That's what you get for waking up on a ferry...

Or, should I say, for waking up in Mackinac.

Yes. I believe I promised a post on the senior trip to the lovely Mackinac Island? Well, here it is--yes, a bit late, because I had to blog about my Movie Sunday first, but after the looong wait, here it is: The official Senior Trip Mackinac Island Post.

Here goes...

This year, our trip was on September 19th, which was a Sunday. And, as some of you will remember from my previous post, there was a Coffeehouse the night before. Okay. So we all have to be checked into the cafeteria by--I'm not exaggerating--FIVE THIRTY IN THE MORNING. Can you guess how much complaining occurred because of that? Well, anyway. I was awake and hyper because, well, that's just me, but I can tell you, half the people in that cafeteria looked more zombie than human. I honestly thought it would come down to a battle between the awake-and-hyper-and-annoying and the sleepy-and-zoned-out-and-annoyed. (Thankfully, it didn't.)

So we board the buses and we're out of there by six. The idea was to divide us up, alphabetically, into four buses. I was on bus four, with the last of the alphabet, and thinking I'd be awake for most of the trip, asked a good friend to be my bus-mate. Well, so much for that--we were both asleep within half an hour of the bus taking off. I meant to stay awake and watch the sunrise--and, for a while, I did--but then the whole no-sleep-on-Saturday-night thing kind of caught up to me and I just passed out, and didn't wake up until we got to the ferry.

The ferry ride was a treat in itself. Honestly, it was worth getting up at four-thirty just for that ride. I didn't have my jacket on, just a t-shirt and a veeery thin flannel shirt, and I FROZE. Not kidding. If I wasn't awake before the ride, I sure as hell was after. Even if I hadn't froze my ass off, there was the noise that the ferry made before it took off, which I can only describe as...

WHAAAAAAANNNK!

I can't put it any better than that.

Anyway, so the ferry went for about forty-five minutes and then we got to the island, where we were given bag lunches and turned loose. We were warned ahead of time not to wander around the island on our own, so naturally I looked for some friends to meet up with straightaway. I ran into the trio of MPAs I like to call "The Trifecta" and asked if I could stick with them. One of them (*coughHARRYcoughcough*) said something cryptic, most of which I didn't catch thanks to the surrounding chaos. At the exact same time, the ferry, which was about to pull away from the dock, made another loud noise. This was followed by:

Me: Was he (Harry) telling me to get lost? I can never tell.

Aaron: The boat? I think the boat was saying "Get out of the way or I'll hit you."

Me: No, not the boat, Harry! I KNOW what the boat was saying, it's your roommate I can't decipher!

Jeff: ...Wait, you speak boat now?

*insert me throwing myself off the dock out of frustration*

Eventually they decided to go get some bikes, and because biking and me are roughly as compatible as Artemis Fowl and Opal Koboi, I decided to latch onto another group, so I went off on my own and, after a brief search, found Ariel and Lucie (a.k.a., the birthday girl from my Sept. 9 post). We had breakfast at a cute, tiny little cafe and then went off to explore Main Street, did a bit of shopping, and then did something that I absolutely had to do but probably won't do again.

We. Went. To. A. Butterfly. Conservatory.

I'm not kidding.

This is just one of those things that I'd never do on my own, but with a couple of friends it's like, "Yeah, that sounds great!" You know what I mean? Because seriously, I'm not that interested in butterflies, and had I stuck with the others, I might not've even considered it. But when I went with Ariel and Lucie it was like, "Hey, let's go to the butterfly conservatory!" "Sure, why not?" "Okay, let's go!" End of discussion. I don't know exactly how long we were in there, but I know that it was awhile, judging by the sheer number of butterfly conservatory pictures I have on my camera.

So THEN it was off to Marquette Park, where we ate lunch, checked in with our counselors, and then spent some time chilling out in the sunshine. I reconnected with the Trifecta (yes, I WILL persist in calling you three that), then decided to break off on my own. Yes, I KNOW this was technically not allowed, but I specifically asked the counselors and they said it was fine as long as I stayed in town and didn't go hiking all over the island by myself.

This was when I had my first taste of Mackinac Island fudge. I will tell you something--this is the ONLY time I've eaten something and thought it was better than homemade food. No joke. You haven't had fudge until you've had Mackinac Island fudge. It doesn't matter which shop you get it from--it is absolutely amazing. Not a chocolate fan? No problem. There's mint fudge, black cherry, vanilla, peanut butter, and--this was the only one I regretted eating--pistachio. The rest of the food on the island, judging by breakfast, isn't much better than anywhere else in Michigan. But let's just say, there's a reason why Mackinac is famous for its fudge.

I spent a good part of my afternoon lounging in Marquette Park, reading, and eating waaay too much fudge. At one point I went back to main street and met up, once again, with the MPA Trifecta in, of all places, a toy store. I won't go into details--you pretty much had to be there for this. But I will describe two of the high points:

1) Watching Harry shooting a wooden toy rifle and actually hitting the mark numerous times, leading to a rather cliche pun on his last name. Also using a wooden revolver on Harry and asking first, "Hey, do you mind if I shoot you?"

2) Seeing a little toy dog that rolled over and barked--and did nothing else. I couldn't decide if it was cute or creepy.

This was followed by more sunbathing and chilling in Marquette Park (along with a shit-ton of picture taking), and then MORE fudge consumption, before I finally got back to the ferry (and let me just say, the ride back was EVERY BIT as cold as the ride there), and FINALLY got back on the bus. I wish I could say that I didn't fall asleep on the way from the ferry dock to the fast-food place where we ate dinner...but I did. I wish I could say that I didn't fall asleep on the way home...but I did.

Hey, that's what you get for waking up in Mackinac... ;)


STOLEN DIALOGUE:

Person one: This morning I woke up spitting out my own hair.
Person two: This morning I woke up spitting out Harry's hair.
Person one: How is that even possible? You sleep on opposite sides of the room!!

"We shall make love on the ostrich!"

"What the hell...these Kleenex smell like pie!"

(holding up a scooter)
"What is this?"

Person one: Is this going to be permanently awkward?
Person two: No! It's not going to be awkward! What the hell would make you think that?
Person one: Well, no, it's not awkward now, because you're insulting me again.
Person two: Yes, you little bastard. See?

"We haven't gotten out of Hugging 101 yet."

"Just so you know what an idiot this guy is...he takes five minutes to take attendance."

Person one: I'm sorry for the awkwardness of the documents.
Person two: They never know what to say, they're so awkward.

"He is the token tranny of Interlochen."

Person one: Right now, everyone has A's in this class.
Person two: Just like in public school!

"I kinda wanna hurt you right now...but I'm thinking of the kittens..."

Person one: I'm going to list you as my brother on FaceBook.
Person two: Oh, awesome!
Person one: Except...he [person 2's boyfriend] is already listed on my FaceBook as my brother.
Person two: Oh...well, we'll just pretend we're in the south.
Person one: Oh, that reminds me, there's this movie we HAVE to watch in GSA, it's about incestuous brothers!

Person one: I climbed all up in the Harvey [theatre].
Person two: That sounded a little creepy!

"We made a film called Language of the World. It's terrible, but it's better than anything else in the contest!"

Person one: He was all made up as the ghost from A Christmas Carol.
Person two: You mean Bob Marley? Oh wait, JACOB Marley...I'm not on drugs, you guys, I swear...

Person one: I chopped up some poles in theatre tech today!
Person two: Uh...I don't know what that means!

"Dude, you can't blame language for your problems!"

Person one: What did she just say?
Person two: I don't know, it just flew right over my head!