My Northern Michigan Vacation Was Way Cooler Than I Expected [PHOTOS]

I was on vacation last week and decided to take a quick trip to Northern Michigan. I hadn't been to Mackinac Island or Tahquamenon Falls since I was a kid and thought it would be fun to go back as an adult and see if they were everything I remembered them being.

Spoiler alert, it was an awesome trip! My boyfriend and I drove up to Mackinaw City on Sunday and decided that would be our "home base". We would take day trips from there but stay in the same hotel the whole time. We found a hotel right on Lake Huron in Mackinaw City which made for a relaxing first night on the balcony.

We got up the next day and went to Mackinac Island. I don't know the last time I have ridden a bike, but we decided to rent bikes and ride around. It was much harder than I remember it being. Not actually riding the bike, but riding up all the hills on the island. There are a lot of hills. Once we made it off the main road of the island the view was beautiful. We rode past the Grand Hotel, checked out Fort Mackinac, looked at arch rock, and just took in the view.

The next day we traveled across the Mackinac Bridge to the UP to check out Tahquamenon Falls. We decided to park at the upper falls and hike the four miles to the lower falls, despite this warning.

They weren't kidding about rugged terrain, it was hard at times. The scenery was beautiful though, and so peaceful.

What I learned on this trip is that we should absolutely revisit the places we went to in school as adults. I had a whole new view of the places I vaguely remembered from childhood. As an adult I took the time to listen to the demonstrations at Fort Mackinac, read the educational signs at Tahquamenon Falls, and appreciate how proud the locals were of the Mackinaw City bar we stopped into.

If you get a long weekend to get away I highly recommend you reconnect with our great state.

Here are the rest of the photos from the trip.