Wow! Getting down to the two month mark. I cannot believe how quickly time has passed since I've been living here...with as slow as my ten hour work days, 6 days a week go I'm amazed at how fast 7 weeks went! Here's a recap of what I've done since I've been here:
-Stayed at the hotel twice
-Eaten at all five of the hotel restaurants, plus four non-hotel restaurants
-Left the Island once
-Biked the 8 miles around 3 times, through the middle once
-Watched a sunset from the far side of the Island
-Visited Fort Holmes
-Went ballroom dancing at the grand with some friends
-Found a church home
-Lost several games of tennis
-Saw the awesome supermoon shining on the waters of Lake _____, not to mention some of the most incredible stars I've ever seen!
-Went on 4 dates, with 4 different people ......I mean, hey.
-Went hunting for ghosts in the hotel, and did not find ANY I might add
And finally...enjoyed a lot of long hours going on bike rides, walks, and just hanging out with the many many friends I've made so far. So here's what I still plan to do before I go! (t-minus 68 days to get it done..!)
-Go on a carriage tour
-Go on the haunted tour of the island
-Have a ghost experience...this may be the most difficult thing on the list..
-Roast marshmallows at a bonfire!
-Go for a perimeter ride of the island after 12am
-Eat at all the restaurants I haven't tried
-Be introduced to a famous person staying at the hotel
-See the Hotel Orchestra play one evening
-Play bocci ball and croquet
-Win a game of tennis
-Get enough punches on my coffee rewards card to get a free cup
-Successfully turn a tourist away from going into Starbucks and direct them to the local place down the street!!!
-Ride one of the oldschool bicycles that have the HUGE wheel on the front and the TINY wheel on the back
-swim in the lake and not get frostbite
-Go parasailing
-Get a ride on the owner of the hotel's boat..Actually, I'm going to make this number 1 on the list.
That's what I've got.
My ________ Island Bucket list. Huh. That sounds a little too cliche...I'll probably get a call from my brother complaining about it. Oh well! So I have 8 weeks and a few days left here, and a lot I still need to get done. I'm hoping to get a good start on this seeing as I have....drum roll please,
TWO days off.
IN A ROW!!!!
This Thursday and Friday. Needless to say I am extremely excited. Before I came over here to write I was going over in my head the things I want to do before I leave, which must be what prompted this weird rush of list-making. Anyway! There's one thing I want to tell you about before I go. Many of the things that were on my "have-done" list, I'm sure you're all relatively familiar with...all but one. Yes, I went ballroom dancing! It was a very impromptu thing. A friend and I, Rhonda, were going for a walk one evening, around 10pm. We were walking past one of the bars downtown that had a live band doing a cover of piano man, which is a waltz. Because we are those people, we stopped, and began waltzing in the middle of the sidewalk. Then, all of a sudden, she grabs my hand and asks, "Hey! Do you have a dress????"
Psh. Do I have a dress.
Yes, of course, I say. Why? "We're going dancing," says Rhonda. Well where in the world would we go dancing? "The Grand Ballroom." Oh.
So 10 minutes later we were walking up the hill in our dresses with one of the other girls that lives in my house. We got there as the band was playing some classical music, so the three of us went right out and did our own (horribly techniqued, of course) version of each dance they played. Because we got there so late, we only got to hear about a half hour of music, but it was so much fun!! Where else can you decide at 10:00 at night to go ballroom dancing, and then ten minutes later be dressed and on the floor with two friends?
So much fun. I'm hoping to have many more nights like that one before I leave here, but whether I do or I don't, I can hardly be disappointed. In the 7 weeks since I've been here, although I've never once left work with my whole night planned out, I've never been disappointed, and I have yet to have a night that I would label as "lazy" or "boring."
The real world is going to take some getting used to, once this is all over.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Get Up And Enjoy The Day!
Tuesday, June 11 2013. 6:00 pm.
My best friend (and co-worker) Sandra and I leave work and go upstairs to Captain Chuck's for some dinner...we sit with a few other friends from the front office and talk for about a half hour. We're all female so it's the usual - boys, work, boys, boys again, and then a little more about work. After getting a serious lecture from one of my friends (totally unwarranted!!!) Sandra and I get up and go back downstairs to get our stuff out of the office and head home for the night. After doing nothing but 10am-8pm shifts for the last week or two, leaving at 6 feels so incredible. So, as we're leaving, S tells me she wants to run back to the operators office, where a couple of our other friends work, to talk to one of them about something. We walk back, and go into their office and end up staying and chatting for about ten minutes. As we're talking, I mention that I have tomorrow off, and then my friend Rhonda tells me she's off tomorrow too..! Then I tell her that I'm planning on going to the mainland for the first time, and she tells me that she's going there as well..! Cool. Exchange numbers. Bada bang, bada boom..and the exciting day off is on its way.
Fast Forward.
Wednesday, June 12. 9:51 am. After getting up late, rushing out the door to get my coffee and bagel from my favorite coffee shop down the street (on Market street..hint) and then rushing out to mail out my mysterious package to a mysterious person for whom we are all celebrating a special day this coming sunday, I call R. She doesn't answer. So, in my head I decide that I'm probably going to the mainland by myself. Not a problem, it's still going to be fun! Fast food! Yum! So anyway, I walk up to the ferry dock and 9:51 (6 minutes late), and there she is! Yay for not going alone! So we go up, get our tickets, and as we're getting on the ferry Rhonda tells the ferry ticket-taker person that she needs them to pull her car up for when she arrives.
Wait what?
Car. That changes the plans.
We get to the main land, and are immediately swarmed by bugs. Not quite the welcome I was expecting, but hey. It's land. And there are cars. And fast food....
So we hop in her car and talk about going to walmart, but then R mentions Taco Bell. Mind you, the nearest TB is more than 30 minutes away.
Before I go on, I would like to ask you all a question. If you hadn't had the chance, choice, or opportunity to eat fast food for 36 days and had been trapped on an island eating pretty much nothing but chicken and rice for those thirty six days, would you have driven 30 minutes out of your way to go get Taco Bell?
Yes, we did. But there's a twist! We did make it to the TB in Petoskey, but the adventure doesn't end there. While we were driving, Traverse City came up.
Traverse City is 2 1/2 hours away.
Traverse City, 1:30 pm.
We arrive at the mall in TC. (TC versus TB -- are you following??) I must say, getting in a motorized vehicle going 70 miles an hour is probably the most frightening experience of my life. I spend most of the time on the way there praying to God that he will deliver me safely...and I don't say that jokingly!
So, we get to the mall, shop around for an hour or two, then run out of things to do and start heading back. On the way back, we stop at this cute little fresh fruit market on the side of the road..while there isn't much fresh fruit, I do walk away with a little tin of THE most amazing granola in the world. Oats, pecans, almonds, coconut, maple sugar, maple syrup, butter, salt, cinnamon, and dried cherries. Yum.
After we leave there, we drive for another hour and a half or so and then see, in the distance, a Ferris wheel. Fair? Yes. We stop, ride the Ferris wheel, play a few carnival games, get an elephant ear and two bags of cotton candy for the road, and get back in the car.
Next stop, Walmart.
Oh, Walmart. Why oh why is self checkout always so difficult? All I want is a few different types of apples! What do you mean I have to go back and put them all in separate bags? And after doing so, why does your self checkout station never just work properly without assistance? Really, why. Sigh.
Back on the road, next stop: the ferry. Top deck on the way back. It's 70 degrees out, did I forget to mention that? Clear, blue skies. The sun is shining. We get back in time to see the sun lowering over the bridge, shining on the hotel...our beacon from the mainland.
Even after living on the island for over a month now and spending all day in that hotel, I still crane my neck over the railing to watch it from departure on the ferry to arrival at the island. You can see the hotel the whole way there, stretching out across the top of the island. It's surreal. It's beautiful.
And for now, it's home.
My best friend (and co-worker) Sandra and I leave work and go upstairs to Captain Chuck's for some dinner...we sit with a few other friends from the front office and talk for about a half hour. We're all female so it's the usual - boys, work, boys, boys again, and then a little more about work. After getting a serious lecture from one of my friends (totally unwarranted!!!) Sandra and I get up and go back downstairs to get our stuff out of the office and head home for the night. After doing nothing but 10am-8pm shifts for the last week or two, leaving at 6 feels so incredible. So, as we're leaving, S tells me she wants to run back to the operators office, where a couple of our other friends work, to talk to one of them about something. We walk back, and go into their office and end up staying and chatting for about ten minutes. As we're talking, I mention that I have tomorrow off, and then my friend Rhonda tells me she's off tomorrow too..! Then I tell her that I'm planning on going to the mainland for the first time, and she tells me that she's going there as well..! Cool. Exchange numbers. Bada bang, bada boom..and the exciting day off is on its way.
Fast Forward.
Wednesday, June 12. 9:51 am. After getting up late, rushing out the door to get my coffee and bagel from my favorite coffee shop down the street (on Market street..hint) and then rushing out to mail out my mysterious package to a mysterious person for whom we are all celebrating a special day this coming sunday, I call R. She doesn't answer. So, in my head I decide that I'm probably going to the mainland by myself. Not a problem, it's still going to be fun! Fast food! Yum! So anyway, I walk up to the ferry dock and 9:51 (6 minutes late), and there she is! Yay for not going alone! So we go up, get our tickets, and as we're getting on the ferry Rhonda tells the ferry ticket-taker person that she needs them to pull her car up for when she arrives.
Wait what?
Car. That changes the plans.
We get to the main land, and are immediately swarmed by bugs. Not quite the welcome I was expecting, but hey. It's land. And there are cars. And fast food....
So we hop in her car and talk about going to walmart, but then R mentions Taco Bell. Mind you, the nearest TB is more than 30 minutes away.
Before I go on, I would like to ask you all a question. If you hadn't had the chance, choice, or opportunity to eat fast food for 36 days and had been trapped on an island eating pretty much nothing but chicken and rice for those thirty six days, would you have driven 30 minutes out of your way to go get Taco Bell?
Yes, we did. But there's a twist! We did make it to the TB in Petoskey, but the adventure doesn't end there. While we were driving, Traverse City came up.
Traverse City is 2 1/2 hours away.
Traverse City, 1:30 pm.
We arrive at the mall in TC. (TC versus TB -- are you following??) I must say, getting in a motorized vehicle going 70 miles an hour is probably the most frightening experience of my life. I spend most of the time on the way there praying to God that he will deliver me safely...and I don't say that jokingly!
So, we get to the mall, shop around for an hour or two, then run out of things to do and start heading back. On the way back, we stop at this cute little fresh fruit market on the side of the road..while there isn't much fresh fruit, I do walk away with a little tin of THE most amazing granola in the world. Oats, pecans, almonds, coconut, maple sugar, maple syrup, butter, salt, cinnamon, and dried cherries. Yum.
After we leave there, we drive for another hour and a half or so and then see, in the distance, a Ferris wheel. Fair? Yes. We stop, ride the Ferris wheel, play a few carnival games, get an elephant ear and two bags of cotton candy for the road, and get back in the car.
Next stop, Walmart.
Oh, Walmart. Why oh why is self checkout always so difficult? All I want is a few different types of apples! What do you mean I have to go back and put them all in separate bags? And after doing so, why does your self checkout station never just work properly without assistance? Really, why. Sigh.
Back on the road, next stop: the ferry. Top deck on the way back. It's 70 degrees out, did I forget to mention that? Clear, blue skies. The sun is shining. We get back in time to see the sun lowering over the bridge, shining on the hotel...our beacon from the mainland.
Even after living on the island for over a month now and spending all day in that hotel, I still crane my neck over the railing to watch it from departure on the ferry to arrival at the island. You can see the hotel the whole way there, stretching out across the top of the island. It's surreal. It's beautiful.
And for now, it's home.
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
This Is What It Feels Like To Live
Wow, it's been a long time since I've been able to get on here! I'd love to say I've been super busy doing things at the hotel or around town, but I've really just been busy being social....which, here, basically means sitting around chatting with people. Still not much to do, but with as hectic as my hours at work can get, it's nice to be able to just go and relax with friends.
Last time I posted was Tuesday night, when I was staying at the hotel. Unfortunately, I posted right before dinner and wasn't able to get back on here and tell you guys about it! OH MY GOODNESS. Now I fully understand why people are willing to pay $70 per person to eat here...the food is incredible. The appetizer was this lobster/scallop terrine, then a chilled pear and rhubarb soup, caprese salad, and all that followed by my new favorite entree...black angus bouf bourguinon. Anyone who knows about my obsession with the movie Julie and Julia will understand why that was such a special treat. In the two or three days I will have at home before going back to school in the fall, I WILL be attempting Julia's recipe.
Oh, I forgot one thing. Dessert. Red Velvet cheesecake. I hope I'm not catching you before dinner! The food was absolutely incredible..best food of my life at that point in time, but it now holds second place.
Did you catch that? Yes I went out to dinner again since then, actually at another one of the hotel's restaurants called The Woods. Let me describe this place to you really quickly - you have to walk up Grand Hill about (what feels like) several miles, along a skinny, winding road through the woods to get to it. I walked there with a friend who didn't have a bike, and it was both of our first time going there. I swear we both thought we were lost for the longest time! Anyway, we finally arrived, and the restaurant itself is pretty small. There are probably about 20 tables and it's decorated like a hunting lodge...fitting because that's exactly what it used to be! So as you dine at the tables clothed with white, paper table cloths (where coloring is highly encouraged) you're surrounded by lots of taxadermised deer and moose...but here's my favorite part. At this time of year, when it's still pretty chilly out, they have a huge fire crackling away in the fireplace. The atmosphere alone makes it easily my favorite place on the whole island, and this was before I even tried the food. So, for dinner here - this, by the way, was on Sunday night with about 5 of my co-workers - I had raw salmon with caviar and grapefruit, butternut squash soup, a pear and walnut salad, and tiramisu cheesecake. Yum, yum, yum. This amazing meal (Which only cost $33 before tip! Holy cow!) was followed by bowling. But not the kind of bowling you're thinking of...this place has one lane, it's all wood, and you have to set the pins up yourself. It looks like something straight out of 1885. So fun!
This island has become, in one month, my favorite place in the world. It's like living in a different world.
Could you imagine walking down the street and seeing nothing but horse drawn carriages and bikes? There's no Walmart here. Most of the stores are only open until 7 pm unless it's Friday or Saturday night. It's like going back in time, literally, but not just to the 1800's, which yes, it does feel like sometimes. But I feel like I'm a kid again here. After work, instead of sitting down in front of the tv and just zoning out, I go for walks, hang out with friends on my porch, play cards, board games, go for bike rides. This is probably the only place in the world where the vast majority of people would rather just go walk around outside and socialize rather than sit on their couch eating tv dinners and falling asleep to the evening news. It's taken a lot of getting used to, but I don't miss the "outside world" one little bit. If given the option to work at a hotel exactly like this one but in New York or Miami or London, France, wherever, I don't think I could do it. Part of the magic of this hotel and this island is the fact that it makes you feel normal again. I feel human here, not like some robot in front of a television or computer screen. I feel the wind in my hair every morning when I ride my bike to work, and walk through the lobby of the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen before doing a job I love. I leave there and ride my bike home, change as quickly as possible, and then go outside and enjoy the night. I watch the sunset every night over the straits, and then tilt my head up to see the clearest skies, and the brightest stars I've ever seen. I don't check my phone every five minutes, I don't keep up with what's on television, I rarely get on twitter or facebook.
But who needs all that when you're actually living?
Last time I posted was Tuesday night, when I was staying at the hotel. Unfortunately, I posted right before dinner and wasn't able to get back on here and tell you guys about it! OH MY GOODNESS. Now I fully understand why people are willing to pay $70 per person to eat here...the food is incredible. The appetizer was this lobster/scallop terrine, then a chilled pear and rhubarb soup, caprese salad, and all that followed by my new favorite entree...black angus bouf bourguinon. Anyone who knows about my obsession with the movie Julie and Julia will understand why that was such a special treat. In the two or three days I will have at home before going back to school in the fall, I WILL be attempting Julia's recipe.
Oh, I forgot one thing. Dessert. Red Velvet cheesecake. I hope I'm not catching you before dinner! The food was absolutely incredible..best food of my life at that point in time, but it now holds second place.
Did you catch that? Yes I went out to dinner again since then, actually at another one of the hotel's restaurants called The Woods. Let me describe this place to you really quickly - you have to walk up Grand Hill about (what feels like) several miles, along a skinny, winding road through the woods to get to it. I walked there with a friend who didn't have a bike, and it was both of our first time going there. I swear we both thought we were lost for the longest time! Anyway, we finally arrived, and the restaurant itself is pretty small. There are probably about 20 tables and it's decorated like a hunting lodge...fitting because that's exactly what it used to be! So as you dine at the tables clothed with white, paper table cloths (where coloring is highly encouraged) you're surrounded by lots of taxadermised deer and moose...but here's my favorite part. At this time of year, when it's still pretty chilly out, they have a huge fire crackling away in the fireplace. The atmosphere alone makes it easily my favorite place on the whole island, and this was before I even tried the food. So, for dinner here - this, by the way, was on Sunday night with about 5 of my co-workers - I had raw salmon with caviar and grapefruit, butternut squash soup, a pear and walnut salad, and tiramisu cheesecake. Yum, yum, yum. This amazing meal (Which only cost $33 before tip! Holy cow!) was followed by bowling. But not the kind of bowling you're thinking of...this place has one lane, it's all wood, and you have to set the pins up yourself. It looks like something straight out of 1885. So fun!
This island has become, in one month, my favorite place in the world. It's like living in a different world.
Could you imagine walking down the street and seeing nothing but horse drawn carriages and bikes? There's no Walmart here. Most of the stores are only open until 7 pm unless it's Friday or Saturday night. It's like going back in time, literally, but not just to the 1800's, which yes, it does feel like sometimes. But I feel like I'm a kid again here. After work, instead of sitting down in front of the tv and just zoning out, I go for walks, hang out with friends on my porch, play cards, board games, go for bike rides. This is probably the only place in the world where the vast majority of people would rather just go walk around outside and socialize rather than sit on their couch eating tv dinners and falling asleep to the evening news. It's taken a lot of getting used to, but I don't miss the "outside world" one little bit. If given the option to work at a hotel exactly like this one but in New York or Miami or London, France, wherever, I don't think I could do it. Part of the magic of this hotel and this island is the fact that it makes you feel normal again. I feel human here, not like some robot in front of a television or computer screen. I feel the wind in my hair every morning when I ride my bike to work, and walk through the lobby of the most beautiful hotel I've ever seen before doing a job I love. I leave there and ride my bike home, change as quickly as possible, and then go outside and enjoy the night. I watch the sunset every night over the straits, and then tilt my head up to see the clearest skies, and the brightest stars I've ever seen. I don't check my phone every five minutes, I don't keep up with what's on television, I rarely get on twitter or facebook.
But who needs all that when you're actually living?
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