Day 2: Dairy Queen, The Pool, & The Bridge

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Day 1
Day 2: Parks
Day 2: Colonial Fort Michilimackinac
Day 2: Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
Day 2: Dairy Queen, The Campfire, & The Bridge

This is a random assortment of the photos from the last half of our 2nd day camping. I had a $10 gift card to Dairy Queen from Gilly's teacher, so we went and found Dairy Queen for a snack. A messy one for Gilly! She ordered a chocolate sundae- which was just ice cream and chocolate syrup. They put way too much in, though. In the short time it took to walk to a table, she was covered in chocolate.

After we were done eating, we stopped by the post office, and I bought a sweatshirt downtown- and got ripped off for it. My bad, the whole way. I wanted a sweatshirt, and had been looking for one I liked at a price I liked. At 1 shop I stopped at, they were $30+ for a nice one.

I found one I liked all right for $19, but it was a bit small, so I decided against it. So, we're downtown, and there are tons of shops, so I poked my head into one. The prices were great- $25 and under for sweatshirts in a huge variety of colors and designs.

I found a pink & dark green tie dye sweatshirt with blue puffy letters spelling out "Mackinac Island" on the front for $22.50. SCORE! I loved it! So, the salesman comes up- he reminded me of Euro-trash. Slicked back greasy hair, a thick European accent, earrings up both ears, skin tight shirt.. just... kinda sleazy.

He immediatly asks if I'm a tourist- well, duh. Can't imagine the townies in there shopping. He asks if I knew how it worked- the shirts were all blank, and I could get any design on it I wanted. He made it sound like it was the same price- he never once said it was more expensive, and that the cost was JUST for a blank sweatshirt.

He talked me into the design on the shirt, which I like. Little did I know it was also the most expensive design. When he rang it up, it came out to almost $40! I should have just walked out, but I was stunned and flabbergasted over it, so I paid, and left, feeling very ripped off.

So, there's the story of my $37.10 sweatshirt, which I bought when I was trying to save a buck.

After that distasteful experience, we headed back to the campsite. I had packed the kids suits, but not my own, as I knew it wouldn't be -that- hot up north. It was in the high 60's, to low 70's, but we did get very warm that day. The kids wanted nothing more than to swim, so they changed and we headed over there.

Of course, the pool was supposed to be heated. Of course, it wasn't. There was a sign saying the heater was broken, but the pool was still open. The water was like ice, but the kids swam for a while. When they got out, they were so numb it hurt their feet to walk.

After all that, it was time to try out our luck with a campfire. I've started campfires before. We have them now and then in our own back yard. However, rather than having a fire pit, these camp sites had a "Fire Pan". They were basically the bottom half of a flat bottomed round charcoal grill. Very tiny, very shallow. Next to impossible to start a fire in.

I spent an hour- I kid you not, a full hour, trying to start a fire. What I finally resorted to, was sending Raegan to the camp store to get me some fire starter bricks. I was at my wits end, and about bawling, because my whole meal plan centered around using the camp fire for hot dogs half the time. If I couldn't start the fire, we'd be eating cold hot dogs.

The brick finally did the trick, though. By the time we ate, it was almost 8:30 at night.

Later that evening, I had promised the kids we could go look at the bridge, so we loaded up the car at 10pm, and drove into town to see the bridge from one of the many roadside/lakeside parks.

I did not get very good photos of it, but here they are, none the less. It was frigid on the coast without trees to block the wind. It had dropped to the mid 50's, and was very windy. We lasted about 10 minutes before we ran for the car. I did drive us to a few other parks to see the bridge closer, from the warmth of the car, though.

When we got back to the campsite, it was late, so we all just went to bed without trying to watch a movie.

And, thus ends our second day on vacation, our first full day in Mackinaw City.