The Adventures of Monk's Vineyard - The Great Loop and Beyond: September 8, Day 87

We sort of slept in today because of the late opening of the post office. We had breakfast at the Pancake Palace or something like that. Gerry tried an “Original Breakfast Pastie”. It was not something he will do again. We should have known that it might be a mistake to order this when the waitress gave him a strange look when he ordered and kept coming back to see if he was still eating it – he was (liberally sprinkled with Tabasco sauce).

We went over to check mail and send a thumb drive to Karen & Steve with all of their pictures on it. Mail was there – hooray!!!! We also found out that the post office opened at 8:30 – not 9:30 as it was posted outside – cost us a full hour of play time.

We then rushed to the ferry that left at 10:00 to get over to Mackinac Island. We went over to Emotion III to visit with them a bit. Turns out that they were going to stay for the night and we agreed to meet up at their boat for cocktails around 5:00 and then go to dinner at the Pink Pony (Steve & Karen had given us a gift certificate for the PP).

We then took the mandatory carriage tour of the island. It provided an interesting history of the island and a comparison to life on the island today. Only horse drawn carriages, wagons, and bicycles are allowed on the island (with the exception of fire trucks, an ambulance, and a police car). Evidence of the mode of propulsion lies on the streets until picked up by the street cleaners. As the tour guide indicated, the horses also have frequent radiator leaks and cautioned parents not to let their children play in the puddles – it hasn’t rained here for quite a while. With the exception of the really bad jokes, the tour was very interesting.

About halfway through the tour, Gerry started feeling the effects of the “Original Breakfast Pastie” – not good.

We decided to get off the carriage and walk over to the Grand Hotel. Once there, we were stopped from going much further by a lovely lady dressed in period costume and advised that there was an admission fee to go any further. We turned around and continued back to town.
We stopped at the Mustang Bar & Grill to get an appetizer and a drink – that significantly offset the affect of Gerry’s breakfast and the rest of the day improved for all.

We did a little shopping and Linda finally found something that appealed to her. She now has a cute little jacket with Mackinac Island on it. Gerry bought a book by Steve Hamilton – his books are everywhere up here because they are set in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – better known as the UP here. A book report will follow soon.

We walked down the water front with all of the beautiful homes and took lots of pictures, then it was back to Emotion III for cocktails before dinner. Michel and Carole are wonderful people and really fun to be with. We left for dinner at the Pink Pony and had excellent meals. Thanks Steve & Karen!!!!

Then it was back to the hydro jet ferry and our marina.

Linda opened the mail and did a little banking and Gerry went to bed – he didn’t want to be around while Linda paid bills – that always puts her in an unpleasant mood. We expect to leave early tomorrow and head for Charlevoix – a long 60 mile run for us. We want to get as close to Holland (where we pick up Jim & Judy) as we can before the weather turns on us. It is supposed to be nice until the end of the week, but you just never know.

Cute anchor bench we spotted at the restaurant where we had breakfast

Flag and the "spray" from the rooster tail of the ferry boat

Looking down one of the main streets of Mackinac Island

Lots of geese .... they all had reservations on the ferry for tomorrow to head south

Everything is delivered by horse and wagon on the island .... including beer .... so guess this is the beer truck

This is a bunch of ponies being led to the ferry. The main season is officially over (ended on Labor Day) so many of the horses were on their way back to the mainland for the winter. Many of them go back to Amish farms where they initially are from.

Fort Mackinac

A decorative turtle outside the butterfly farm

Some of the butterflies inside the farm

These are the 2 horses that pulled the tour wagon we were on .... their names were Sue and Roy. Sue was a hard worker, but Roy was a bit of a slacker

The 3-hitch wagon and horses. This was the tour wagon used for the State Park part of the tour, but the 3 horses and bigger wagon cannot be used in town because it is too large.

Entrance grounds at the Grand Hotel

More of the grounds

A view of the hotel. We could not go any further up the sidewalk because we were not guests at the hotel. You can walk up further if you pay $10. We chose not to.

A topiary of horse and buggy on the grounds of the Grand Hotel

Cute horse and buggy lawn ornament. These are much lower maintenance than the real thing

Here are a few of some of the very nice homes and B&B's on the Island

This is the courthouse (again .... for my former court coworkers)

The Mackinac Island Yacht Club

The Little Stone Church

Another church

and one more church on the Island

Grounds of a park overlooking the water .... very peaceful setting

The Pink Pony where we had dinner

Here we are at dinner .... Carole, Michel, Linda and Gerry

View as we left the ferry dock

Sunset over Mackinac Bridge

As I mentioned above, we did not pay the money to walk through the Grand Hotel. However our friends, Steve and Karen who joined us on our trip on the Trent Severn/Georgian Bay, stayed at the Grand Hotel for a couple of days before they joined us. These next few pictures are courtesy of Karen