Year two of the Winter Wonderland Weekend went absolutely splendidly! My friend and I went up to St. Ignace in the Upper Peninsula, from which we went to Mackinac Island, Sault Ste Marie, and Newberry. Mackinac Island was the main purpose of the trip, though since it was winter, not much was open, and so we didn’t stay on the island for very long; only a few hours. We stayed at the Budget Host Inn and ate at a few different restaurants in the UP. We had beautiful weather for the trip, though the roads could certainly have been better.
Day/Night One
My friend and I left her house on Friday morning and made it to St. Ignace at about 4:30. We checked into our hotel room, then went and got dinner at the Village Inn of St. Ignace at 5:00. The restaurant was nice. I got chicken fettucine alfredo. The chicken and garlic bread was delicious, though the alfredo itself wasn’t the best. It wasn’t terrible, but it was simply edible food, and not much more than that.
The hotel was okay, the room itself was fine, but the amenities were somewhat disappointing. The continental breakfast was rather unappetizing looking, though I am a picky eater, especially with breakfast foods, so take that with a grain of salt. My main option for breakfast was yogurt, oatmeal packets, and cereal cups. The pool was an even greater issue, as we tried to go swimming our first night between 10 and 11 at night, which was supposed to be the adult swim hour, however, there was a mom with three preteens and a toddler running around and screaming in there until 10:30. We stayed in the hot tub, so as to avoid the other people, but one side of the hot tub had chunks of dust and hair in it, along with on the floor and wall around it on both nights. The second night, we were able to swim in the pool for a while, but they were out of towels, so we had to reuse the ones from the previous night. The hot tub also wasn’t working that night, so it was just lukewarm. Overall, I don’t want to write off the hotel entirely, I would give it another chance, but I would also have preferred a better service.
Day Two
Our trip to Mackinac Island on Saturday was splendid, our ferry ride over was fun, since I’m not on boats very often, so it was an unusual experience that I enjoyed. The island wasn’t too cold, especially since my friend and I were wearing lots of layers, to the point where we were sweating at times while walking! We tried finding Arch Rock, but ended up uncertain of if we were going the right way on the trail, so we turned around and went by the Grand Hotel instead. Before heading out for a walk around the island, we stopped by the coffee shop and I had a delicious hot chocolate, and we went to a craft show that was going on in the town hall. I didn’t find anything particularly to my fancy, though I did buy a wonderful peppermint brownie. We walked about three and a half miles around the island, and I feel like we didn’t even get to see most of it!
We got back to the mainland at about 2:30 and decided to hit a couple shops. Before we went into the first shop, we were somewhat accosted by an older woman, who started by asking about the roads, then told us which roads we should take the next day, then told us about the importance of paper maps, all while sounding moderately annoyed at us for daring to use our phones for a map and taking the quickest route. She was also shoveling the sidewalk, which we were quite confused about, since she had told us she was staying in town overnight and lived half an hour north, and there was also barely any snow on the sidewalk to be shoveled. We went to Gold Mine Jewelry, where I definitely plan to return one day when I have more money and can afford more of the beautiful pieces there, but this time, I just got myself a cute little turtle necklace. When in doubt, always get the turtle necklace. Then we went to Adventure Up North, which is a very expensive store, at least in my wallet’s opinion, but I did get a cute sticker (I’m telling myself I have to earn the right to put it on something, it has mountains on it and I haven’t been to any mountains yet) and an eccentric looking drawstring bag. The bag isn’t quite as nice as I thought, it fills up fast and things get squished easily in there, but it’s nice to carry my essentials in.
Night Two
We decided we wanted a bit of adventure, so we elected to go to The Antlers for dinner, up in Sault Ste. Marie. The drive up there was horrendous, the road was absolutely terrible due to the snow. Luckily hardly anybody was on the road, because we were driving in the middle of both lanes, because that was the only section of road that was clear. At one point, we hit a rough patch, and the vehicle started going all over the place. I tried to control it, but once we were firmly in foot deep snow, I gave up, and was ready to accept our fate. However, by some miracle, the ditch decided the car wasn’t its liking, and we just pushed back out onto the road. I don’t know how that happened, I failed physics in high school, but all I could do was laugh at it. We very nearly were in a bad way, and we got very lucky.
The Antlers overlooks the river across to Canada, so it was a very nice place to eat. I got a rare steak and fries, and while I wasn’t a massive fan of the fries, the steak was SO GOOD. In fact, it was so good that I was eating far too fast and nearly coughed up a lung choking on a bite of it. I had to go to the bathroom to cough for a couple minutes because I knew I was probably driving the other diners insane. There’s a lot of taxidermied animals on the walls and in the rafters and in boxes. If that’s something you don’t like, I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant, it was almost a bit excessive for me!
The snow was so deep up there, people couldn’t walk on the sidewalks and were walking in the road instead. I tried to show my friend where I slept on my road trip in the Walmart parking lot, but the snow was pushed over the parking spots there, and the piles had to be twenty feet high! It really felt like how winter used to feel here when I was a kid, but the snow piles get shorter every year.
Our drive back was fine, and the UP is so magical in how secluded it is. At one point, we pulled over on the highway to get out and look at the moon, and not a single car came by during that time. We went to the hotel, where I had leg cramps from being dehydrated, and got ready for our last day of the trip.
Day Three
We were out of the hotel and on the road the next morning, where we decided we wanted one last bit of adventure before heading back south. We decided to go to the Moose Capital of the UP, Newberry, for lunch in a desperate attempt at seeing a moose. After almost running out of gas, we got to Timber Charlie’s for lunch, where I got, shocker, medium rare steak tips and fries. The food was pretty good, though The Antlers takes the cake for the best meal on the trip. We drove around Newberry for a bit, but were left disappointed and mooseless, and headed back down to the bridge. Better luck to us next time!
We got back to my friends at about 5:00 in the evening, after a beautiful drive back down, but then I had a three hour drive back to my house in the dark with work at 8:00 AM the next morning. I returned home at 8:00, exhausted, but content, destressed, and fulfilled by my latest adventure.