Day One of our 5 Year Anniversary Trip

First let me start by saying, we had an amazing time on our trip to Mackinaw City/Mackinac Island, Michigan! 

As I'm sure you know by now, I am a picture-a-holic and I took a ton of pictures on our trip. So to kind of space them all out for you, I thought I'd do a post a day of each of the days of our trip. 

The first day was mostly spent driving, but I took a few pictures along the drive and then some once we got into Mackinaw City.

The morning we left (Sat. July 7th), we woke up very early, around 5 a.m., to get ready to leave. We packed most of our stuff the 2 nights before so we'd be ready that morning. We also had to pack all of Jackson's stuff because he was spending the week with my parents. So after getting ready, we drove Jackson to my parent's house to drop him off and we were on the road by around 7 a.m. Here are a few pictures along the drive to Michigan.

A bunch of wind mills in Illinois.

Passing into Indiana.

Passing into Michigan.

We stopped at a little beach town in Michigan for lunch. (St. Joseph, MI) This is a picture of a canal going into lake Michigan.

This was the restaurant we ate lunch at in St. Joseph. It was very good and it was perfect weather for sitting out on their patio and looking at the beautiful Lake Michigan.

This was our view from the patio at lunch.

After lunch, we headed back to the highway, but first we stopped and waited for a few sail boats to go under this bridge.

Driving through Grand Rapids, MI.

Once we got into Northern, MI we saw several of these interesting looking trees.

After about 11 hours of driving and about an hour stop for lunch, we arrived in Mackinaw City, MI, where we were staying for the night. You can see the Mackinac Bridge in the background! Much more on that bridge to come later. ☺

This is a picture of the back of the hotel that we stayed in, while we were in Mackinaw City for the night. It sat right on the beach of Lake Huron. It was a great view. Our room was the balcony on the far right, 2nd floor.

Jake standing out on the balcony taking in the view.

The view from our balcony.

Jake and I in Lake Huron at the beach at our hotel in Mackinaw City, MI.

After checking into our hotel for the night, we drove up the road to the cute little town of Mackinaw City.

The streets were lined with these cute little shops and restaurants.

We found this little "mall" type area and went in there to check it out.

It was really cute. In fact, Mackinaw City, MI could be a vacation by itself.

The night we were there, they were doing a dog show. Of course, being the dog lovers that we are, we had to stop and watch.

And being the yellow lab lovers that we are, we cheered on this cute yellow lab. Here he is playing dead!

Some of the dogs waiting to go out and perform. They all did a great job.

After the dog show, we had dinner at this restaurant. It was very yummy pizza.

Inside the restaurant, was a Mackinac Bridge Museum. Which was very interesting to see.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. We sat out by the water and looked at all the stars. It was so nice to just sit back and relax.

I will post about the 2nd day of our trip tomorrow! ☺