Day 1

Mom and I drove up through Wisconsin to a tiny town in the U.P. called Silver City. Our hotel was right on Lake Superior.

(That is me in the water, screeching because it's cold.)

That night, we went hiking in Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. It truly was the wilderness. We didn't see any other people, and I have never heard silence like this before. There weren't even any sounds from birds or crickets. It was beautiful and peaceful and just what I'd been hoping for.

Since we were going to be hiking at night in the wilderness, my mom and I thought we should take some precautions. Here is my mom with the rape whistle, pepper spray, and pocket knife. She is trying to look tough/ninja-like.


The purpose of the hike was to look for glow-in-the-dark mushrooms. My mom thinks mushrooms are fascinating and was very excited. She even brought her Field Guide to Mushrooms on the hike. Although we did not see any glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, we saw plenty of normal ones, like these. She was thrilled.


Other highlights of the hike included a tree falling in the forest behind us and a shooting star.

Day 2

We drove to Mackinac Island. On the way, we stopped and saw Bond Falls.


The cool part is that they just went up and up and up; there were so many layers. Of course, I had to go in.




My mom was content to just look at them.

(I'm mad this picture didn't turn out; she looked super cute.)

Then I broke the law and picked a wildflower to wear behind my ear.



When we arrived on Mackinac Island, we were not impressed. It was busy and crowded and our hotel was not as nice as we thought it would be for the price. Also, I expected all kinds of cute boutiques on Main Street, but it was all just fudge stores and tacky souvenir stores. However, that did not stop my mom and me from buying Mackinac Island sweatshirts. We actually needed them- it was cold! After dinner we got ice cream and walked around a little, and the island grew on me. I especially liked the park- I walked around barefoot and the grass was soooo soft.

Later on at the hotel, my mom called me over to examine the painting in our room. At first glance, it is a soothing pastoral scene. But when my mom looked closer, she noticed the boy laying facedown in the grass.


We spent several minutes speculating on the cause of his demise. Gored by one of the goats, perhaps? Finally, we realized he is drinking from the creek, which doesn't actually look like a creek because it's so dark and looks a lot like more grass. We thought this was hilarious.

Day 3

We got up early and rented bikes. Both of us were nervous, as we had not ridden bikes in over ten years. Rachel has often commented about me engaging in risky behavior; I thought it was pretty funny that I was scared to get on a bike. But after a shaky start, the saying "it's like riding a bike" proved true, and we had a lovely bike ride. I pretended I was Anne of Green Gables had one of those moments where I thought, "Nothing could be better than this." Before we knew it, we'd gone all the way around the island- 8.2 miles. We weren't even out of breath.


We then had one of the most delicious lunches ever at Mary's Bistro. The Caesar salad was good, but the homemade potato chips with bleu cheese sauce were AMAZING. We walked around on Main Street and got some fudge (of course), and I did some serious damage in an adorable boutique.

(This is our hotel on Main Street.)

We left the island in the early afternoon and headed to our last stop, Grand Rapids.

Day 4

We attended the early service at Mars Hill, where Rob Bell preaches. My mom and I listen to the podcasts almost every week, but she had never been there before. This church is truly amazing; I don't know what else to say about it. This is a church that gets what it means to be a church. Everything about it is very plain because most of their money goes to helping under-resourced people. Rob Bell is always talking about how our God is the God of the oppressed, so we need to make sure we're not involved in oppression, which is obviously very difficult. Anyway, there's just this amazing energy at Mars Hill. We sang some of my favorite hymns and worship songs, and Rob Bell's teaching was profound and thought-provoking.

On the way back to Chicago we had planned on stopping in Saugatuck or some of the other cute towns along the coast, but we were broke and anxious to get home. All in all, it was a lovely trip. I'm so glad we went!