Sweet the Rain's New Fall

Today, we received a good May rainfall. Even with the rain, my daughter wanted to bike to school.


It is raining... It's hard to take a picture of it as it doesn't show.





She's getting faster! I don't know if it's due to the rain or that it's the third day she's biked to school. We shaved off five minutes!


A carriage tour? First one I've seen this season:


It's getting busier downtown. I'm hoping we can both bike to preschool this whole week. I'm not comfortable having my beginner bicyclist traverse downtown when it's busy.


OPEN signs are becoming more numerous!


Brrrrr! Today was wet and cool.


The Lakeside Marketplace opened today! My husband was happy for some Starbucks Coffee!


A seagull above the Round Island Bar & Grill:


A wet world:


The afternoon was misty. It wasn't raining, but there was so much moisture in the air, I still got wet.


Fort Mackinac in fog:


Downtown Mackinac Island with newly painted lines and crosswalks (which happened yesterday, much nicer weather for that!)


The UPS carts were overflowing this afternoon. Businesses are getting ready!


Once Sinclair's Irish Pub, now the Huron Street Pub & Grill:


The sheets came down from the windows at Sanders today- yay! (I look forward to the return of their sea salt caramel fudge! Yum!)


I love the new garbage drays!


Murdick's Fudge has been open all week:


One of my favorite shops on Mackinac! Nephew's opens May 4th.






The Bicycle Inn covered the red beams this afternoon:


There she goes!


My daughter was excited to have people to wave to and these gentleman obliged once we passed:


The garbage drays even look nice from behind:


Horses pulling taxi carriages are also increasing in numbers:


A team practicing (more horses arrived yesterday):


An accidental picture, but I liked it:


So fun watching her bike! (and also a decent exercise in patience for me)


Her bike didn't come with fenders, which resulted in a little stripe on the back of her pink dress:


I love the Tower:


Most of my pictures of Mission Point signs have "Resort" reflecting light best. I wonder if taller folks have "Mission" or "Point" do that:


Daffodils and the Tower rising in the mist:





She yelled "honk" the whole time we passed geese:


The rain was probably a good thing, and I have rain gear so no real complaints here! (I've simply learned not to bother with makeup on rainy days.)

Location:Mackinac Island

There's a Snake in my Kitchen!

At first glance, I thought it was a toy snake. (My oldest daughter has a few). But that thought only lasted a moment. God does a better job with patterns.




It's a baby eastern milk snake. I know because I had reason to look it up last year. (There were two instances in which this species ended up in our apartment). They must have just hatched. It was over 50 degrees by the time we left for preschool today.




It was a very small snake. But I am very jumpy. I wasted an hour keeping track of it in hopes someone else would remove it for me. Any other day of the week, my husband would have come to my aid... But Tuesdays are currently orientation at Mission Point Resort.




Look what the snake can do:




I lost it at one point when I left the kitchen to change a pull-up. It was on the wall behind a rolling shelf (turns out I need to move that shelf more often and clean).




After an hour, it was getting close to preschool pick-up time. The idea of not knowing where a snake was in my home overpowered my fear of dealing with it. I swept that little snake out the door. Eastern milk snakes are not dangerous, but they do strike when disturbed. Even in a tiny thing like this, the striking is unnerving. I love its shadow in this picture:




Yikes!






As it matures, the red splotches will darken. The adults are thin and really long (2-4 feet).




The Michigan DNR map doesn't show any eastern milk snakes north of the Mackinac Bridge, obviously there are some on Mackinac Island. If snakes aren't your thing, don't worry! There are not tons, and I've not heard other snake-in-home stories. I'm just lucky. (And need to fix our front door so it seals better).




Much better location! (Not in my kitchen!)

First Bike Ride to School

First day of biking to school on her own bicycle! We hadn't made it off Mission Point property before I realized we'd forgotten a couple of things. First, her shoes- rain boots are not ideal footwear for school. More importantly, I returned home to fetch her bike helmet!


Much better!


The rain subsided before we left for school. Puddles make biking more adventurous (for my five year old, at least)!


The road has been returned! This makes biking past the Bicycle Inn much easier.


They were adding windows today:


I didn't allot nearly enough extra time for an 18" girl's bike with training wheels. At this point in the ride, preschool had already started. I know to leave earlier now!


My precious little biker!


There is her bike! Parked with lots of other bikes at Mackinac Island Public School:


The new garbage drays are classy!


Posing while in motion:


Ok, now she's showing off and blowing kisses:


The new house across from Mission Church is coming along:


Tulips at Mission Point:


She took a few spills, but she is quite agile and didn't hurt herself once!


Doud's Market extended its hours! It is now open until 9pm all week long (previously open until 7pm with the exception of Sundays, which was 5pm).


Also, there were THREE fudge shops open today!!! (Ryba's, Murdick's, and Joanne's) Alas! I keep forgetting to toss my purse in the burley. Tomorrow, I shall eat fudge!