To the inexperienced camper, camping in the regions of Mackinaw City, Michigan may seem like a trip laden with cheesy campfire songs and pesky mosquitoes. But for the Peace Lutheran Church Youth Group? Not so much. As I embarked with Tori Casaday, Courtney Phillips, David Grimm, Connor Daley, Nick Sabol, Justin Fleischmann, Kevin Fleischmann, Grayling Fischer, Pastor Hardy, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Fleischmann, I had some doubts about roughing it in the wilderness and leaving the comforts I had grown so used to. Upon arriving at our campsite in Mackinaw, my feelings of misgiving only increased as it rained steadily while we unpacked and settled in. "Don't worry, things will be much better after we've set up the tents and sorted everything out," Courtney whispered to me, having been camping countless times before. I was a bit skeptical. After having a quick dinner around the fire, a few of us headed down to the lake, which was only a short walk away from our site. The scene was simply gorgeous. The clear, cold water of Lake Huron surrounded us, a wide blanket of blue. Mackinac Bridge could be spotted glittering in the distance. After dipping our feet in the water for a while, we went back to the site to sleep in our respective tents and trailer.

We awoke early on Sunday morning and drove to a nice church not far from where we were staying. After the service was over, we were told to go downstairs to the youth room where a girl named Stephanie would be waiting for us. Little did we know that this girl, no more than 12 years old, would be armed with multiple foam bats. As we entered the room, she began pummeling all of us. Before long, it was a frenzy of foam-bat hitting as Courtney and Connor took some bats to defend themselves. They were no match for her, however. We ran out of there laughing hysterically and piled back into the cars. The rest of the day was a bit more relaxing as we hung around the lakeside. The boys and Courtney were attempting to shoot things, such as seagulls, with their slingshots. This became such a fun pastime that they began attracting these birds to our campsite simply to shoot them. There was no harm meant, however. We rounded off the day nicely with a trip to McDonald's for ice cream.                    

The next day, we took the 9 o'clock Star Line ferry and sailed through the Monday morning mist to Mackinaw Island.  Here, we split up into separate groups. Pastor, Tori, Courtney, and I went on a carriage ride around the edge of the island with Pastor holding the reins. The horse leading us was named Pearl, who happened to have quite a bit of gas. Although the ride was rather smelly at times, the view of the lake and island was gorgeous. For the rest of the afternoon, we visited a few shops and rejoined the others to take the ferry back to Mackinaw City. When we returned, a few of us decided to go swimming in the freezing waters of the lake. Most of the guys were already in the water.  Although it took some persuading, like Connor trying to dunk Tori, eventually all of us (Tori, Courtney, Kevin, Pastor, and I) submerged ourselves completely in the frigid lake. It was the most invigorating and electric feeling I have ever felt. In that moment, I was truly alive. Shortly thereafter this experience, Pastor dubbed us as the "Polar Bear Club". The rest of the night passed in relative peace, not counting the skunk sighting, belching contests, and Robert-pranking. Tori, Connor, Courtney, and Mr. Phillips were all in the running for the belching champion, but it might have been Mr. Phillip's burp that was the most memorable. As he says, "I go for volume, not length."

On Tuesday, we drove a few hours to Oswald's Bear Park.  We got up close and personal with a baby bear, which we petted and fed while someone took our pictures for us. After this encounter, we walked through the park and observed more bears, which were all black. It was fascinating to see these creatures in such close proximity. We even saw a few bears fight each other in the water, although no harm was done. When we returned to our campsite later that day, we visited the lake one last time. Nick was being his usual troublemaking self and somehow managed to drench mine and Tori's sweatpants. The visit to the lake ended with yours truly falling into the water twice due to somebody pushing me, but if you ask Nick, he didn't do it and I fell of my own accord. No hard feelings, though, I already forgave him. The rest of the night was spent with all of the youth sitting together and talking outside, enjoying our time together. By now, we had all grown close. Since this was our last night at the campsite, we sat around the fire together, talked, and made s'mores, which we had gotten into a habit of doing every night. Finally, we all went to bed, exhausted but happy.

Wednesday morning dawned with everyone rushing to pack things up and clean up the campsite. We left Mackinaw City and headed off for Pastor's father-in-law's place, which had two private lakes. When we arrived, half of us went fishing while the other half went swimming. Thankfully, these waters were less icy. After toweling off, the whole group went to Ponderosa's where we stuffed ourselves until not another ice cream sundae could be eaten. Upon our return, Nick, Tori, Courtney, Grayling, and I thought it would be a good idea to take a paddleboat out in the middle of the lake even with a thunderstorm obviously approaching. Eventually, we came to our senses and paddled back to shore as quickly as we could, just as a few raindrops began to fall. Before long, rain was pouring and we were all holed up inside. However, we spent the evening playing a good game of Apples to Apples, which Tori won by a landslide.