August

Nothing says late summer on Mackinac more than hollyhocks. These look stunning growing along the fence in the yard of Little Stone Church's Parsonage.

Special Delivery

My husband brought me flowers - an entire cartload of flowers!

There's a house on the corner of Market Street that is being renovated, so I asked if they had plan for the plants currently growing in the yard. The owner told me they were changing the landscaping and I should help myself to whatever I wanted- whoop whoop! Yesterday, after my voice lesson, I stopped by and started digging. (Yes, I rode through downtown with a shovel in my bike basket!) My darling husband met me with his cart and then hauled everything up the hill and back up to the house. 

Besties

Not much beats spending the weekend with 30+ year friends.

I can't begin to imagine my life without these amazing women! Having a friend with a backyard pool is just icing on the cake. One guess which one is the girl (A.K.A. me) with blonde hair, freckles, and a family history of skin cancer.

Hazy

We've been having more smoky days lately.  It's really bothering people, like Allen, who suffer from allergies. Some days, it's just a bit hazy, but other days it actually smells like wood smoke.

 

Derpy?

Here's another critter we found hanging out around Mann Lake (near Sheridan, MI.) There's just something about that little snakey face, isn't there? "Derpy" was the word my daughter used to describe it, which I had to look up. I found several different meanings ranging between foolish or weird to lovingly stupid. And looking at that face, I can see how the word fits. Guess I'm going to have to add derpy to my slang vocabulary, though with my luck it's not "in" anymore.

Um...

While I was waiting for my friend to purchase some fishing supplies the other day, I noticed this little gem for sale. I'm sure it serves an incredibly important fishing purpose, but it didn't get any better when I read the packaging...

Finally

One of my student's parents started a painting company, so we hired him to paint and stain our front porch this summer. (Trust me; it needed it!) It's finally finished, so tomorrow Allen and I can return to our favorite spot for morning coffee. It looks amazing - definitely worth the wait! 

Under Appreciated

Hawkweed can be found all over Mackinac Island. 

Most of the year people barely notice it,

but for a couple of weeks in early July, it's hard to miss.

It lines many of Mackinac's interior roads, and really is

quite pretty when it's in bloom.

I've never noticed a scent from hawkweed and apparently it's not native to North America, but it certainly brightens my walks to and from work each day.

Independence Day

It's always a good day when Fort Mackinac flies the Garrison Flag. 

It's a big flag - 38 feet by 20 feet (11.5 meters by 6 meters) - that's only flown when the conditions are perfect. It's so big, it takes quite a few scouts to fold it. (When you see it with people for scale, you get the true feel for just how huge the Garrison Flag really is!) I'm not in the photo below, but I came to Mackinac with Troop 327 as part of the Mackinac Island Scout Service Camp, for five summers.

Camping at Brevoort Lake

We spent last weekend camping at Brevoort Lake, which is in Brevort, Michigan. I have no idea why the lake has two letter Os, while the city only has one, but it was a beautiful place to spend the weekend. Hands down, my favorite part was listening to the loons in the morning. 

I don't think I posted about it, but last year we bought a Hiker Trailer from some friends who had outgrown it. Owning a teardrop camper had been a dream of Allen's for a while and when opportunity knocked, we jumped.  We've been trying to camp, at least once a month, to get a feel for it and learn what gear we need and what we can live without.

I've really enjoyed getting to explore places close to home. Northern Michigan is such a lovely place, and there are so many places, like Brevoort Lake, that I've never gotten to see. 

Poetic Visions of Mackinac 2025

The exhibit of student Mackinac-inspired art and poetry opened today. And, I've got to say - their framed watercolor paintings look amazing! (Full disclosure, I did edit out the name from the painting above since I promised parents I would not use any student names on my blog.)

One of my students won first place for her painting "Secret Caves."

Just look at that art!

A huge thank you to the Mackinac Arts Council, the judges, and to Mission Point Resort for making this show possible. If you happen to be on the Island before the end of August, pop on down to Mission Point to check out the show. In my opinion it's well worth the walk.

Dang

Mackinac Island got just a little bit of rain today. OK, more than just a little bit - we got about two inches (about 5 cm) of rain in just under an hour. There was so much water so quickly the sanitary sewer was overwhelmed. You are looking at a manhole cover; a 90 pound (about 40 kg) manhole cover being pushed up by the water. Normally, that manhole cover is flush with the level of the street. Dang, that's a lot of water!

Old Faithful Inn

Lots of people are surprised to hear my family likes to vacation away from Mackinac Island. When you live in a vacation destination, that place is just everyday life for you, so of course we want to get away and spend time somewhere else. Part of this summer's Yellowstone and Grand Teton trip involved a stay at the Old Faithful Inn. I hadn't heard of it, but it was close to the the top of my mother-in-law's bucket list.

Much of the 1903 section of the hotel looks like it did when it first opened - including rooms in which guests still have to use lavatories located down the hall. Additions were put on in 1913 and again in 1927 (where we stayed.) A few of us took a tour of the building, which was quite interesting. We learned the architect, Robert Reamer, used local lodgepole pine from the park to build it. 

Many of the light fixtures in the hotel are original. The simple fact the building survived the summer of 1988 fires is a miracle.

Unless you're inside the building, it is hard to get a feel for the sheer scale of the building! It's HUGE!

  

The main lobby is 76 feet tall!

There is even a tree house at the the top of the building's peak. Sadly, the little house had to close after several deadly hotel fires forced the U.S. government to regulate the number of exits in hotels. (Today, two are required for all public areas._ But, on our tour we learned six lucky people get to access that part of the hotel each day. Those six slots literally book up within hours on the first day the hotel begins taking reservations for the next season!

Old Faithful's eruption times were clearly posted all around the hotel. You literally walk out the front door, turn the corner, and the Old Faithful geyser is right there.

Seeing Old Faithful with my own eyes was on my bucket list, and it was incredible. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. 

I'm Happy You're Here

Now that one of my children has been found to be on the Autism Spectrum, it makes me wonder if I am, too. Sometimes I notice things other people don't, and I often "see" faces in inanimate objects. 

Take this locking mechanism in the floor of the house I clean. (I'm a housekeeper at one of Mackinac's historic homes during the summer season.) To me, it looks like a little face looking up at me, smiling; almost like it's happy I'm vacuuming the threshold of his door. Weird, I know. I'm probably the only person whose ever really looked closely at that lock, except for maybe the builder who installed it, but noticing these little things makes me smile.

The Lady Jane

Recently the folks who work at City Hall were invited for a cruise on the Lady Jane. Richard and Jane Manoogian, the owners, often invite groups of people out on the boat. Since Allen is the director of the Department of Public Works and had a "plus one," I got to go, too. (Lucky me!)

We spent the evening on the water near the Island, finally anchoring by British Landing so people could swim.

It was a delightful evening, on a gorgeous boat, with wonderful people. Thank you, Jane; it was lovely to get to meet you!

Moving to College: Mackinac Style

This year, both of my children are heading off to college. When you live on Mackinac, you can't just pop out to the driveway to load the car - there is little bit more planning and organization required. Starting the day before. 

The day before Move-in Day, we were up early to load the luggage cart. It had to be ready for a 7:00 am pick up. (We didn't choose that time - that's when the dray was available.)

The driver hooked up the cart and hauled it down to the dock for us. For those of you who are curious, the fee for that was $45.00.

The dray delivered the cart to the dock and the ferry shipped it across to the mainland (no charge) where the cart waited for us until my husband got off work. Since the kids wanted to have their bikes at school they road down to the dock while I rode on a taxi with the few items they forgot to get on the cart.

Once we got to the mainland it was time to Tetris the back of the car. It took some finagling, but everything fit! Luckily my son's roommate was bringing the fridge and microwave, otherwise each kid would have had one of those items on their lap. (The car is a Ford Expedition Max, if you're wondering.) We like to go up to Marquette the night before and get an early start moving in. Campus is much easier to navigate on Move-in Day when you sign up for an 8:00 am move in time!

Once we arrived at Northern, we unloaded into two separate bins and each kid went their own way. K to Maple West and S to Magers Hall.

Mr. Second Year had absolutely no interest in help setting up his room... none.

but K, asked for help, so we spent some time unpacking and helping her get organized for her first year away from home.

Then Allen and I hopped in the car and headed home. Well, we actually stopped at Meijer first to pick up groceries and then we headed home. Home to an empty nest!

Calm and Quiet

Today was a foggy one on Mackinac. Which is fine because it meant I got to hear one of my favorite sounds in the entire world - the fog horn. Foggy days on the Island tend to be a little cooler and a little less crowded, so if you're a tourist don't let a little fog change your plans!

UGH

Someone in my house did not have a very good day today.

One of my kids got their first ambulance ride today. The intense pain required pain meds and a trip to the mainland for a CT scan. Kidney stones aren't common in teenagers, so the doctor felt a scan was important to determine if that was the issue. Turns out it was...

We're thankful Mackinac Island has a topnotch EMS service and a medical center to handle things like this. 

Edited to add: my kiddo is fine. At least part of the stone has passed, the pain has subsided, and hopefully with increased hydration this will not continue to be an issue.

The Long Walk Home

Things didn't go the way I planned today. The front tire of my bike had a hole in it, so after leaving my bicycle at the bike shop for repairs, I had to walk home. As irritated as I was, I made a conscious choice to enjoy my walk and even took the long way home - through the woods. It was wonderfully cool and mostly silent. You'd be surprised how loud the sound of the wind through the treetops can be when everything else is calm. Today, it was exactly what my soul needed.

Atop Signal Mountain

Staying at Signal Mountain Lodge, we felt like we really should visit the top of Signal Mountain. Since we were traveling with an octogenarian, we decided it would be better to drive up the mountain rather than hike. We visited on a cloudy evening, but the view was still lovely. At least until the snow squall hit. We took a quick selfie and headed back to the car.

On my walk back I noticed this little metallic marker in the blacktop. After a little research I discovered it's a geological survey marker and there are over 200 of them in Grand Teton National Park. These metal disks are used to mark key points on the Earth's surface, and maintain a coordinate system to keep track of latitude, longitude, and elevation of specific places. After noticing this one, I tried to keep my eyes open for them as we traveled through the park.