Watch and Learn

It's about 8 o'clock in the morning when we all pile into the car to make the 25 minute drive to Mackinaw Island. From there we take a ferry to the coveted Mackinaw Island. This is a part of our annual trip to Michigan that my sister and I look forward to the most. Even though we only stay for the day and have to spend one less day on our own lake, it is completely worth it. Each year we take the ferry to Mackinaw Island, a small island in Lake Superior in between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.

During this particular trip, besides all of the homemade fudge and ice cream on the island, my sister and I were especially excited to ride bikes. The interesting thing about Mackinaw Island is that not only can you only get there by ferry, but there are no cars allowed on the island. Instead, you are able to take a horse and buggy or rent a bike for the day. Of course Lauren and I chose the latter.

As soon as we made our way over on the ferry, watching the waves slowly move past us, the excitement was only growing. In the distance the Grand Hotel came into focus, looking over the expansive lake in front of it. With that, the large harbor, home to a multitude of sailboats, jet boats, fishing boats and more, all rigged for the size of the lake. I couldn't wait to get off the ferry and explore the island I hadn't been to in years.

Immediately after arriving, Lauren and I paid for our bikes and set off around the island. The island itself is about an 8 mile bike ride outlining the coast of the island. I hadn't made this trek since traveling to Mackinaw Island with my girl scout troop back when I was in elementary school, so to see it all again was extremely exciting.

Our plan was to bike around to the backside of the island because at mile marker 4, we knew there was a little burger shack known as Cannonball. Cannonball is a hidden gem on Mackinaw Island, known for non other than their deep fried pickles. At this point in the summer, I had heard so many stories about these pickles from my Aunt, that the thing I was looking forward to most in the entire trip was the pickles. Around mile marker 2, we came up upon arch rock, a magnificent rock formation that, like its name, resembles an arch. I nearly rode right past it to get to mile 4 faster, but Lauren had never seen Arch Rock before. So of course, we stopped. We climbed up what seemed to be a million stairs to the looking balcony a gazed down on the magnificent structure.

Almost instantly I nearly forgot about the pickles, but then remembered and insisted we keep going. Mile marker 3 came quickly, only one more mile to go, but then I looked over my right shoulder to see the shoreline and was take aback. The view from where we were was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't help but to stop and take a look at everything around me.

Suddenly, just getting to Cannonball itself seemed less important to me. I mean after all, if I had just powered through and sped to Cannonball, I would have missed everything along the way. Life itself is a journey, and sometimes we get a little too focused on the end goal that we forget to stop and smell the roses. After all, once you get to that goal that consumes all time, when you look back, you want to be happy with everything you went through to get there. All of the struggles, the triumphs, the failures, and successes are what bring you to your goals in life. So just remember, life isn't about the end goal, it's about the journey you take to get there.