I’ve not spent a lot of time traveling around our neighbor to the north. No, I don’t mean Canada. I’m talking about Michigan. Yep, a northern Indiana girl my whole life and I can probably count on two hands how many times I’ve crossed the northern state line.

A couple of weeks ago, my family and I took a vacation up to Hillman, which is just west of Alpena.

For those of you who don’t know where Alpena is, hold out your left hand. See the top of your index finger? That’s about where Alpena is located.
Anyways, we spent the week in a one-room fishing cabin, less than a stone’s throw away from a large lake. We had our own dock that we could launch our kayaks from. Or in our case, fish from.
The winds were a little too strong for a newbie kayaker as myself, so I stayed on shore with my daughter. We fished and fished and fished.

The Mr. decided to brave the waves.
It was relaxing. Every once in a while, it’s good to leave the mad pace of work-school-responsibilities-social media, and vacation in a spot that has little if no phone reception. Our cabin had access to Wi-Fi, but my phone kept losing the signal.
The three of us enjoyed sleeping in, grilling, campfires and, oh yeah, fishing every single day.

We did leave the cabin one day for a trip to the Mackinac Bridge and St. Ignace. I had been to Mackinaw and Mackinac once before when I was a teenager. The bridge is indeed a wonder.

My husband drove us to St. Ignace while hunting for this little pasty shop out in the middle of nowhere, Lehto’s Pasties. That’s all that is sold there, and my goodness, their pasties are huge! The tender, flaky crust pockets a full meal of beef, potatoes and onions.
We stopped at a state rest park along Lake Huron and ate, feeding the seagulls the few morsels we had left while laughing at their antics.
And yes, we got pulled into the tourist trap area of Mackinaw City. But it was fun strolling around, eating fudge from Kilwin’s and looking at some of the shops that had not been there 30 years ago.
When we drove back to the fishing cabin, we took the lake view drive along U.S. 23. Not a lot of Lake Huron was visible because of trees, but when there were breaks, the view was stunning. We could see small beach strips that led out to beautiful green water before entering the deeper blue parts of the lake.
What surprised me most was the lack of people. I don’t know enough about that particular area to explain why there weren’t people out enjoying the sun and waves, but it definitely sparked my curiosity.
I really enjoyed our excursion into northern Michigan and I’d like to see more. I’ve been to Traverse City and found it equally pretty and I’ve been to Sault Ste. Marie, but that’s the extent of my travels in the northern region.
Like I said, I’d like to see more — especially the lighthouses. Perhaps next year we travel all the way to Whitefish Point and stop in for a visit at the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.
Thanks for the adventure, Michigan!

Sheila Selman is regional editor and digital content editor for The Goshen News. Follow her on Twitter at @sselman_TGN or on Facebook at Sheila Selman Journalist.