Several months ago, while looking over the calendar, we noticed our girls had time off for Spring Break about the same time. This seemed like something we should take advantage of since who knows how many more times we’ll have the opportunity for a family Spring Break adventure. The plan was to go for an extended weekend somewhere within 8 hours of our house. Weather would help dictated which direction we went. As the week arrived we looked at a few different options and decided going to Badlands National Park seemed like the best option during Spring Break. We would leave Wednesday morning and return Saturday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon I checked in with a family friend who has some property in Central Michigan and found out they would be there for the week. Originally they were expecting to be gone a few days before Spring Break but things had changed a little. Talking with the family we decided a change in plans was in order and that the next morning we should head east instead. Tuesday night the car was packed and ready to go to Michigan.

Wednesday morning we were on the road by 5:30am eagerly anticipating our Spring Break adventure. It was a rainy start to the day which was expected to follow us throughout the drive east. As we got into Wisconsin, daylight began to fill the sky. With increasing brightness we could see fog filling many of the valleys providing interesting scenery to start the day. By lunchtime we neared the Wisconsin-Michigan boarder stopping to stretch our legs and getting something to eat. Returning to the road we soon crossed into a different time zone where we lost an hour entering Michigan and began to follow the top of Lake Michigan. The sights in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan kept us entertained with the road trip beginning to get long and going on hour number 8. Another hour and we were at the Mackinaw Bridge.

We had heard about this bridge from several other people but had never seen it ourselves. It’s certainly an engineering feet to see and drive on especially in an area that freezes during the winter. It’s interesting to drive on as one lane is metal grates which feel weird to drive over while the other is a cement deck. Crossing the bridge, we made another stop to explore Mackinaw Island which was mostly closed down since it’s more of a tourist place and it was too early for them to be open. Over the next few hours we continued south now that we were on the east side of Lake Michigan arriving at our destination. A little town on the shores of Lake Michigan in the central part of the state. It was a nice drive but we were happy to get out of the car. As a bonus, it was partly sunny with temperatures in the mid 70’s.