Vacation 2005 - Cedar Point and Mackinac Island At the end of July 2005, David, Evan and I went from Indianapolis to Sandusky, OH to Cedar Point. On Tuesday night, we found our first geocache of the trip (Great Wolf Cache) and our first Travel Bug. On Wednesday and Thursday we went to Cedar Point and Soak City. After two days of rollercoasters, we headed up toward Michigan on Friday. On the way out of Sandusky, we stopped at Marblehead Lighthouse to find cache #2 (Beacon's Booty). We drove all day Friday and arrived in Mackinaw City around 9 pm. We took the 9:30 ferry to Mackinac Island and then took a taxi to "Duke's House" in the village. By the time we got there, it was around 11 pm and we talked with our hostess, Rosie for a bit before going to sleep in a BED for the first time in three nights. Saturday morning, we went to breakfast at Jessie's Chuchwagon and then on a carriage tour, which Rosie had arranged for us. On the tour, we stopped at Arch Rock which, besides being beautiful, is an Earthcache. Of course that meant that we had to get a picture of us taken with the arch and out GPSr. We got off the tour at the Governor's residence and walked back to town. Then we shopped at Doc's House of Magic and a fudge shop, of course. We walked back to Rosie's to change and get ready for the wedding and then walked down to the Little Stone Church. We were a bit late for the wedding, but it was beautiful and very touching. After the wedding, it started to rain. We took carriages to the reception, which was lovely. Then Jason, Laurie and Nolan walked with us to the marina and we got ice cream on the way. Then we went back to Rosie's and changed to go out looking for cache #3 (Turtles and Toys). It was dark by this time (darker than we ever see here - no light pollution) and we only had one flashlight which was about to run out of batteries. We gave up about 100 feet from the cache and decided to try again in the morning. Sunday morning, Rosie made us breakfast and then we went out to find Great Turtle Park and our cache. We found it with no trouble and realized that the park could be seen from the path we had been on the night before. We left our travel bug there. Then we realized there was another cache a couple hundred feet from where we were. We decided to go ahead and get cache #5 for the trip (Cupid's Arrow Head). Then we walked back to Rosie's and picked up our luggage. We walked down to town (we should have called a taxi) and got on the ferry to go back to Mackinaw City. When we got back to our car, we decided to drive across the Mackinac Bridge because we've seen so many documentaries about the construction of this engineering marvel. We went across to the U.P. and then back and headed home. We made it home in about nine hours, so it wasn't too late and we weren't too exhausted. Here are the pictures we took on the trip, sorta in a sensible order: Great Wolf Cache and Cedar Point <This section is under construction!!!!!!!!!> This is Milennium Force. Evan rode it! Milennium again Milennium once again This is some old farm equipment in the frontier section of the park. Evan wanted to get this picture to show Papa. This is Top Thrill Dragster. David rode it. The following are Cedar Point's webpages for the rides all of us rode: Milennium Force (Evan's favorite) Magnum XL200 Blue Streak Cedar Creek Mine Ride Corkscrew (Evan's first upside down coaster) Disaster Transport Gemini Iron Dragon Mean Streak Wild Cat Chaos Demon Drop (Evan has a great story about this one!) Dodgem (He could finally drive his own car!) And David rode this one... We all know he's crazy! Marblehead Lighthouse View from Marblehead lighthouse looking at Cedar Point Evan looking for a cache at Marblehead lighthouse Marblehead Lighthouse Marblehead light is on a limestone peninsula in Lake Erie. There are tons of coral and sponge fossils that are visible in the rocks. Another fossil Another fossil Another fossil Evan pointing at another fossil and a butterfly Another view of the lighthouse.There were tours to the top of the lighthouse, but the wait was over an hour and we didn't have time. Another view of Cedar Point from Marblehead This is where David gets his nickname, 24cachiepants. David with the cache Mackinaw City and across on the ferry at sunset Mackinac bridge at sunset. This was taken on our ferry to Mackinac Island Another shot of the bridge Mackinac Island Arch rock Arch rock again Evan and Lisa at the arch Arch rock looking down to the bike road. The shadows are bikers Flowers at Great Turtle Park on Mackinac Island Totem Pole in Great Turtle Park on Mackinac Island Our tour guides on Mackinac Island Round Island Lighthouse (marks the passage into Mackinac Island's harbor) Round Island Lighthouse Again More flowers at Great Turtle Park More flowers! We even found Evan flowers!! The wedding Jeff and Lisa's Official wedding site Inside the Little Stone Church Jeff and Lisa I love this pic of the couple! Wedding party Stained glass window The Weaver family The Weaver family again Evan took this pic and I got it off Jeff's page All three of us (from Jeff's page again) The ferry ride back to Mackinaw City and the bridge Evan looking pensive on the boat ride back Fort Mackinac from the harbor The harbor on Mackinac Island Mackinac Bridge on the way to Machinaw City Windmills in Mackinaw City Pictures on the way home Castle Rock in the U.P. across the bridge OK, this needs some explanation, but I don't have any... We were driving along and saw what looked like an excavator covered in green scales. And that's what it was - a mechanical dragon. This is the head. This is the body. This is the truck that was pulling it. Here's a sunset in Indiana on the way home.