Day Six-- Mackinac Island

Today we got and took a catamaran over to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron. We took a tour of the island from horse drawn carriages where we went through the National Park and saw a stone arch, Ft Mackinac (where the first battle of some war was fight-- the War of 1812 maybe?), we saw the governor's mansion, a couple of old graveyards, and the Grand Hotel. The island is so quaint and has a "classic" feel to it.

Funny Story: One of the tour guides we had was a big jokester/punster and at one point he joked about getting phone numbers from people then he said, "Mine is 217yaddayadda" and he turned and looked right at me then held up his hand like a phone and mouthed, "Call me!" I just smiled, raised my eyebrows and nodded. A while later, he was telling us about living on the Island and that he lives by the Police Station and he looked at me and said, "You should come down. It's where all the cool people hang out. We'll have a barbeque." Someone asked who he was talking to and he waved his hand across everyone and said, "Well, you all can come, too." When we were getting off the lady in front of me said, "You should go to his house. He singled you out twice on our trip." A few minutes later, after G'ma finished talking to him and was walking toward me, he looked at me, made a phone with his hand again and mouthed, "Call me". I just smiled and nodded. So funny!

We checked into the Grand Hotel and our room is beautiful! They brought our luggage up from the catamaran and put it outside our door.

The Lilac Festival is going on so we went down to "downtown" (it's 2 streets with stores and restaurants) to watch the parade. There were a surprising amount of floats-- all horsedrawn and a few bands. Some bag pipes, girls on horseback, Boy Scouts, etc. It was a cute little parade for a small town.

After the parade we walked back up the hill to the hotel where we changed for dinner. The rule is you have to be dressed up after 6pm. We went to dinner where we were served a 5 course meal that seriously took from about 6:15 to about 7:45 -- no joke. I was surprised at how long it took but it's because you give your course orders and then you have time to each thing before they bring out the next. I had a crab cake/lobster cake spring roll for an appetizer; strawberry and banana brisque for the soup (it was like a strawberry smoothie served in a dish sitting on top of a dish of ice); a spinach blue cheese salad; roast lamb with potatoes and lamb stew; and finally a lemon torte. Whew! SO Delish :)

I wandered around on the veranda for a while taking pictures and got stopped by two people asking if I wanted my picture taken because I looked so pretty. (Where the heck are these people when I need cheerleaders in a single's ward?!!) I met a really nice older couple celebrating their 56th Anniversary. I took pictures for other people who needed it. In the main lobby area we listened to a harpist for a while as people just mingled and had their after dinner expressos.

This place is so beautiful and since it's my first time staying in a 5 Star Hotel, I'm quite overwhelmed at how freaking fancy and huge it is. I love it :) It's really romantic and I don't blame the few couples I saw today who are honeymooning here.