Felicia and Erik's Mackinac Island Wedding Trip Remix
In my August 24 blog post, I shared my Top 10 favorite moments from our friends Felicia and Erik’s epic, multi-day wedding celebration on Mackinac Island back in 2010. Well, seeing that we were once again invited to be part of the festivities for their 10th anniversary return trip to the island, I thought I would provide a new top ten list of my favorite memories from this latest visit.
#10 Bridge Tour
One of the biggest differences between the first trip we took in 2010 and this year’s installment is that our boys, Carson and Ryan – who were only ages 4 and 2 at the time of the first trip, and had consequently been left at home with their grandparents – were now old enough that we decided to bring them along this time to join in the fun. We had taken our boys to Mackinac Island before, actually multiple times when they were younger, but what we didn’t realize until about three weeks ago was that the boys were so young at the time, that they literally had no recollection of the island. So, this trip was going to be a complete blank slate experience for them. As we started to finalize our plans, we gave them an option: Would they rather try to meet up with the rest of the group at our usual rendezvous point at the Driftwood in St. Ignace, or would they instead like to try and catch one of the early ferries that include a tour of the Mackinac Bridge on the way over to the island? The boys opted for the early ferry and bridge tour, partly because the rest of the group wasn’t planning on meeting at the Driftwood until 1pm and they wanted to have the extra time on the island, but mostly because the possibility of experiencing the bridge from this unique vantage point just seemed like something that sounded too cool to pass up. Of course, this meant that we needed to be to the docks in Mackinac City or St. Ignace in time to catch one of the handful of daily ferries that do the bridge tours. So, in an attempt to cut down on the normal 4 hours of drive time, we drove up to our place at Houghton Lake the day before to spend the night and leave the dog with the in-laws. This shaved a couple hours off of our Thursday morning commute, but it still meant that we had to get on the road by 7:30 a.m. or so, which is never an easy task when teenagers are involved. Even then, by the time we got to Mackinac City (we had decided against going to St. Ignace to save the $4.00 bridge toll, but more importantly the extra time it would take to drive over to the U.P.), and after we had unloaded and checked in our luggage, removed our bike rack and purchased tags for our bikes, and drove our truck over to park in the overnight lot and caught one of the shuttles back to the docks, we just barely made it onto the 10:30am ferry. But it was all worth it. How often do you get to enjoy a view like this?
View of the Mackinac Bridge from the ferry.
#9 Erik Does His Best Milli Vanilli Impression
Friday evening started innocently enough with a laid-back wine tasting up in Felicia and Erik’s suite at the Chippewa Hotel. Several hours later, after everybody was full of wine or beer or some other spirit of their choosing, the party got ratcheted up a few notches. The clearest indication of this was when D.J. Felicia took over control of the iTunes playlist, soon followed by an impromptu dance floor forming where the coffee table had been sitting just a few moments before. And like the impending train wreck which you just can’t seem to take your eyes off of, this chaotic scene got progressively worse, the singing along into wine bottle microphones and all of the bumping and grinding finally culminated in a flawless lip-syncing performance of “Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Erik, and Felicia added some enthusiastic air fiddle playing for good measure. Wow, that’s all I can say. Wow.
#8 Starting New Friendships, Turning the Reins Over to the Next Generation
In many ways, the 2020 edition of the trip was a completely different experience with an almost entirely new ensemble cast of characters. Of course, Felicia and Erik were there to reprise their lead roles, supported by some familiar faces who returned for this encore performance, their friends Mike and Monica, Erik’s mom Jill and his sister Kristin, along with Teresa and I – just to name a few. And then there were the boys, the twins Alex and Mason, and their younger brother Winston, who had been Carson and Ryan’s ages around the time of the 2010 trip. No longer relegated to the role of the understudy, the three now found themselves firmly planted on center stage enjoying all of the limelight and applause that comes along with a featured role. And while no one can replace those stars who’s lights unfortunately flickered out before the curtains went up on this year’s show (We miss you Shar and Doyle!) and even though most of Felicia’s out-of-state family was unable to make the trip due to COVID-related travel restrictions, there were others who were waiting in the wings ready to join the chorus. There was a large contingent of Erik’s family from Wisconsin, there were the other friends from back home: Phil and Millie, Brian and Merilee. Everyone had a part to play in the story that unfolded, and over the course of yet another memorable weekend, each would earn their place in the credits for this 2020 classic.
#7 Taking the Taxi up to the Woods
There’s definitely something very Mackinac Island about experiencing a horse-drawn carriage ride, especially when you have a front row seat to take in all of the familiar sights and sounds, not to mention those unmistakable smells that come along with being up close and personal to the business end of a couple of working draft horses! (Just for reference, that’s Cam on the left and Hazel on the right).
Taking a horse-drawn taxi.
#6 Phil the Enforcer
Chris and Erik standing next to the wrought iron lamp post that Chris ran into during the 2010 trip.
Saturday night, after another exquisite dining experience at the Woods, several members of our group decided that we would take it upon ourselves to make walking back from our fancy wedding/anniversary celebration dinners at the Woods a tradition, well, to the extent that doing the same idiotic thing twice in the span of ten years could be called a tradition. But there we were, a bunch of traditionalists (i.e. idiots) advancing through the chilly night air like an unruly and slightly intoxicated mob, battling the dark to dodge piles of horse crap and the occasional bicyclist. Along the way we gathered supplies from our Sherpa Merilee, and we gave periodic motivational speeches to our newest camper Brian, who, after depleting his entire supply of Friday fudge was convinced that this “walk” was actually a forced march that must be part of some elaborate intervention that had been planned for him. And as we walked on, we did so completely oblivious of our surroundings, of a dark force that would soon make its presence known, a threat like no other. The first-time crazy night patrol bike lady passed by our group, she just yelled, “stay to the right” in a very aggressive manner that seemed a bit over the top for the occasion. While her shouting had startled us, it did little to change our behavior, and our group carried on much the same as we had been doing before the annoying interruption. Which is probably why the crazy night patrol bike lady shouted “share the road” when she made her second pass by the group. After her third and fourth passes a couple of things became very apparent. First, our group was made up of some slow learners. And second, crazy night patrol bike lady seemed to be trying to make an example out of us because she was literally riding back and forth, up and down this steep-ass hill just to antagonize our group. At this point Phil was starting to get visibly agitated, and as he walked in front of Felicia, Erik, Teresa and I, he started to joke that what crazy night patrol bike lady really needed was a good old-fashioned lacrosse body check. But just as Phil turned back toward us and in perfect textbook form lowered his shoulder and started sprinting off to the side to show how he would throw his weight into crazy night patrol bike lady, never once turning his attention away from the group of us walking behind him, just then, this random guy came biking up the hill and right into the path of Phil’s poorly timed, yet very realistic looking demonstration. Simultaneously, Teresa yelled, “Phil!”, the bicyclist swerved off the road to avoid Phil’s air-check, and Phil, well Phil would later admit that the whole episode scared him so much that he nearly pooped himself.
#5 Having Dinner at Harborview
Even a drizzly, breezy day couldn’t dampen the experience of dining outside under Harborview’s covered patio. After all, how often do you get to wine and dine right there at the water’s edge, with seagulls dancing in the sky and the carefully choreographed moves of the docking Starline ferries serving as your evening entertainment?
#4 Listening to Live Music at the Great Turtle
Although we didn’t get to see one of our island favorite’s Pete Kehoe perform at the Pink Pony this time around, we were still able to get our fill of live music and IPA when we stopped to have dinner at the Great Turtle, the restaurant and craft brew pub attached to the Lakeview Hotel where we were staying. Our entertainment that night was a guy named Mark Bowen, who I swear was some sort of vocal shapeshifter, seamlessly going from belting out a beautiful rendition of Edwin McCain’s “I’ll be”, and then instantly switching to the raspy, distinctly gravelly vocals of Bob Seger to cover his hit “Night Moves”, before doing some Cranberries tune in a crazy falsetto voice that he just threw on as if he was changing into a clean t-shirt. All in all, we were treated to some great food, great beer, and great entertainment—five stars all around.
#3 Discovering the Leslie Avenue Bike/Walking Trail
How did we not know about this trail before? Well, one thing’s for sure, after what we experienced, this is definitely going to become a staple for all of our future trips to Mackinac Island. This picturesque, rolling, winding path that more or less runs between British Landing and Arch Rock skirts the elevated bluff located on the north/northwest side of the island, providing access to some of the most beautiful, yet isolated settings that Mackinac has to offer. My wife and kids have already decided that for our next trip, they want to try hiking the footpath that runs alongside the asphalt paved bike trail, so I guess I just need to make sure my life insurance policy gets updated before then.
#2 Mission Point Wedding Crashers
Following our Richard Simmons worthy morning cardiovascular workout through the interior of the island by way of the newly discovered Leslie Avenue bike trail, Teresa and I decided to let the boys go off on their own to explore downtown Mackinac, while we headed toward Mission Point to meet up with Erik, Jill and Kristin who had sent out an all points bulletin to our group that they would be hanging out day drinking in some Adirondacks on the spacious lawn out in front of the resort. After a quick pit-stop to the little shop across the way to grab some ice-cold bottles of Two Hearted Ale (for me) and Blue Moon (for Teresa), we pulled up a couple more chairs and started filling in the others about our latest exploits. A half an hour later Felicia showed up, doing several laps around our group while repeatedly ringing the bell on her bike, before eventually tiring out and abandoning her antics, like the toddler that finally gives up after their acting out fails to elicit any sort of reaction from their parents. When Mason and Hannah, Winston and Joselyn, and Alex arrived with more food and drink, it was evident that we had a full-blown lawn party on our hands. Upon finishing both of the Two Hearted Ales that I had purchased from the roadside store, Alex offered me one of the “diet IPAs” that he had brought along with him (referring, of course, to the Bell’s Light Hearted Ale that Teresa and I had left in their hotel room the night before—smart ass, you just wait until you get to be our age!) and there we sat, continuing to drink and converse and enjoy each other’s company, as we watched staff from the Mission Point resort run around making last minute preparations for an outdoor wedding that was to take place just thirty or so yards from our spot on the lawn. And as guests started arriving and were seated, we began to snicker about different things we could do to crash the ceremony. Erik joked that he was going to go and stand right in front of the hired photographer and start taking his own pictures of all the standard money shots, just to be annoying and have the guy be like, “what the hell?” I thought about running up and giving away the bride, others talked about voicing objections when the officiant got to that part in the ceremony. But to our credit, we did none of these things, we politely and quietly looked on with the rest of the spectators. And by the way, technically we wouldn’t have been crashing their wedding since we were there first!
#1 Putting My Blind Explorer Chops to the Test by Checking out some Hard-To-Get-To Island Attractions
Carson and Ryan outside of Eagle Cave.
It’s amazing, that even after all of our trips to the island, the countless hours that we have spent walking, biking, and exploring, that there are still new things for us to discover. For this trip we found ourselves getting off the beaten path, and then venturing even further off of that path, and into some of the most remote parts of the island that we have seen thus far. Out of pure curiosity, we climbed the 200+ steps up to check out Western Bluff, which requires tight roping a severely sloped piece of ground full of tree roots, rocks, and other tripping/falling hazards that connects the lower and upper sets of stairs that lead up to the narrow, mountain goat worthy foot path that greets climbers when they reach the summit. At Eagle Cave, I couldn’t just let Teresa and the boys show me up, so I followed them up the steep hillside to the opening of the cave, where my attention immediately turned to how the hell I was going to get myself back down the slippery embankment. On another occasion, after momentarily getting turned around and losing our bearings (which is all just part of the fun) we eventually found the long, meandering trail that led back to the Cave in the Woods and the Crack in the Island, easily two of the best hidden secrets on the whole island.
Well, another 10 years, another trip in the books, another top 10 list. Here’s to more good times, spent with great friends, making the best of memories. I’m already looking forward to 2030!
The group standing together wearing “Mackinac 2020” face masks.