Vacation Recap: St. Ignace & Mackinac Island

Last Wednesday night, Kevin and I made the 4 hour drive up to St. Ignace, where we stayed until Sunday. We stayed in a cute hotel right on the lake, with a balcony and view of Mackinac Island. When I signed up for The Great Turtle Trail Run Half Marathon (long name) on Mackinac Island, we decided to make a little vacation out of it and head up a coupe of days early. It was the perfect get away. We relaxed, ate good food, played tourist, and I ran my first half marathon!

View from the balcony of our room. I could wake up to that every morning!

Our room even had a cute little fire place!

We slept in on Thursday morning and it felt amazing not waking up to an alarm! We got up, ate breakfast, then went for a run around downtown St. Ignace. After showering and getting ready, we walked around the little shops and bought a few things before heading to lunch. When we planned this trip, I knew we had to try a pastie while we were up north. Pasties are basically like pot pies, without the pot. I'd only heard of them, but never had one, so I was skeptical, but OMG it was sooo good! We went to Lehto's Pasties and we will definitely go back next time we are up north.

After stuffing our faces, we went to the casino, ate dinner, then headed to a little movie theater where we saw The Account (great movie, definitely recommend it).

Driving across the Mackinac Bridge on the way to the movie.

This picture doesn't even come close to showing it, but the fall colors were amazing every where we went.

Friday morning we slept in again (glorious) and then caught a ferry over to Mackinac Island. We again played tourist (even thought we've both been there before) and walked around all of the shops. We decided to take a horse-drawn carriage tour of the island, which we had never done before. I would definitely recommend doing that if you ever go to Mackinac Island. All of our random questions we had were answered, we learned a lot, and also got to see a lot of the island that we had never seen before.

View of the Mackinac Bridge from the island.

One of the many beautiful homes on the island. Kevin thought it was so weird that I took a picture of someone's house.

Our horses!

Took a little break on the carriage ride to let the horses rest. Beautiful views everywhere!

The carriage tour stopped at Arch Rock. One of my favorite places on the island.

Our horses Rosco (left) and Bill (right).

After the horse tour we went and picked up our race packets and then caught a ferry back to our hotel, where we relaxed for the rest of the night.

Saturday morning we were up early so we could catch a ferry to the island for our races! I ran the half marathon and Kevin did the 5.7 mile race. Even though I had been training, I was not prepared for all of the hills on this race. They were intense. And there were a lot of them. The first two miles and the last two miles were on the outside of the island, but the middle 9 miles were all run on trails through out the island. I didn't have a time goal for this, just to run the entire time, which I did, so I was happy. My time ended up being 2:30:17 (I could be off on the seconds...but it was 2 hours and 30 minutes). Kevin killed it in his race...he ran lot of hills too and his time was great! Just over 51 minutes.

Ready for our races! Don't let the sun fool you, it was only a high of 49 degrees that day!

Heading to the finish line. Dead tired lol

I did it! 13.1 miles!

This was the area where our run started and finished. Like said, beautiful everywhere!

We were exhausted and sore after the race, so we caught a ferry back to St. Ignace, grabbed some food, and then sat in the hot tub at the hotel for a little while before heading back to the room to pass out.

Sunday morning we packed up, headed home, picked up Admiral, and spent the rest of the day watching football and doing laundry. It was such a great mini-vacation. Kevin and I had a blast relaxing and enjoying our time together. I love that we were able to take this little trip together, especially have after a crazy busy summer. It was nice to just relax and enjoy our time together.

- Ericka

Louisiana Vacation Recap - Part 3 (The End)

You can find part 1 of my vacation recap HERE and part 2 HERE

After getting back to Baton Rouge, we headed toward New Orleans for more Mardi Gras parades...where we once again got more beads!

Deep fried bacon. OMG

These are all of the beads and goodies my mom and I got from our Mardi Gras fun...35 pounds of beads (yes--we weighed them)!

Since we had to leave super early on Thursday to catch our plane, we spent Wednesday relaxing, shopping, and of course, eating. We went to Walk-On's for lunch, which is a sports bar place...funny story: On the way to Baton Rouge, I sat next to a chef from Walk-On's that was headed home. We got to talking and he ended up giving me a gift certificate to the restaurant, which is why we decided to go there. They had a great menu and the food was delicious.

My trip to Louisiana was amazing. I loved spending quality time with family and getting to experience Mardi Gras. If you ever get the to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, do it! The people watching, parades, and food are so worth it! I would definitely go back again...and I just might have to :)

Have you ever been to New Orelans and/or Mardi Gras? What was your favorite thing to see or do or eat there?

Louisiana Vacation Recap - Part 2

You can find Part 1 of my vacation recap HERE

On Saturday, we headed to New Orleans for the day. We headed to Cafe Du Monde for beignets for breakfast. OMG the beignets were amazing! Who knew powdered sugar tasted so good?

We went to the French Market and did a little shopping before heading to the truck to drop off our purchases (and to grab a daiquiri from the cooler). Then we headed to Jackson Square to take a few pics before heading down Bourbon Street.

I had so much fun walking down Bourbon Street and people watching. I can't believe how many people ended up fitting down that street at the end of the day--so crazy! I of course had to try the "hand grenade" drink that everyone talks about down there. It actually tasted good but it will sneak up on you ;)

After hanging out on Bourbon Street for a little while, it was time to go watch some parades. Now, I'm from a small town, so I'm used to parades being 15-20 minutes, max. These parades were a couple hours long each! They were so awesome. We got lots of beads and goodies (and no, you don't have to do anything to get them--except cheer)!

pretty blue skies!

Mom and I waiting for the parade to start.

And this is what the street looks like after one of these parades rolls through:

After watching a couple parades, we headed home (after making our way through the thousands of people on Bourbon Street). The next morning, my mom and I got ready and headed to DeRidder to visit more of our family. We made the three hour drive and were greeted with Crawfish Etoufee for lunch--so good!

There were also two more King Cakes to eat--Maple Bacon and Black Forest flavors (I told you all I did was eat):

We spent Sunday hanging out and watching the SuperBowl with my cousin Nichole, her husband Malcom, their sons (my godsons) Nicholas and Alex, and my Aunt Laurie (my mom's sister). And of course, more amazing food! Including homemade Kimbap (it's a Korean dish that resembles sushi).

We spent the next day in DeRidder just hanging out, eating, and being silly.

That night, we headed back to Baton Rouge where we would spend the last couple days of our trip...with more Mardi Gras fun! The last recap coming soon,,,,