Trip to St. Ignace, MI

This weekend, Brett and I took our monthly adventure up to St. Ignace, Michigan. We started a tradition last summer, after we took an insanely fun spontaneous trip to a cave, that we wanted to start taking a monthly adventure to a random place in Michigan. I wanted to come to St. Ignace after we visited our antique shop and I flipped through a bunch of old, vintage Michigan postcards and kept coming across St. Ignace ones.. and thought, "Let's go there!" So we went! It's about four and a half hours north of us, the first town you hit after crossing the Mackinac Bridge.

On Saturday, we stopped right away to grab lunch at Big Boy. Afterwards, I had a few fun touristy activities planned. We stopped to the Weird Michigan Wax Museum. It was a little gift shop attached to a little museum of wax figures and stories. You pushed a button, the scene would light up and tell you the "weird" Michigan story. I thought it was fun; Brett thought it was lame. Hehe!

Afterwards, we went down the street to the world famous Mystery Spot. Brett and I had no idea what to expect, but it is said that in the early 1950's, three surveyors came from California to explore the mystery spot. No matter how many times they tried to level their tripod, the plum bob would be far drawn to the east and there is always a constant feeling of being light headed. After realizing their problems with their equipment and constant queasiness, they knew they discovered a mystery spot! I mean.. how else could Brett lean like this in real life? (Hehe!) It was so corny and so fun.

After that, we walked across the street to find our way through the Fort Maze. It was just Brett and I running through the skinny fenced-in areas trying to find our way out. It was so baffling, bewildering and confusing, but we solved it!

We have so much fun doing these dumb touristy things. I planned this trip and had no idea what to expect, but no matter what, even if every thing we did was totally corny, it's so fun to explore a new place and do new things. I'm really thankful that I have a husband that is willing to go to places like "mystery spot" and "fort maze". I mean, how corny, right? But it's out of the ordinary, silly things like that.. that really keep us being kids together. I'm so lucky to spend every day and do things like this with my best friend. And we have a blast together. He's so much fun to be with.

After that, we headed to downtown St. Ignace to check into our bed and breakfast. I so wish I would have gotten a picture of it! It was at the Colonial Inn, the oldest B&B in the area. We stayed in the island view room with a perfect view of Mackinac Island. Well, I was searching my purse for my phone.. and it was gone. So Brett and I kept calling it and calling it - and finally a lady answered. And I'm like.. do you have my phone? And she was so suspicious.. saying she found it in a place we hadn't been and couldn't bring it to us.. and even when I begged her and asked her if we could come get it, she said "Call me back" and hung up and when I tried to call her back.. she didn't answer, so she stole it basically. I was so bummed.. like ready to go home. We had to call and cancel the phone and thank goodness, I have insurance. But still. How can people be so cruel? I was laying in bed just seriously bummed.. when Brett said, "Let's just go out and have fun." And I thought, he's right. There's nothing I can do except mope and it's not worth it. So we got up, bummed and all, and still went out and had fun. We went to Indian Village and bought surprise packages and opened them by Lake Huron.

I got a really stinky potpourri pillow and Brett got a totally gaudy coffee mug and coaster. Hehe! We walked around the boardwalk on Lake Huron and skipped stones, walked around corny gift shops, complained about the town and how our town is so much better (no offense to you yoopers!) and laughed at the trip I had planned for us.

We walked down to Wawatam Lighthouse and sat out on the benches for a while. Even this lighthouse is lame. It used to be a decoration at a highway rest stop until it was dismantled in 2004. It was then reassembled at the Wawatam dock and serves as a guide for the marina. It went into service in 2006. Historic, aye?

After that, we dined at the Mackinac Grille, which was actually good. I had the best sweet potato fries and Brett even got an apple dumpling afterwards. Then, we went back to our B&B and fell asleep at 8 pm and didn't wake up the next day until 9 am. We checked out and headed out to do the last few remaining activities I had planned. We headed out to Castle Rock. It's like a rock castle formation that towers 200 feet over Lake Huron. It was the most tiring hike up the stairs, but a really pretty view of Mackinac Island and Lake Huron. Definitely a site to see!

Then, we headed back to downtown St. Ignace to see Father Jacques Marquette's gravesite. He was a French priest and explorer. He established a European settlement at St. Ignace and lived among the Great Lake Indians. In 1673, he left on a journey to the Mississippi Valley and never returned before he died in 1675. Two years later his bones were reburied here beneath the chapel altar. There was a lot of Native American history in St. Ignace. We visited two museums, Fort de Buade and the Museum of Ojibwa Culture. It was interesting to see and learn about!

We even hung out in a teepee! But we left right after that and got back home hours earlier than I thought, which was perfectly okay with us. I'm super glad we went to St. Ignace and it was really fun to explore and learn about, but we'll definitely call that our one trip there. Once you've been there and have seen it all, that's really it! Good to meet you, St. Ignace. We'll see you again when we drive through you in August for a way better Michigan adventure for our third anniversary! Can't wait!