May 27, 2019-Great Lakes Day 9

(click here for today's pictures)


I was surprised that I didn’t have dreams about bugs last night. This morning when we walked in front of our car on the way to breakfast, there must have been at least a million dead bugs on the front of the thing. Hopefully the steady sprinkling of rain that we received today washed some of them off.

We met for breakfast around 8:45. It felt like we were on a cruise because the hotel breakfast was huge-not huge food wise but huge people wise. By the time that Graham made it to the bagels, they were out so he spend most of breakfast waiting on his bagel and had to toast it as we were walking out. I had wanted cinnamon bread but that quickly disappeared before I made it to the front of the line. Either way, we all left with enough to eat and headed to the ferry.

We were slightly worried about today because of the weather. We knew that it was going to be chilly and we knew that the rain was coming. Going to Mackinac Island has been on my bucket list for years. It is actually still on there because I want to come back with Robby and stay for a day or two.

It didn’t seem that cold on our short walk to the ferry dock but that was probably because of my 3 shirts and light jacket that I had on. We were soon getting on the ferry and even though I usually agree with the kids and want to get on the top of the boat to see everything, today was not one of those days. Most everyone squeezed into the inside area of the ferry. There were benches and it was a nice 15 minute or so ferry ride to the island.

When we came to Mackinac Island it was pretty much all that we had imagined it being. The horses and buggies were everywhere and the town just looked so perfect. I had planned about a 2 mile walk for us, but since it was in the 40s I wasn’t sure how that walk would go over.

Of course the kids wanted to ride bicycles, but that just wasn’t possible. First, Whitman can’t ride his bicycle yet-he could have rode on one of those basket things, but the main thing was because we would have froze our hineys off! On a perfect weather day, we could have certainly figured out walking the trails or even renting bikes. The 8 mile loop around the island would have been spectacular to ride on.

The island carriage tour caught Robby’s attention. Even though it was a bit pricey, it was worth every penny today. We two different guides today on the carriages and they were both really great. The carriage tour started out driving through the main street area.

We then went to the stable area. There we walked through the Grand Hotel stables. We also found Keaton and Whitman tshirts-actually Keaton’s was a sweatshirt which she didn’t hesitate to put on.

Then there was the butterfly house that we went through. It was included in our ticket and was pretty neat. We tell the story to the kids every single time that we even see a butterfly house, but in Niagara Falls we went to a butterfly place. Reagan so wanted a butterfly to land on her and not a single one did. We had been there for such a long time that it was nearing time to go. Robby and I did the only thing that we knew how to do to get a butterfly to land on that girl-pray! And sure enough, she finally did have a butterfly land on her. Her eyes just lit up.

Now, today Reagan was the one scooping up the butterflies and placing them on everyone else. The butterflies were not flying to much but we sure did find enough to hold. It was really neat. Now, when it was time for us to go, Whitman took his butterfly and helped it crawl onto a little girl who was waiting for a butterfly to land on her.

From there, we boarded a larger carriage. It took us through the state park area to the thing that I really wanted to see-Arch Rock. We were able to walk around it for a few minutes and then get back on the carriage.

We then could have taken the carriage back around, but we opted to walk a short walk back down to the main street area. I wanted to stop at the oldest grocery store in America. It was really neat to walk around. Robby did see the pizza there and ordered us a large cheese pizza.

By this time, the weather had turned colder. We were pretty much shivering anytime that we were outside. So we relished the time walking around the grocery store waiting on our pizza to cook. When it was ready, we had pizza and baked potato soup for our lunch. We ate on a bench outside of the grocery store-Robby, Whitman and I were shivering as we ate. The pizza and soup were hot and delicious but really anything that was hot would have been delicious.

After lunch, we walked on to one of the many, many fudge places. We bought us enough fudge to last a week-or maybe just one afternoon! Since we bought the fudge early on during our walk down the main street, we had to hide that bag every time we went into another fudge place to get a sample.

I did find an ornament for the tree but Robby was on the hunt for a knit hat while I was also kind of searching for a bag. We didn’t find either-though we did find a bathroom and a few more fudge samples.

From when we ate our pizza on, it was rainy. It was just a pretty good sprinkle most of the time. However, by the time that we made it back to the mainland it was almost a drizzle. After walking around a good bit, we did hop on board the ferry back. Our day on Mackinac was chilly, but it was still pretty great. The kids decided that they want to come back and so do I.

Once we left the ferry, it was only about a football field back to the hotel. We all went to Robby’s room and had us some fudge. The sea salt caramel was definitely the best that we bought while the macadamia not was not really the kids’ favorite.  

After the fudge was finished, we took off some of our layers for the wash. Then Graham, Campbell, Keaton and Whitman went swimming. Reagan and Anderson opted to stay in the warm room. The pool is in another building so it wa a chilly walk there and a super chilly walk back to the room.

While they swam, Robby put the laundry in the washing machine. Then we watched the kids-he looked at his phone and possibly snoozed while I worked on the blog. It was pretty dreary outside, but the kids had fun swimming. Whitman even worked on his swimming-he can’t do much at all above the water, but under the water he still remembers how to swim. That is great and hopefully, he will make great progress during his swimming lessons-which start just about as soon as we get home.

Graham was the first one finished with the pool. He headed back to the room while the clothes were in the dryer. The kids enjoyed playing in the hot tub more than even the swimming pool. It was warmer, and we actually stayed long enough that everyone who was swimming left. I was able to catch up on some of my computer work like signing Graham, Campbell and Keaton up for swim team.

After their bathing suits were dry, we loaded up the car to find something to eat. Robby would have liked to have tired a pasty-we can just guess but think that it is something like an empanada. Unfortunately for him, all of those places closed early.

We did end up eating at the Keyhole Bar and Grill which is where all of the locals eat. We split a few different things and it was all very good. Afterwards, we walked through the tshirt store next door. Graham found himself a sweatshirt there. As Robby was checking out, I realized that I should have never taught Whitman to read. He can read very well and read all of the shirts outloud. The shirts that he was reading where not the We Love Michigan shirts, but instead had more colorful language.

The more shirts he read, the harder I laughed along with Reagan, Anderson and Graham. We couldn’t get him out of the store fast enough because as soon as we started laughing he read more and more. As we walked out he kept quoting, “this guy needs a beer” over and over like one of the shirts said.

Since we have been going to bed at 11, there was no reason to head back to the hotel at 7:30. So we drove around the little town for a little bit. Yesterday, as we drove in over the bridge, I was able to see people walking around the lighthouse near our hotel. Tonight, there is nobody in this town. Our hotel probably has 300 rooms and there are maybe 20 cars in the parking lot. The only people at the restaurant tonight seemed to be locals. It was a bit like a ghost town.

Robby did find a little grocery store for some dessert. Anderson was really hoping that we would get ice cream-but since it is 45 degrees, he just had to settle for some Little Debbies. Once we were back in the rooms, the last few showered and everyone put on their pjs before digging into our oatmeal cream pies.

Tomorrow will be another big day-hopefully it will be a bit warmer. And I want all of the rain to come on through tomorrow so the rain won’t be around on our Henry Ford Days, which are looking pretty wet.

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