Mackinac Island!

Last weekend we were in Mackinac Island, Michigan for my college friend Lauren's wedding. As anyone who lives far from their hometown knows, going anywhere for just a weekend is exhausting and not much of a vacation at all. In order to help that issue, and spend some time with our family, we flew into Ohio on Tuesday, up to Mackinac for the weekend, and back to Columbus/Dayton until yesterday.
Of course, there are no motorized vehicles allowed on Mackinac Island, so our options were either to fly into mainland Michigan and take a ferry (yuck!), or fly on a tiny plane from mainland Michigan. Art, hearing the word "fly," instantly began researching airplanes for rent and how he could fly us from Columbus to Mackinac himself. Several months later, we talked Jeff and Mary (Art's parents) into flying with us and off we went.

Let me just say that I can't believe I actually did this. I'm not the best flier.

 

 

There's Art and the headphones we wore so we could all talk in the plane. My brain was NOT making the connection that Art does this every day of his life and is very good at it, and therefore I have nothing to worry about.

This is the hangar where our plane lived. At this point, I was about to throw up just at the fact that the car we were in was the same size as the plane!

I asked Jeff and Mary how they felt about Art being solely responsible for their lives for the next 2.5 hours... Mary's not so sure! 

All kidding aside... I was so glad to be back in Ohio.

 

 

 

There's our little plane!!

The hubs and I in front of the plane, just to give you a frame of reference. Tiny!

 

 

 

This was my view from my seat. Hello.

And this was the best I could do for barf bags. Just in case! (I didn't need them)

I'm ready to go! Kind of.

Art talking on the radio... I guess he actually does know what he's doing. It was actually surreal seeing him talk on the radio and flip all the switches and whatever else he did to make the plane fly. I never saw him practice or anything, so it was kind of like all of a sudden we got in a plane and he was good at it. Art will tell you that four consecutive years of 12+ hour days probably counts as practice.

This is the view from the air! After I got over my nerves to see it, of course.

There's Mackinac Island! It's the one closest to the top of the photo.

Here are some pictures of the beautiful island:

 

Mackinac Island is famous for its fudge... I loved this! It was 4th of July weekend, after all! And PS, the fudge was awesome. And those are peanut butter covered Milk Bones for... guess who! I was missing my Peanuts the whole time, so I had to bring him back a prize! :)

 

 This is where the wedding took place. The weather could not have been more beautiful!

Uhhhh speaking of beautiful... CHECK OUT LAUREN!! She was seriously the most beautiful bride. I could not take my eyes off of her dress all night!!

A few snapshots of the wedding. I love the one where Lauren is looking down. Such a gorgeous ceremony!

Here's where the reception took place. Beautiful!

And here's my hubs and me in front of the water. He's always the best date to weddings. :)

We had such an amazing time. I was so blessed in college to have some amazing girlfriends to party with, and now I have amazing girlfriends to celebrate life with. The eight of us live in five different cities in four different states but have managed to keep in great touch since college. They are such a great group of non-gossipy, kind-hearted, fun girls, and I feel like I can always be myself with them. And look how hot they are!!

Erin (the blonde next to me) is getting married in Kentucky in September, so we get to do this all over again in just a few months! I can't wait. There's no wedding like a 108 wedding!! ;)