Photos: Mackinac Island Trip 2007

Chris & Linda try to get to Mackinac Island at least once every year. (Chris makes the Official Mackinac Island Tourism Bureau locator map every year... someday we'll try to see if we can write off these annual trips as a "business expense" or something!) This trip in late July 2007 was the first weekend away from Rachael—Grandma Bessert and Aunt Emily stayed with her at home—but family friend "Aunt Heather" came along for the trip... and it was a blast!

Before departing the mainland for the Island, we needed to have lunch. And when you're in Saint Ignace, where else do you get lunch but Suzy's Pasties? Here Linda and Heather enjoy theirs at the Bridge View Park.

After finishing off the pasties, we toured the Bridge View Park interpretive center. Linda didn't want to turn around for the photo, but Heather did glance over.

While views of the Mackinac Bridge are generally excellent more often than not, on this particular Friday mid-day, the Lower Peninsula was fogged in. This was taken from the Bridge View Park in St. Ignace about an hour after we crossed. It was even foggier when we first made our way across!

The view from our room at the Harbour View Inn on Mackinac Island. We stayed in one of the newer outer buildings, but the large white building at upper left is the "original" part of the property—the Madame La Framboise home built in the 19th Century —with the wonderful porch with views of the harbor and Main Street. The hot tub in the center of the photo comes in handy after long bike rides around the Island!

Linda & Heather convinced Chris that a horseback ride was necessary and he relented. His horse, "Doc," was an old, slow animal that had a hard time keeping up... which suited Chris just fine!

Linda was riding "Chief" and was at the head of the group. She, Heather and Chris rode with a larger group of people and a guide from the horse rental place, but then broke off later for a longer jaunt arond the northeast side of the Island. Chief had to be reigned in a bit, or Chris would've been left in the dust!

Heather enjoyed riding "Penny" and took up a position between Chief (with Linda) and Doc (with Chris).

Chris' "dashboard view" of a latter part of the ride when it was just the three—Linda, Heather and himself—somewhere on Crooked Tree Road between Four Corners and Sugar Loaf Rock. As noted above, you ca see how the other two would constantly pull away from Doc while Chris tried his best to "prompt" Doc to speed up a bit.

"The Girls"—Linda, left and Heather—at the British Landing Nature Center. (Lake Huron is in the bright area in the upper right corner across Lakeshore Drive/M-185.) If they look a little tired, it's because we just stopped after riding all the way from downtown—about 5 miles—without stopping.

The trip coincided with the Mackinac Bridge 50th Birthday Celebration... not by accident! On Saturday night, Mackinac Island had a fireworks show just off the southwest corner of the Island (above) while St. Ignace and Mackinaw City put on their own shows at their respective ends of the Mackinac Bridge afterward. Linda, Chris and Heather took a half-pound of Joanne's fudge and a bottle of locally-produced Cherry wine, rode about a mile out of town along Lake Shore Drive and found a cozy spot right on the shoreline to watch the displays.

After the Island fireworks were finished, the displays put on by St. Ignace and Mackinaw City started. As noted above, we were sitting on the Island, so the St. Ignace display (north end of the Bridge, right) would have been about five miles away, while the Mackinaw City fireworks (south end, left) were about eight miles distant. With a regular snapshot digital camera, it was a bit hard to adequately capture the fireworks, but we did our best.

Another shot of the Bridge fireworks, zoomed in a bit.

A third shot... and, no, the blurriness is NOT a byproduct of the aforementioned bottle of cherry wine...

All photos taken Christopher J. Bessert (except photo No.5, taken by Heather J. Winter) and are all property of and copyrighted by Christopher J. & Linda M. Bessert. All Rights reserved. No photo shall be used without prior written permission.

This is a little website set up by Chris & Linda, Rachael's proud new parents, in response to repeated requests for photographs and the latest information on how Rachael is doing. As many of you know, Chris & Linda welcomed their daughter into the world six weeks early in late June, so the birth and first few weeks of Rachael's life have been a bit less than "usual."