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September 30, 2024- Monday
Mackinac Island,Michigan
I awoke sometimeduring the night to the sound of the anchor being dropped. So I knew we werejust off Mackinac Island.
When we awoke,we could hear a bit of wind and the lake around us was a bit choppy. We electedan Included tour this morning that is take a horse drawn carriage ride on theIsland. Our tour group time came, and we headed for the tender. A short rideinto the dock, it is a clear but breezy morning. The Island is charming withmost white houses, many of which are Victorian. As soon as we were ashore, wewere loaded onto carriages. Most of the carriages we (Viking) were using held16 people. Our guide/driver was Haley. She was very entertaining. We hadanticipated a short ride up and down a few streets and that would be it.
What we got wasabout 1-1/2 hours of driving around the island. We knew that automobiles werenot allowed, but we didn’t anticipate the numbers of horse drawn vehicles wewould see or the vast number of bicycles (many of them e-bikes). There are afew exceptions to the vehicle rule and that is a modern fire engine, a policecar, and an ambulance. All product that is delivered to the island by ferry, isthen loaded onto a horse drawn vehicle and delivered. We saw a vehicle leavingthe Grand Hotel loaded with garbage. We saw a horse drawn street sweeper. Withall of the horses this was very much needed.
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| One of our draft horses |
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| The enclosed Carriage for guests of the Grand Hotel |
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| The Grand Hotel and it is grand. Over 600 feet long. 402 rooms. All different. |
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| I count six stories. Massive, but perfert proportions |
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| Delivery wagon waiting for the garbage wagon to leave, |
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| Street Sweeper |
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| Presidential Carriage for VIP guests of the Grand Hotel. 5 US presidents have ridden in this carriage. |
The island isheavily wooded. We spent quite a bit of time in the woods, listening to storiesof the Island. Frequent stops to let the horses rest for a moment or two, astop by their barns to get a drink, it's obvious the horses are well cared for.The vast majority of horses used on the island are two breeds of draft horses.There are 3 cemeteries on the island, all in a group. A Catholic, a Protestant,and a Post cemetery for those passing at Fort Mackinac. The Post cemetery hasmany graves that are unidentified, so they fly the US flag at ½ mast always inhonor of the Unknown Soldiers.
A touch of Fall 
The protestant cemetery. "our walls are more holy than others" 
The Post Cemetery - you can see the flag at half mast. 
A little more color 
Arch Rock
We made a briefstop at Arch Rock to take a quick look at the Arch as well as a comfort stopfor anyone needing it. While we were there, the horses were watered again and given a snack. We continued to snake through the woods until reaching the Fort.Our tour included entrance to the Fort. It is quite a compound with excellent viewsof the town. We walked back to the town from the fort, bought some of theirfamous fudge (there are at least 14 fudge shops along the main street). We gotback to the pier just as one of the tenders was about to leave.
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| Beautiful view of the town |
The wind hascome up a bit so the ride back to the ship was a little bumpier than usual.Back on board, we had some lunch, then relaxed in our room and I continuedworking on this blog. We have been so busy with daily activities; it has beenhard to get caught up. In the past I’ve also been able to easily post theseblogs to my Facebook page. However, Facebook has decided that I am doing somethingbad and will not permit me to post.
In theafternoon, we attended a lecture on the polar regions. This lecture was primarilyfor selling future cruises, but 2 members of the Expedition Team were thereadding their perspective of what it is like to visit the polar regions. We didn’tlearn a lot, although it confirmed a lot of the information we have gotten fromother sources.
This wasfollowed by the Daily Briefing. We then headed to The Restaurant for dinner. Wewere placed at a table with a delightful British couple. It was a very niceevening. At 7:45 we headed to Deck 6 as we have a weather balloon launchtonight. The Expedition Team tries to release one balloon per week (weatherpermitting). This is in conjunction with NOAA. The Octantis and Polaris are theonly two commercial vessels releasing weather balloons. All other vessels areeither research only vessels or military vessels.
The smaller sphere in the middle is the balloon. 
And it's away 
Rising quickly. Data is already streaming in. you can barely
see the balloon towards the top left.
The data fromthe weather balloon was transmitted back to the computers on the Octantis andimmediately uploaded into NOAAs data banks. The data immediately becomes partof the data used to predict everyday weather forecasts. As is the case with anykind of event on board, the wait staff were milling about among the guestsoffering some sort of libation.
Time for bed.
