the large complex of buildings and exhibits without putting any strain on my knees or my back! They were wonderful!!!

Colonial Michilimackinac is an amazing place – an historic British fort from 1775 – well, a replica because the British burned the original one down when they were done with it! We spent a couple hours or so wandering around checking everything out and even got to see a cannon get fired out over Lake Michigan!!!

Once we got off the bus, we got some nice views of the Mackinac Bridge – it goes over the Straits of Mackinac that separate Lake Huron to the right and Lake Michigan to the left. Stunning!

Then, we went through the Visitor’s Center and on to the complex that made up Fort Mackinac.

We got to see the guys fire a cannon out into Lake Michigan!!! That was cool — the guy standing on the right side of the photo above narrated the activity and explained all about how cannons work and what kind we were looking at. Here’s a video I took – you may want to turn your volume up…..it is kinda hard to hear him:

Then, we took a drive around Main St, Mackinaw City before we went to dinner – we were scheduled to spend more time there later in the week, so no need to get out and look around. Here are a few photos taken through the bus window:

We had dinner at Audie’s Restaurant in Mackinaw City. They had a small buffet with three entrees to choose from, a vegetable medley, and roasted potatoes….along with a nice salad and rolls that were already on our tables. All the entrees had cheese in them (unfortunately, I’m allergic to cheese), so I couldn’t eat any of them…..BUT….the waiter was very kind to change my salad to one without cheese and I took a helping of the vegetable medley and roasted potatoes and I ended up with PLENTY to eat and it was all VERY good – I was stuffed!!! I’m sure if I had asked, the waiter would also have arranged for a non-cheesy entrée, but I didn’t want to bother him – he had his hands full! 🙂 And, I was plenty full — we were also served a delicious carrot cake for dessert…which would have been awesome even if that’s all I had!!!

Our destination hotel – the one we stayed at for the next three nights – was the Comfort Inn in Sault Sainte Marie. The common areas of the hotel were a bit dated and in need of some TLC, but the rooms were very nice – comfortable and clean – and the breakfast offering had a nice variety and everything was very good! The staff were all so nice….I had a little issue with my card key and they fixed it right away and while I was there, I mentioned how high the bed was (yep – another one I was going to have to struggle to get in) thinking there wasn’t anything they could do about it, but…..they actually brought a step stool up for me to use while we stayed there – they said I actually wasn’t the first person to need one!!! WOW!!! That was amazing….I was definitely a happy camper!!! I offered to take it up myself cause she was busy and she insisted on delivering it to the room and by the time I got back up there, it was already waiting for me!!!

When we got to the hotel, there was a little “drama” going on with another bus that pulled in before us…..I’ll only say that they weren’t very happy and I was sad that they didn’t have a “Kathy” to bring joy to their experience and I noticed their name tags didn’t have little fun stickers on them…..and…..I’ll bet no one started their adventure with the theme “Be kinder than necessary”!!! And, that right there may be the root of all that! 😦

The lobby was very comfortable, too…..I went down on the second night to sit on the couch and read and just get out of the room for a bit – there was a nice ottoman to put my feet up and a pillow for my back. A few others from our group were down there playing games, too.

Oh – and I forgot to mention – on our way to Sault Sainte Marie, we saw a herd of BISON!!! We found out later that it was probably a Bison Farm, but it was still kinda thrilling to see them!!!

Wednesday, September 17th
Theme of the day: “…there are good ships and bad ships…..
but the best ships are friendships”!
Sticker: a Ship! (because we were going on a little cruise later in the day)

We left the hotel after breakfast at about 9:30 to go to the Soo Locks Visitor’s Center in Sault Sainte Marie. We had time to look around the Visitor’s Center and to go up on the observation platform to look at the locks. BONUS — there was a huge freighter in the lock and we got to see it leave!

There was a lovely water fountain that I found in the lower park…..I sat there quite a while just relaxing and listening to the water!

No Swimming??? Man, they really know how to spoil a girl’s fun, huh?

We also had time to wander around the downtown area before we had to get on the bus to go to our cruise through the locks. A few of us found a wonderful place for lunch – “Oh! Crepe and Coffee”!

I had the “King Crepe” – inspired by Elvis! It was a huge crepe (once it was folded into a triangle, it was the size of a large slice of pizza) with peanut butter, bananas, and bacon…I thought, oh that sounds like fun, so I ordered it thinking maybe I’d eat a little bit and toss the rest, but it was absolutely delicious!!! I ate the whole thing!!! And Loved It!!!

I wandered around downtown….it was full of quaint shops and things to see….I also got (on a spirited recommendation from Kathy) a bag of popcorn form a shop called “Cultured Pop” that was Himalayan Sea Salt flavored — I was full from my crepe, so I kept it for when I got back to my room later in the evening.

The purpose of the Soo Locks is to maneuver ships through the 21 foot change in elevation between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. We were able to take a cruise down the St. Marys River and through the Soo Locks – first on the Canadian side of the river and then back through the US side of the river. I’ve been on a cruise through the Erie Canal locks and they operate much the same, but are quite a bit bigger!!! It was impressive and fun! We cruised across the international boarder line to the Canadian side of the river, pulled into the lock, the gates closed, the water rose to the next elevation, and the gates opened so we could proceed on to the rest of our cruise…..then, we did it in reverse on the way back, but this time through the US lock! Very cool!!!

More photos from the cruise along St. Marys River:

These are piles of coal and other minerals used to make steel at one of the largest steel manufacturers – it’s on the Canadian side of the river. It was so cool to see the materials and parts of the facility!!!

The white stuff on this pile of fine material for steel manufacturing is actually feathers from birds that rest on the warm surface. Our boat captain told the story of how he often gets asked if the feathers create a problem for the manufacturing process, so he once asked the workers and they told him that it is a closely guarded secret that the feathers are incorporated into some of the steel to make “feather weight steel” that is much lighter than regular steel……yeah, it was a joke…..a funny one that got a lot of groans! hahaha

At the end of our cruise, the captain took us around the back and side of this behemoth sized ship that was headed to the locks….that was a nice little thrill!

After our cruise, we made a stop at the Kewadin Sault Casino Hotel. We didn’t have much time there and I’m not really a gambler, per se…..so I took the time to relax a bit while some of the others took advantage of the casino and some also just sat and relaxed. I did do a little wandering to see the beautiful facility — lots of stunning artwork!!!

Our dinner that evening was at Franks’ Place in Sault Sainte Marie — we had a delicious buffet and stuffed ourselves, yet again!

Thursday, September 18th
Theme of the day: “…taken back in time to a simpler life….”!
Sticker: a Horse! (to remind us of our horse & buggy ride)

On Thursday, we took the ferry from St. Ignace to Mackinac Island — the main event of the adventure and my personal bucket list item!!! Mackinac Island is a step back in time. It was named the second National Park after Yellowstone – it was a National Park for 20 years until it was gifted to the state of Michigan where it has operated as a State Park ever since. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the island – only horses, carriages, and bicycles (although, there are some motorized vehicles for emergency use and snowmobiles are allowed in the winter). It is an absolutely lovely island full of quaint shops, restaurants, and fun things to see and do. It is also home to the Grand Hotel – a huge and very elite (expensive) hotel.

Kathy greeting us as we got on the bus…..every morning, she had a big smile and free hugs – she got us off on the right foot each and every day!!!

This is the ticket office for the ferry…..we met Oakley – the office dog! What a sweetheart! It was quite foggy that morning, so visibility on the ferry wasn’t good…..so, I didn’t push my knee to climb the steps to the top level. We passed an old ship replica in the harbor as we pulled out on the ferry. As I sat on the lower level, I was sitting right at the water level…..the ferry moved right along and created quite the wake!!!

The first thing we did was take the narrated horse and buggy tour around the island. It actually consisted of three different carriages – one took us to the half way point, another took us to some of the key spots, and then another took us back where we could either get off at the Grand Hotel (we would be on our own to get back to the downtown area) or we could take it all the way back downtown. I didn’t get off at the Grand Hotel…..I wanted to have more time downtown before we had to get back on the ferry.

This (and the next close up one) is the souvenir photo of the carriage I rode on….I’m on this side in the second row (the first yellow dot row).

Our first narrator was a little difficult to understand – I believe he said he was from Hungary or somewhere in that area of the world, but he was still very entertaining and informative. Our second narrator was easier to understand and was very funny, as well – I enjoyed them both.

I had quite the view on both the narrated sections of the tour…..hahaha! Of course, I did have a better view when I looked out the sides! {wink} The “fun” part was when two of the horses in the three horse team both decided it was time to get rid of their breakfast during the tour……pew!!! Like my Mom used to say after we moved out to the country when I was little…..”Mmmmm, fresh country air!!!”

The Grand Hotel — I have a better photo from the water on the ferry ride back to the main land!

There is a frequent “turtle” theme throughout the island — Mackinac was originally named Michilimackinac by the Native Americans on the island, which means “Great Turtle” and shortened to Mackinac later.

We stopped mid-way at a building that had some shops and snacks – like warm homemade donuts!

Continuing on…..we stopped at Arch Rock……a stunning view!!!

Skull Cave
Named because of the legend that someone once hid in there only to wake up to find he was surrounded by skulls and bones!!! eeewww

This is a National Cemetery on the island.

There was a LOT of wooded areas…..it surprised me to see so much woodland…..although, I’m not sure why I was surprised!

Back downtown…..I did a bit of wandering around…..sampling fudge from the umpteen fudge shops on the island…..shopping…..and enjoying an amazing day – the fog lifted just after we got off the ferry and the sun warmed up the day by noon-ish, so I could remove my raincoat and enjoy the sun better!

The sun was shining so bright, I was just taking “blind” photos of the downtown area and when I looked after, I see that I captured Kathy in one of them!!! 🙂

The Michigan Cherry Chocolate fudge won my heart (it was a creamy, smooth fudge with huge chunks of cherries all through it)…..I bought a 1/2 slice and restrained myself from buying any more…..although every single sample I tried was incredible!!! (one of the guides said that if you have a small taste sample from every shop on the island, you’ll have eaten a pound or more of fudge!!! I believe it!)

I didn’t JUST eat fudge samples…..I did find a really great place to have lunch! I strolled down Main St looking at menus in windows till I saw one that piqued my interest….Horn’s Gaslight Bar! It was a lovely old-time looking bar with a very appetizing menu…..I had the beef sliders (three small delicious hamburgers with grilled onions and bacon) and asked for the soup of the day instead of french fries – it was chicken & dumpling soup and it was incredible – full of veggies and chicken and dumplings in a thick, creamy broth!!! It was an awesome lunch!!! I sat there on their purple chairs enjoying the music and reading my book while I ate — a great time!

Some more photos from my stroll around downtown Mackinac Island…..that first one on the left is a UPS delivery carriage…..even UPS and Amazon make deliveries using only a horse drawn carriage – it’s a fun sight to see!

These pics were taken at the ferry dock…..the one on the right is of the water with cool looking plants coming up from the bottom of the harbor.

On the return ferry, the sun was out and it was gorgeous, so I climbed the steps to the upper level to get some photos:

The Grand Hotel from the ferry!!!

That’s our driver, Rachel, behind me to the right….she’s beside one of the guys from our bus, Roger!
Hey guys! I didn’t know I got you in my selfie till later! hehehe

For our last night in the area, we went to The Driftwood Restaurant right across the street from where we took the ferry. They gave us a menu with a few nice choices – including a Pastie – a meat pie with beef, potatoes, and rutabaga with gravy – a local dish the area is famous for. I would have tried it, but I had one when I was in the St. Ignace area several years ago and I wasn’t really impressed – it was OK and I’m glad I tried it, but didn’t feel the need to do it again! hehehe I chose the shrimp basket with french fries, instead…..and it was very good!!! We also each had a salad and a piece of chocolate cake for dessert.

Friday, September 19th
Theme of the day: “A lighthouse beam is steadfast and steady….maybe we can be the lighthouse in someone else’s storm…”!
Sticker: a Lighthouse!

Bet you could guess from the daily theme, that we visited a lighthouse on Friday!!! We had a step on guide – John – who went all over with us that morning. He was wonderful…..relayed all kinds of great information.

This was the day that it was quite cold in the morning – low 60s – and I had to wear my jacket! It did warm up nicely as the day progressed, but I can safely use the word “brisk” to describe the morning!

Our first stop that morning was the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse…..it was very interesting and yielded more wonderful views of the Mackinac Bridge! They would allow up to 10 from our bus to climb the lighthouse — we got 10 volunteers to take the 60-some steps, then climb a straight ladder, and then climb through a hole to get to the top…..they said the views were stunning! I’ll take their word for it! hahaha

We also got to listen to a talk about the history of the fog horns at the lighthouse and a demonstration of how the fog horns sounded…..here’s the video I took of the entire presentation….you might want to be sure your volume is turned up so you can hear all the interesting information presented:

After we left the lighthouse, we had time to wander, shop, and have lunch on our own at Mackinaw Crossings in downtown Mackinac City. This was the area we just drove through after the cruise through the Soo Locks and didn’t stop because we were going to have more time to see it all later in the week — this was now later in the week!

Kathy told us she had a mystery surprise in store for us for later and that dinner would be “light”, so we might want to make lunch our big meal of the day. I walked along the Main St and found a Pancake house for lunch – I thought some eggs, toast, and bacon sounded really good to me! But, when I looked at the menu, I saw they had blueberry pancakes with whole blueberries inside — not just the blueberry pie filling sauce you usually get with blueberry pancakes…..my mouth watered just thinking about them! So, that’s what I had…..and they didn’t disappoint! So good!!! And the bacon was awesome, too…..I didn’t come close to finishing all the food they gave me and I was STUFFED!!!

The restaurant looks empty in this photo, but there were a few other tables with people behind me as I took it…..I was about half way back and there was a long buffet to the right of where I was sitting.

I enjoyed strolling around the Main Street….

Mackinaw Crossings was cool, too….a small village/mall within the Main St area full of shops! I bought a sweatshirt in Mackinaw Outfitters – a huge store with tons of stuff at great prices!!! (I also got a sweatshirt on Mackinac Island, too)

This was our last day in the Mackinac area……we spent time in Mackinac City, Mackinac Island, St. Ignace, Sault Sainte Marie, and the Soo Locks…..now it was time to head back to Flint for our final hotel stay of the trip! But…..Kathy promised us a surprise bonus stop….something NOT on the itinerary…..something she and the local Diamond Tours rep – Robert – were working to see if they could make it happen!

We were DELIGHTED to find out that we were going to do a drive through of Frankenmuth – AKA “Michigan’s Little Bavaria”! It would have been nice to stop there and wander around, but Kathy had other plans for us, so we did the drive through so that we could at least “see” the famous Frankenmuth community…..(we didn’t have time to stop to explore there AND do the special surprise).

And, then…..we had TWO HOURS to explore Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland – the world’s largest Christmas shop!!! This was instead of the 1.5 hour dinner stop that was planned on the itinerary…..a trade off we could all live with most gladly!!! Bronner’s had a little cafe with hotdogs, sandwiches, and other things to have for a light dinner and we all had a good lunch, so YEAH…..we were all very, very happy!!!

The photos I took of the outside as we were leaving aren’t that impressive — the lights were on, but it wasn’t quite dark enough for them to really shine in the photos, but you get the idea…..the entire property was outlined and filled with lights and Christmas scenes…gorgeous!!!

I left thinking that I just might need to put up my Christmas tree when I got home!!! I didn’t…..yet…..but, I did give it strong consideration while I was filled to the brim with the Christmas Spirit!!! 🙂

I bought two new angels for my collection from Bronner’s…..love them both!!! I tend to be partial to “faceless” angels…..

We were just about 30 minutes from our final hotel — the same Holiday Inn Express in Flint, MI that we stayed at on our first night. This time I had a room with two queen beds…..it was just as comfortable and nice as it was that first night! Of the two hotels, this one was my favorite — the mattress and pillows in this one were far more like being on a cloud….not that the other hotel wasn’t comfortable – it definitely was…..it’s just that this one was just that bit more!

Saturday, September 20th
Theme of the day: “There’s no place like home”!
Sticker: a Piggy (to remind us of Kathy ❤ )

Our last day was a travel day……the long drive back home to Batavia! A couple rest stops and lunch at a travel plaza in Vickey, OH that had three options for lunch – Burger King, Sbarro Pizza, or Panda Express – I and several others chose Panda Express – it was a good choice! We all agreed to forego the dinner stop that was just an hour or so away from our final destination so that we could get there by about 6:30 instead of 7:45…..we were ready to get home!!!

We got to Batavia and said our goodbyes to all our great travel friends! Although I have absolutely no idea why (I literally ate my weight in food over the past 6 days), I was hungry when I finished unloading all my stuff off the bus and into my car, so I had dinner at Town & Country Restaurant in Batavia before I headed home to Albion.

So….another amazing adventure in the record books! We saw so much and did so many wonderful things! And, as we passed by Lake Erie on the way home I realized that over the past six days, we were on or near all of the Great Lakes, except Ontario…..we were literally on Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior and drove by with views of Lake Erie! We visited five different towns, went over two major bridges (multiple times), cruised on a river and through locks that moved us across a 21 foot elevation change over two different lakes, saw a lighthouse, were on an island, watched a cannon be shot and heard a fog horn blow, rode ona ferry, sampled tons of homemade fudge, and I even had two horses poop right in front of me!

If that’s not an awesome trip, I have no idea what would qualify as one!!!

So, what’s next??? I have two mystery day trips booked later this year……then, next year, I’ve put a deposit on three pretty incredible sounding adventures! I’ll be sure to write all about them and I hope you’ll come back to read my thoughts!

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