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Nathan and I crossed the Mackinac Bridge twice during our vacation, and on the second trip the girls and the dogs tagged along. In the right weather it’s a majestic ride.

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The sunsets never get old in northern Michigan, and we apparently never grew tired of snapping photos of the sky. Enjoy.

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By Nathan — On July 15th Dad and I took a weekend trip to the Upper Peninsula to see an old high school buddy of his, a cool guy named Herb. Herb and his family live in a town near Munising and have a place on a resort they call “Camp.” Herb has two sons and a wife who all love to ride four-wheelers and snowmobiles, so when they go to camp they can ride them. The first night Dad and I got to camp, we waited for Herb to come meet us, because his oldest son was having surgery on his toe. When they got to the cabin and everyone was settled, we rode the four-wheelers to a restaurant nearby.

The four-wheelers where very fun to be on and very easy to ride. The next morning we got up and had breakfast, then went on a glass-bottom boat tour on Lake Superior. The boat tour was great! We went to a few different wrecks, both you could see clearly, and the narrator even explained what parts of the ship we were looking at and how it sank.

When we got back to the house, we got on the four-wheelers and rode a little while with the intention of going to a grocery store to get some pop. It started raining on us halfway through and Herb pulled over and asked if we wanted to keep going. Dad and I were both fine, so we kept going. Then it really started pouring. Once it started raining harder, we would just splash through giant puddles which was really fun. Once we got back to camp, Herb made hamburgers for dinner and we watched a movie. The morning after, we had pancakes for breakfast and then Dad and I left. My first trip to the UP was awesome, and I hope to have many more.

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By Vivian — In between Charlevoix and Petoskey was the Kilwins headquarters. To put in perspective how big the Kilwins is, it used to be a supermarket. My mom, Nathan, Nani, and I all went to the Kilwins. We all took a tour, not entirely because we were interested, but because you would get a free chocolate at the end. After that, Nathan and I got ice cream, we all sat at a table and the man who gave us a tour came over with four pieces of what they call sea foam. Sea foam (the way he explained it) was a piece of sugar and a few other things that they cooked down and covered in chocolate. It kind of tasted like peanut brittle. Right before we left, Mom tried some of their “Saltwater Taffy.” So Kilwins was fun, and I liked it a lot.

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By Nathan — We went to Sleeping Bear sand Dunes on one of my Dad’s last days off. We drove about an hour and a half to a town called Glen Arbor to have lunch with my Aunt Kris. It was super fun to see her after such a long time. We ate lunch and shared some good stories, then dropped her off at her friend’s house on a small lake overlooking the Dunes.

Afterwards, we drove to the Dunes. Man were they huge! Viv and I got out of the car and it felt like a massive wall of sand right in front of you. We ran to the top and waited for Mom and Dad. Once they came up, we decided on a hiking trail to take. We took one that was about two-miles long to a small town called Glen Haven right on Sleeping Bear Bay. It had a boat museum and informational signs about the town.

At the end of the day, as we were coming back from the hike, we passed a steep slant on the side of the trail — a sand dune that had to be at about 80 degrees. As we were coming up on it, Dad said “Twenty bucks for whoever can make it to the top” and I took off. I eventually got to the top and almost beat them to the car, too. The Dunes were a great experience for me, and I really hope to go back.

Editor’s note: “Eventually got to the top” is right. This probably should have been a timed challenge. Nathan also fails to mention that about half way to the top, he tried to renegotiate terms. “How … How about (deep breath) … How about 15 bucks for half way?!!” That said, I don’t think the rest of us would have attempted this for $200. He certainly earned the $20. — Dad

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By Vivian — Up near Mackinaw City there was a place called Headlands. It is a park, and in the park was the Dark Sky Park. It was a one-mile walk to the Dark Sky Park. There were pictures (they were plastic cutouts and about as big as me) of philosophers and gods and what they had to do with planets and constellations. When we walked past them, my dogs Bandit and Trixie barked and growled at them. After the first two Trixie stopped, but Bandit kept barking at them — except the very last one. After the first two I would pick Bandit up and walk him up to the picture and he would just growl at them, but unless I would do that he would not go near them.

When we got to the beach, we set up the chairs and sat down. To our left there was this nice man. He sat down next to me after he asked, because nobody was sitting there. He knew some constellations and he told me about Walleye. He left before it became completely dark. We saw planets — Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. We also saw constellations like the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, a bear one, and Scorpio. All through my mom’s phone app of course.

On the way back to the car, tons of people brought their cars in on a one-lane road, and that was because they ignored the sign that said “No cars. Foot traffic only.” So when we left, tons of people who were trying to leave with their cars were stuck on the one-lane road. So it was dark, with tons of cars trying to get out, but we did not have to walk that far. There were mostly adults there, so I just did not get it. When we got back to the parking lot we shut the gate so that maybe people would pay attention to the sign, but then someone in a car came up, got out of the car, moved the sign, and went on his way without shutting it again. The Dark Sky Park was very cool and very fun. I liked it a lot.

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By Nathan — Mom, Viv, and I went to Mackinac Island with Nani early in the vacation. We drove about an hour to Mackinac City and got on a ferry to the island. After about a 45-minute ferry ride, we got to the island. Mom brought Viv and I’s bikes on her bike rack, so we could ride them around the island, and Mom and Nani rented bikes from the island.

When we started on the ride, we went through about a fourth of the city until we saw water. It was beautiful! After getting through the city, we were riding on a paved trail right along the shoreline of the island. We rode that same trail for a while, stopping occasionally to look at some of the natural landmarks and rock formations on the island.

The ride was about eight miles and took about two hours. When we got back to the city, we locked our bikes up and went to the “Pink Pony “, a popular restaurant on Mackinac. After we finished eating, we went to a Sanders store and got ice cream. By then it was time for us to go, so we got back on the ferry and left. I am glad I got to see Mackinac Island for the first time on this vacation, and I had a blast!

By Vivian — My mom talked about how she heard of a place where you could raft on the “fastest moving river in Northern Michigan, the Sturgeon River.” Dad and Mom got kayaks and Nathan and I got tubes. We had to take a large bus with other people to get to the river.

When we got to the river, the bus driver helped us get to the river bank with our stuff. When we got in the river I was the first one in, then Nathan, them my mom, and then lastly my dad. The river was moving fast and there was dead trees, branches, and people in our way. Big surprise, I was the first one to get stuck on a tree. My mom and dad both flipped their kayaks trying to help me, one strange person flipped his tube trying to help, and finally another man helped me and got me free. The river was shallow but that made a lot of the dead trees in the water stick out of the water, that was why I got stuck so many times. I was ricocheting like a ping-pong ball from bank to bank of the river. Because of that, Mom and Nathan went ahead of us and Dad and I were in the back.

The problem with that was each time I got stuck Dad had to stop, and each time he stopped he flipped over. So finally he pulled me, my tube, and his kayak onto a bank where he got the water out of his kayak and told me to hold on to the back of his kayak, where there was a little piece rope and a handle. So then we had smooth sailing — or so we thought … because then it rained hard for the next hour until we reached the end. Right before we reached the end, I was floating on Dad’s left and a slanted tree was up ahead. The bottom of the slanted tree was on our left and I told my dad to turn right so I would not get stuck. We were not turning fast enough and I started yelling “Dad, Dad, DAD!” thankfully the tree was taller than it looked and I just grazed my back, and not much longer we reached the end.

Overall, even with the few glitches, I loved our trip to the Sturgeon River.

I’m talking about pretty much all of our hikes. Our first hike as a family was Stone Mountain. When we hiked at Stone Mountain we went with our friends the Lucas family. I liked Stone Mountain probably the best out of all of our hikes. Stone Mountain was hard on the way up, but the way down was much easier and the view was just great.

Our second hike was when we went to Lake Norman State park. At Lake Norman the hike was just right, the hike was fairly level, the hike was easy, and the hike told you how many miles you had hiked from the start of the hike. The day that we had gone to Lake Norman State Park the weather was in the middle. I also think that the Lake Norman State Park hike was a close second to Stone Mountain. Overall I had thought that the two hikes that we had gone on were very good, and I thought that they would keep getting better. I was wrong in my opinion.

Our third hike was Latta Plantation. It was not the best experience of hiking that we as a family had gone through. First of all the day felt like it was in the high 90’s to the low 100’s. The hike had you hike up a huge hill and then you had to hike slightly uphill to get around the corner. Also the hike was confusing, because they had no map. It might have been the day or it might have been the hike, but Latta Plantation was not a fun hike that day.

Our fourth hike was at Max Patch. It was a moderate hike for us — the day was pretty sunny and the hike was short. Max Patch was a nice little hike. For those who do not know what Max Patch is, it is a little mountain I guess you could call it. Max Patch was a 2-mile hike, but it felt just like a 5-mile hike, because the hill was steep and the altitude was high, so we had to carry our small dog Bandit up the hill.

Our fifth hike was to the top of Mt. Mitchell. But since my brother wrote a post on Mt. Mitchell, I’m going to talk about our two dogs Trixie and Bandit. Trixie is our 40-pound purebred English Springier Spaniel (but we think she has a little bit of beagle in her, because she howls a lot.) Bandit is our Bichon/Havanese 8-pound lap dog. Bandit is a little champ when we go on our 5-mile hikes, because it is the driving loyalty to my Dad that has him always walking behind my Dad’s feet. My Dad walks Trixie and they walk in front of me, Bandit, Mom, and my brother Nathan. I walk Bandit and we walk behind my Dad. Next, my brother Nathan is in between me and my Mom, who is at the back.

Trixie is the one who starts fights with Bandit, and Bandit is the one who makes sure that we all know. But Bandit also starts fights, too, and he is the one who can’t finish them. Trixie is usually the one who gets in trouble, because she is about 2-years-old now and is afraid of everything. These are just some of the things that Trixie gets scared of: Fart noises, someone speaking into a paper towel roll, a rubber oven mitt, loud noises and sometimes Bandit. Vivian