Brown, I Love Brown

So, on Mackinac there are no motorized vehicles.  How do you get around?  Largely by bicycle.  I mean everywhere you look, you’d think there was a bike shop because so many bikes are parked all over.  Also largely by horse.   It’s interesting to see the way they get things done.  Things we take for granted because we have cars and trucks.  Things like a UPS delivery. 

The UPS truck comes over on a ferry, parks on the docks and is unloaded onto wagons.

Here was a “three-trailer rig”.  Okay, not semi trailers, little wagons. We saw this guy delivering down Main Street one afternoon.  He got caught in a terrible downpour.  Apparently UPS hires the wagon and driver to escort their delivery person.  I felt a little sorry for this gal just sitting, holding the reins… in the rain.  The UPS guy would tell her when to move, and it seemed it was just inches and she stopped again.  Its logistics, you know.

Brown, I love Brown!

And how about trash pick-up?  Horse and wagon.  Because “a horse is a horse, of course. course”  according to Mr. Ed!

We saw this wagon with a flat on the side of the road.  They did get it fixed because a few minutes later we saw it go down the road. 

One day we rented bikes and rode around the island.  We came upon a house…a summer cottage…okay a mansion, under construction.  Well, Wally has already been wondering just how they get building materials onto the Island, so this was the perfect opportunity to find out how.  Bikes are handy, we just rolled up the driveway and Wally began his interview.  Sure enough, it all has to be done by horse and wagon. We found out that there is a two week period in the spring when residents and merchants on the island are allowed to bring cars and trucks onto the island to bring in supplies. After that, it all stops at the dock and gets loaded onto horse-drawn wagons.

So for this house, it would have been possible to bring in a cement mixing truck by ferry to pour the foundation.  The timing would have to be perfect in order to have the excavating complete and ready. There is also this to consider…a cement mixer holds about four yards of premixed cement and takes a half a day to get to the Island.  Wally figured about seven and half truck loads could be poured in one day for this house.  The men were able to hand mix and  and pour about thirty yards of cement a day.  That would be equal to over fifty truckloads of premixed cement.  Wally figured it out, not me.

The way it was accomplished was that all the sand for making concrete was shoveled onto a wagon and driven to the site and shoveled off the wagon .   All of the building material was brought to the Island and delivered the same way.  Think of stacking the cinder blocks onto a wagon and getting to the site and unloading and restacking them.  Then returning to the dock for another load.

Notice the bikes out front…transportation to and from the ferry for the construction workers.  One of the men we talked with had been doing this for 26 years.  He does not live on the island and takes the ferry each day.  All of that is figured into the cost of the house.  He told us that with the horse drawn wagons system, it  easily doubles the cost to build!  He thought that the cost for this house would exceed three million dollars!

This house was begun in the Spring of 2010 and should be completed this summer. 

Just a shot of a neighbor’s house, to give you some perspective!

Life at the Grand

The Grand Hotel’s claim is to return to a time of “gracious living.”  I like gracious living.  Take a look around at the graciousness…

The Veranda.    Loved the flags across the front of the hotel! One evening at dinner we watched as they lowered and folded the flags.  I was looking forward to sitting on the porch and reading.  But it was a little chilly on our visit.  We went out for our quiet time, unfortunately it was more like quick time!  Another lovely place to sit was the parlor…

Geraniums are the official “in-house” flower.   They are in all the décor.

Every afternoon from 3:00 until 5:00, tea is served in the parlor.

Here is one side of the dining room.  It seats about 1300 people.  Breakfast and dinner were included in our stay.  Dinner was a five course event.  And it was quite an event to watch.  The wait staff was largely Jamaican.  Their name tags gave their name and and number.  At first I thought the number related to their task.  There was someone to offer the wine list, someone to pour and refill the coffee and some one who took your order and served.  Then we had a waiter who who had a 17 after his name. So I asked, and the number refers to years of service.  Last night Henry the 8th served us.  Everyone seemed to think that was pretty funny!  After 6:30 at night, gentlemen had to be in a suit and tie and ladies in a skirt or pantsuit.    One night we had our dinner brought to our room so Wally only had to wear a tie twice.  (Though he did look very nice in his suit and tie)

After a group vacated their table, there was quite a process as the tablecloth was changed, the napkins folded, the silver wiped and placed, (and there was a lot of silverware on the table at each meal!)  The wait staff worked as if they could do it in their sleep!  It was even a bit entertaining!

These guys played at dinner each night and then afterwards as part of the hotel’s nightly entertainment.  They were called an orchestra but the only stringed instrument they played was the bass.  They sounded more like q “big band era” band.  One night we went down to dinner late and as their last musical piece they played a patriotic medley that ended with “God bless America!”  They received a big round of applause!

After dinner they served demitasse in the parlor.  Demi tasse means a very small, very strong cup of coffee!  I did actually enjoy it, it reminded me of the coffee we had when we lived in England.  A harpist played each evening and also during tea time.  Very nice!

I took this picture between tea time and demitasse time.  The flower arrangement was beautiful.  All purple flowers, all real, not artificial!  I love gracious living!

Me sitting on one of those cool round chairs in the parlor!

The hotel provided all kinds of entertainment each night, from a wine bar to a museum.  The bottom floor had several different stores to shop at and a spa.  They showed two movies, rotating them every other night.  Somewhere In Time  and This time for Keeps.   Both movies were filmed at the Grand.  We went to hear the orchestra one night.  It was more of a dance for the kids.  Just like in the movies, little girls dancing with their bff’s.  At the very top of the hotel was a cupola.  It housed a bar but they let you just come in for the view.  There was a piano player and it was very nice and romantic.  And we enjoyed just being in our room too.  After all we are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary!  Wink, wink!

The Grand Hotel

Leaving the ferry, we took a carriage to the hotel. That would be a horse drawn carriage! Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the island. The mode of travel is by horse, by bicycle or your little old two feet!

They say that on Mackinac “the horse is King” but at the Grand Hotel, we were treated pretty royally! Check out our room---

Another shot showing the canopy better

The bathroom was little but I liked the big black and white tile on the floor. The hotel is from the Victorian era. I also liked the embossed name on the towels. And the in room coffeepot came with Starbucks coffee packs! I enjoyed that!

Curious to see if The Grand provided Gideon Bibles in the room I opened a nightstand drawer to find this…

That little thing that looks like a matchbook of matches, was a matchbook of little emery boards! And there was a Bible in the other drawer.

Each night we got a knock at the door for turn down service…

They gave us chocolate!! even if we said “no thank you".

Thankful Thursday

We have had  much going on the past few weeks with getting ready for Kenny’s wedding, having the wedding, and all the travel, I have not always posted on Thankful Thursday.  And while Wally and I are still on the road, we feel so full of thanks for so many things.  So he is helping this week. 

• The wedding was beautiful---enjoyable and glorifying to the Lord Jesus Christ.  An answer to the two things I prayed for specifically
• A nice text message we received from Kenny yesterday---telling us they arrived safe in Panama City, FL and thanking us for all we did
• All the kids are out of the nest (Wes, I know will be back) and it is such a blessing to see them getting settled in their lives
• Getting to see Elaine again---she is at such a fun age!
• Andrea travelling safely at this stage of her pregnancy, and seeing her in her pregnant glory!
• Being with family at the wedding---all my siblings (except Nathan in Malaysia) were together.  Wally’s Aunt and Uncle brought his Mom.  So good to have them with us.
• Safety in all of our travels.  Wally and I are driving about 4,000 miles by the time we return home.  Ben and Andrea traveled from NY and back.  Kenny and Becky are in FL this week.  Wesley made it safely to the Bill Rice Ranch after the wedding.  That's a lot of miles!
• Beautiful scenery Wally and I are seeing across the country
• Time to be alone on our own---we are celebrating thirty years of marriage, though our anniversary isn’t until August
• The Lord’s goodness displayed in every aspect of our lives, regardless of the circumstances we are in

Have a great day…Wally and I are going to ride bikes around the island.  Hope the sun makes it through, it has been rainy!

Making it to Mackinac

Whew!  What a long drive!   We headed up here to Michigan on Sunday after church and a last lunch with family.  Driving through Tennessee, we took a quick peek at Crown College where Wesley is going to attend in the fall. 

Sunday night we spent the night just north of Lexington, KY.  Kind of funny incident;  as we were heading to our hotel room, a  door opened and a man stepped out with his dog.  Wally stopped to be friendly and pet the critter, asking, “is that a rescued greyhound?”  Maybe the wrong thing to say to a man in town for the saluki dog competition!  It was a kind of sad looking dog though, especially wearing a diaper!  Oh well!

Wally was thinking we had an easy drive Monday and would get in kind of early for a change.  Hope I don’t hurt anyone’s feelings but there’s not much about Michigan that we enjoyed…it was pretty boring!  And gas was $4.15 a gallon!  What a killer!  No such luck getting in early either, we arrived in Mackinac City about 8:30 pm.  We barely found a place to get some dinner.

Another interesting experience was checking into a hotel.  You might think we were a piece of raw meat in a lion’s den!  We went into the first hotel and asked for a room.  The woman pulled out a paper and jotted down a number, a big number!  Just like a car salesman would do!  Then she lowered it, just a bit, and circled the number on the paper like we had a deal.  We asked to see the room.  It was kind of an okay room but not worth the the three digits she had written down!  When we said we wanted to check out a couple of other hotels, she all of a sudden had us in for the night at 69.99.  We experienced that little scenario at three different hotels! 

Tuesday morning we drove over Mackinac bridge…a five mile suspension bridge…into St. Ignace on the upper peninsula.  We took the ferry from there over to Mackinac Island. 

Here we are on the ferry, ready to cross

The Bridge from the ferry

Our destination was the Grand Hotel…

Let the grand time begin!

Made It Myself Monday

It’s Monday and I have internet (though we are still on the road) and a completed project.  So I am linking up for Made It Myself Monday sponsored by Alex at You Had Me at Craft.  You can show off any project you have made, cooking, sewing, crating, whatever. 

These are the centerpieces I made for the tables at Kenny’s rehearsal dinner.  It was pretty simple really but looked very nice. 

I used the Sweethearts cartridge to cut the figures for inside the vases.  One couple was the Bride and Groom and the other was called the “honeymooners”.  I taped them to a cardboard base which was covered by the red rocks. I tied some sheer ribbon around the vases.  I used black and red polka dot sheer ribbon. I placed on the tables a red 12x12 sheet of  cardstock covered with a black swirl cardstock.  A tea light off to the side finished it off.  Yankee Candle had the dark candles, (they looked black to me), called  “Midsummer’s Night”.

I Am So Blessed!

It is Monday as I write this post and my hearts is still full of all the goodness and joy and blessings of Kenny’s wedding.  We feel so very blessed with Kenny's choice in Becky.  We are blessed by their lives and their love for the Lord and desire to serve Him.  We are blessed by the family that came so far to celebrate with us.  We are blessed by the Shahan family we met and got to know a little bit.  We were blessed by the relationships of friends who participated in the wedding. Blessing after blessing after blessing!

Take a peek...we would have gotten better pictures but dog-gone, there was always a photographer in our way!

Our handsome son and his beautiful bride!

My new daughter

Becky’s Bridesmaid’s

Kenny’s Groomsmen

Family

Becky’s Parents, Sandy and Woody Shahan

Indeed, my blessings overflow!