give them a wide berth!
*sigh* so I've been pretty busy over this two-week break from
school. Did band camp for a week, and then there were three days
of research, one day of shopping with Laura, and two full days of
vacation up north. It's gone by so fast!
Speaking of vacation up north...it was really fun. Being the anal retentive people that we are, we were in the car at precisely 9:00am, the originally planned time of departure. The driving went well, no major traffic problems or delays, no arguments over what music to play, no food spills (although I did a considerable amount of distracted driving while trying to eat), no excessive bathroom breaks. And thankfully, my car doesn't smell horrible from the water accident at camp. We got to the ferry with perfect timing: just enough to unload, put the bike together, buy tickets, park, and come out of the bathroom to get right onto the boat. With no small amount of sarcasm. The ferry ride was a little chilly and not a little windy, and we happily berated the other ferry lines for not having the fastest crossing time.
Finally on the island, we had to maneuver through the insanely crowded downtown area to get to our bed and breakfast, which was well into the midday BBQ by the time we got there. We checked into our quaint little room on the third floor, set the fan in the window (what, you thought it had AC?), and went to rent a bike for JR. We had already been warned before getting on the ferry not to ride to close to horses, although it was a little tricky until we got away from the main road area. We stopped several times on the trip around to look at the view, climb 107 steps precisely up to a scenic outlook and take pictures....I had to take my shoes off and stand in the water at least once, which was highly enjoyable...and we took a zillion pictures of the bridge from a distance. Back at the front of the island, we had to slow it down to steer around the many carriages and horse-drawn taxis, other bikes, and wandering, oblivious pedestrians.
After freshening up a little, we walked back downtown to shop and eat. We went into almost all of the stores, hunting for the elusive t-shirt for JR's brother, watching fudge being made, and stopping periodically to look at restaurant menus (this after the hostess of our choice of restaurant sat us in the wrong section which was considerably more expensive, prompting some emergency story fabrication from JR for why we had to immediately leave again). After dinner at an irish pub, with lots of laughter on my part, we resumed our search for a t-shirt, and also stopped for ice cream. We took our ice cream back to the bed and breakfast and enjoyed it on the porch, watching the horses and bikes go by, and pitying the people who have to drive the taxis...sitting behing horses all day.
The last stop for the day was the surprise destination JR had planned, which was to enjoy the sunset, with wine (of course), from the highest point on the island. That point is the second, and smaller, of two forts on the island. Obviously, we had to climb a bit, and had nobody to count the stairs this time so I can't say how far, but where I was cold before I was now plenty warm. Although slightly dismayed to find the site already occupied by a couple that was evidently in a new relationship (a lot of fake laughter, meaningless conversation, and tickling), we resolutely took more pictures of the bridge, and settled into a spot a little way away from the other two and watched the sky and the water. Being overcast, there was no sunset, but the view was still beautiful, and we could watch the clouds and see the bridge light up. We stayed until it was dark, attempted more bridge photography, and made our way down the many stairs in the pitch blackness of the forest with the aid of the picture display of the digital camera. All of the gorgeous houses we had passed on the way up were now more beautiful, lit from the inside, which inspired renewal of an earlier discussion on what it would be like to live permanently on the island. I think I could handle it if I had a house like that.
Back at the house, we took showers and headed to bed, but not before I panicked thinking I couldn't turn the water in the shower off. We got up the next morning to find a decidedly disappointing continental breakfast downstairs, and then checked out and headed back to town to decide on a t-shirt and to buy our fudge. Being much cooler now, we stayed on the inside of the ferry on the trip back to St. Ignace. Once we had loaded up again, we headed out to the wonderfully exciting Mystery Spot, just for shits and giggles, and then crossed back over the bridge to eat lunch in the park in Mackinac City. While there, we acquired a new friend, a sea gull named Gulliver, who circled our table and returned after being chased off by small children, absolutely certain that we would feed him. So we ate lunch, took still more pictures of the bridge and of Gulliver, dropped some pretzles for him to eat, and headed out. We drove south to Petosky but didn't end up stopping, and continued to Traverse City, where we drove to look at JR's property (currently empty and evidently vandalized) and his grandparents' trailer. We wandered around there for a while, talking about all the time he spent up there as a kid with his grandparents, fishing and having fun all around. From there we drove back to town for some dinner, and ended up driving back and forth along the same road, calling JR's brother for internet assistance, and finally found Hockey Heroes, the restaurant formerly owned by Gordie Howe. We had crappy service but excellent food, and then decided that it was late and we needed to drive home.
And so, after two very long but very fun days, I'm back in my apartment, glad that I really don't have anything much to do until Monday. I just finished helping Laura pack her car with all her stuff for the fall. She'll be back periodically to visit friends and do stuff for research, but she pretty much had to pack most of her stuff. As for me, today I need to run to Meijer, and tomorrow I need to do laundry...and I probably should look over some stuff to prepare for my clinical. But it will be a very relaxed weekend.
Edited to add the page JR made of our trip with pictures: http://www.trimpe.org/mackinac/
Speaking of vacation up north...it was really fun. Being the anal retentive people that we are, we were in the car at precisely 9:00am, the originally planned time of departure. The driving went well, no major traffic problems or delays, no arguments over what music to play, no food spills (although I did a considerable amount of distracted driving while trying to eat), no excessive bathroom breaks. And thankfully, my car doesn't smell horrible from the water accident at camp. We got to the ferry with perfect timing: just enough to unload, put the bike together, buy tickets, park, and come out of the bathroom to get right onto the boat. With no small amount of sarcasm. The ferry ride was a little chilly and not a little windy, and we happily berated the other ferry lines for not having the fastest crossing time.
Finally on the island, we had to maneuver through the insanely crowded downtown area to get to our bed and breakfast, which was well into the midday BBQ by the time we got there. We checked into our quaint little room on the third floor, set the fan in the window (what, you thought it had AC?), and went to rent a bike for JR. We had already been warned before getting on the ferry not to ride to close to horses, although it was a little tricky until we got away from the main road area. We stopped several times on the trip around to look at the view, climb 107 steps precisely up to a scenic outlook and take pictures....I had to take my shoes off and stand in the water at least once, which was highly enjoyable...and we took a zillion pictures of the bridge from a distance. Back at the front of the island, we had to slow it down to steer around the many carriages and horse-drawn taxis, other bikes, and wandering, oblivious pedestrians.
After freshening up a little, we walked back downtown to shop and eat. We went into almost all of the stores, hunting for the elusive t-shirt for JR's brother, watching fudge being made, and stopping periodically to look at restaurant menus (this after the hostess of our choice of restaurant sat us in the wrong section which was considerably more expensive, prompting some emergency story fabrication from JR for why we had to immediately leave again). After dinner at an irish pub, with lots of laughter on my part, we resumed our search for a t-shirt, and also stopped for ice cream. We took our ice cream back to the bed and breakfast and enjoyed it on the porch, watching the horses and bikes go by, and pitying the people who have to drive the taxis...sitting behing horses all day.
The last stop for the day was the surprise destination JR had planned, which was to enjoy the sunset, with wine (of course), from the highest point on the island. That point is the second, and smaller, of two forts on the island. Obviously, we had to climb a bit, and had nobody to count the stairs this time so I can't say how far, but where I was cold before I was now plenty warm. Although slightly dismayed to find the site already occupied by a couple that was evidently in a new relationship (a lot of fake laughter, meaningless conversation, and tickling), we resolutely took more pictures of the bridge, and settled into a spot a little way away from the other two and watched the sky and the water. Being overcast, there was no sunset, but the view was still beautiful, and we could watch the clouds and see the bridge light up. We stayed until it was dark, attempted more bridge photography, and made our way down the many stairs in the pitch blackness of the forest with the aid of the picture display of the digital camera. All of the gorgeous houses we had passed on the way up were now more beautiful, lit from the inside, which inspired renewal of an earlier discussion on what it would be like to live permanently on the island. I think I could handle it if I had a house like that.
Back at the house, we took showers and headed to bed, but not before I panicked thinking I couldn't turn the water in the shower off. We got up the next morning to find a decidedly disappointing continental breakfast downstairs, and then checked out and headed back to town to decide on a t-shirt and to buy our fudge. Being much cooler now, we stayed on the inside of the ferry on the trip back to St. Ignace. Once we had loaded up again, we headed out to the wonderfully exciting Mystery Spot, just for shits and giggles, and then crossed back over the bridge to eat lunch in the park in Mackinac City. While there, we acquired a new friend, a sea gull named Gulliver, who circled our table and returned after being chased off by small children, absolutely certain that we would feed him. So we ate lunch, took still more pictures of the bridge and of Gulliver, dropped some pretzles for him to eat, and headed out. We drove south to Petosky but didn't end up stopping, and continued to Traverse City, where we drove to look at JR's property (currently empty and evidently vandalized) and his grandparents' trailer. We wandered around there for a while, talking about all the time he spent up there as a kid with his grandparents, fishing and having fun all around. From there we drove back to town for some dinner, and ended up driving back and forth along the same road, calling JR's brother for internet assistance, and finally found Hockey Heroes, the restaurant formerly owned by Gordie Howe. We had crappy service but excellent food, and then decided that it was late and we needed to drive home.
And so, after two very long but very fun days, I'm back in my apartment, glad that I really don't have anything much to do until Monday. I just finished helping Laura pack her car with all her stuff for the fall. She'll be back periodically to visit friends and do stuff for research, but she pretty much had to pack most of her stuff. As for me, today I need to run to Meijer, and tomorrow I need to do laundry...and I probably should look over some stuff to prepare for my clinical. But it will be a very relaxed weekend.
Edited to add the page JR made of our trip with pictures: http://www.trimpe.org/mackinac/