Vaida Macco stands along a street on Mackinac Island last summer in front of a horse-drawn carriage. (Photo courtesy Betsy Macco)

It started with a three-hour car ride to Mackinaw City to check into our hotel. On our way, we stopped at a zoo to stretch our legs and also because it was my younger cousin’s birthday, and we always go to a zoo on her birthday. My favorite animal was the cougar, and its name was Max.

Our next stop was Culver’s to eat lunch and have ice cream. After probably two hours, we got to the hotel. At first, we thought the room only had two beds, but opening the door revealed there were two more beds and a TV. Then, after we got settled, we saw our balcony, which was so-o-o nice. Then, after half an hour, we got our swimsuits on and headed to the pool.

The next day, we ate breakfast, got dressed and walked down to Shepler’s Ferry. The best part was when we went under the Mackinac Bridge. It was really windy, but luckily, all of us had sweatshirts on. When it was time to get off the ferry, we went straight to the place to get our tickets for the horse-drawn carriage ride. It was really nice; instead of hearing cars driving by, we heard the clopping of horse hooves.

Our first stop was the Butterfly House. Not like it wasn’t cool, but when we went in there, after a little while, I got kind of bored. Then the funnest thing happened — one butterfly just flew on one of my space buns, and then it just stayed there for like eight minutes straight.

Vaida Macco shows off the butterfly that landed on her last summer while visiting the Butterfly House. (Photo courtesy Betsy Macco)

After we came out, we had to get new tickets for another carriage ride. I think I saw two Friesians, which are big black horses, but when we finally got our tickets, that carriage was already leaving. So we got on a different one with two brown Belgians.

Our next stop was Arch Rock, and the view was pretty amazing! After the adults took a billion pictures, we continued the carriage ride. We went into a forest area, came out after like 10 minutes, went around a famous golf course, and then we came to the barn. Sadly, we didn’t see any horses, but it was still cool to see it.

After that, we went to a restaurant to eat lunch. Then we went for a little more shopping, and after we didn’t want to shop anymore, we got ice cream! After that, we got back on the boat and went back to our hotel, and slept well.

Hoped you enjoyed my story, and hope you have a wonderful day.

Vaida Macco is 10 years old and in the fifth grade. Vaida loves horses, art and traveling.