Okay, that covers the morning....
We walked down Main Street trying to find something for lunch. Claude wanted to try 'Millie's on Main' so that is what we did. We each ordered a pastie. We ate these several years ago while on an Upper Peninsula road trip and really enjoyed them. It was a foggy morning and a little cooler so a nice warm pastie covered in gravy seemed like a good idea. These turned out to be 'okay' in my book but I really liked the ones we had in the UP better.
We headed to the information booth to find out what options there were to travel the highway around the outside of The Island. There were several: jog (not happening), walk (a possibility but it is an 8 mile trip so not very likely) and ride a bike (hmmmm...it has been so many years since we either did that but it holds promise).
I also asked about the butterfly conservatory. Turns out there are two of them. I thought there was only one and it was on the surrey turn of the southern end of The Island. That is one of them but there is another off Main Street in this lovely little town. It was even within walking distance.
We talked and determined we might like to start our afternoon with that surrey ride around the island and include the butterfly house on that tour. Tickets purchased we took our place at the head of the line for the next surrey. I wanted a picture of the horses and surrey we would be riding in and got this one of my dear hubby being a 'horse whisperer'. He and the horse had quite a conversation.
We did this carriage tour when we were on Mackinac Island several years ago. It was fun to do again. This time we learned their are many varieties of lilacs on The Island. They have a Lilac Festival every year. Made Claude want to plant more lilac bushes in our yard. I also found a house on this tour called the 'Either Or House'. Clever! The Little Stone Church has plexiglass over its beautiful stained glass windows because they built a golf course across the road. Geez! It only took 93 days to build the Grand Hotel. There have been 2 movies filmed there. The Grand Hotel has a 2-tiered parking lots for the guests bikes. There is NO valet parking for this lot.
I loved this spider web in a tree by the Grand Hotel.
We visited the Butterfly House at Surrey Hill this time. It was closed on our previous visit. It was delightful to be in the peaceful setting full of flowers and gorgeous butterflies. They had mellow country music piped in which must be the kind butterflies like. How would they know that? I know, butterflies do a line dance together and they know it the tune they like.
A man walking around with a really big camera taking pictures had no idea a butterfly was hitching a ride on his cap. I saw it and took a picture. That butterfly stayed put. I finally turned around and told them man he had a butterfly on his cap. He asked me to take a picture. I took a picture and it didn't work. The butterfly was still there. I took a second picture and the butterfly almost posed for it. When I last saw the man, that butterfly was still on his cap.
Once again, Claude took on an alternate identity and became the 'Butterfly Whisperer'.
We boarded the surrey and continued the tour to Arch Rock. The tour takes you past three cemeteries - the Catholic, the Protestant and the Post Cemetery (this is the military one). It also goes past Skull Cave. They have a practice rifle range on a hill. It goes from Ft. Mackinac to Ft. Holmes. They have kept the old rifle range cleared. Years ago they had a pulley system to move the targets up and down the hill. Then the surrey stops at Arch Rock.
There was fog over the water but it was still a beautiful site. Below Arch Rock in the rocks along the shore people placed rocks in patterns and words.
Our tour guide and driver of the surrey told us we were also viewing the 'International Building'. This is really the bathroom. The reason they call it the 'International Building' is when one enters they are 'Russian', while inside they are 'European' and when they leave they are 'Finnish'. Such silliness!!
These are the three horses that pulled our surrey playing with each other while we were at Arch Rock. Bailey would love these white horses.
The carriage drove down the hill from Arch Rock to the Governor's Mansion. We decided to disembark the surrey and walk down the path to Main Street. We saw what appeared to be a dark cloud in the sky above the water. Upon closer observation we found it was the fog rolling in for the evening and covering the island beside Mackinac Island. This picture has the clouds covering the other island and the two lighthouses in the Straits.
This was a steep hill and afforded a peek of the top of the Grand Hotel, beautiful elderberry bushes full of bright red berries, gorgeous old victorian homes and then Ft. Mackinac, Marquette Park and Mackinac Harbor.
At the edge of Marquette Park is a replica of the Missionary Bark Chapel. This was what Father Marquette would have used for a chapel in the beginning of his work on The Island. Ft. Mackinac is on the hill in the background.
Claude and I decided to take a walk down Main Street to Arch Rock. We met a policeman on his bike. I took a picture of him to show Bobby Bruner, the Sadieville policeman, how he could make his rounds without his police cruiser. We got all the way to the Executive Putting Course and the fog really started to roll in. We determined we should head back to town.
We did find an interesting flower. The blossoms looked liked little pumpkins. I have no idea what kind of flower this is and have never seen it before.
Dinner was at Good Fellas. We looked in a few of the shops on our way back to our hotel. We found our bed turned down at the hotel and a fresh box of fudge on the counter. Nice!
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