Day Five - Thursday

We started with a two hour drive to Mackinaw City, Michigan where we took a ferry to Mackinac Island. I tasted the MOAD hot dog again as I experienced a little sea sickness on the 15 minute ferry ride. But the people we met on the boat ride made things more pleasant and helped us with things to do when we arrived. You can see them in the picture.
Mackinac Island pretty much took up most of our day, but it's another part of our American history lesson we can check off. It's the last part of Michigan before the state's upper peninsula.
Things learned: It's almost chilly up here - highs are in the 65 degree range. There are two Great Lakes that can be seen from the area - Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, which was pretty amazing considering most of us had never seen either one. The bridge from the main part of Michigan to the upper peninsula is 5 miles - one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. People from Michigan are called Michiganders and those on the UP (upper peninsula) are called UPers or Yoopers. Mackinac Island is a great place to visit. No cars on the island - the most common forms of transportation are bicycling, horse back riding, and walking. You would think it would be safe with no cars, but it's common to see accidents from bicycle wrecks. LOTS of money on the island. Houses usually selling for several million dollars. The Grand Hotel is too grand for us -it's huge, it's famous, those attending dinner must wear formal evening gowns and suit and tie ... not for us.
We took a carriage ride with several other tourists and learned a lot of the history of the island. Things like the John Jacob Aster Fur Trading Company being started there. We also learned to not sit near the front of the carriage due to severe gaseous emissions from the horses. Memories of Rusty from Seinfeld came floating back.
We stayed until about 6:00 and finished with a second rousing rendition of Amazing Grace at the Little Stone Church - it's a little over 100 years old and is a little stone church. This time all four tenors rocked the house.
We're staying in St. Ignace just barely into the upper peninsula. So we're Yoopers. We went from a five star room last night to a one star tonight. I can't even remember the name of the hotel. Plus we had to change rooms. The manager gave us the honeymoon suite. One king sized bed next to a heart shaped tub with mirrors all around. This actually happened to Pee Wee and me during our first journey, but why she would think FOUR men wanted the honeymoon suite is beyond me. We had fun taking a couple pictures before switching.
Jimmy was the only one to carry out a good deed today. With horses being constant travelers on the streets of Mackinac Island, horse poop is a common sight, and horse poop sweeper men are employed. Showing that he isn't beyond serving in any manor, Jimmy held the shovel for the pooper sweeper for a while so he had a place to sweep the horse poop.
That's it for today - these Yoopers are heading deep into the Michigan UP tomorrow. We're getting a little fatigued now. You know ... that heart shaped tub would have hit the spot.