Memorial Day 25 May 2009 - U.S. federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May to commemorate U.S. men and women who died while in the military service.
It was actually my off day but due to some changes in the schedule, I worked from 7am-2.15pm. Huili and I were the dining room attendants helping with the buffet breakfast provided by our resort. Our tasks were slightly different from what we did at the Bistro. As there are limited tables, once the guests leave we must quickly clear and setup the tables ready for the next group of guests. The servers themselves will refill juices/coffee/iced water for the guests. There's one juice glass, water glass and coffee cup for each guest so imagine the amount of stuff we have to clear/setup for each table. We also had to constantly refill the fruit juices jugs by walking through the kitchen to the Round Island side. We had to wrap more silverware and wipe dry the glasses. It was quite busy but everyone carried out their own tasks well so everything was done efficiently.
After knocking off I went to check with Alex at the Bistro to see if he's able to knock off earlier but he wasn't sure if he could. Maurine, Huijun they all were planning to stayover one night at the mainland (Mackinaw City) then visit Walmart the next morning. They were aiming to catch the last Red Line ferry at 8.30pm. Frankly I wasn't even sure if I was going but after much persuasion from them but I decided to go with them on the trip as I'm on off for the next two days.
Met the rest of them outside the Activity Center at around 7.30pm. Xuemin just knocked off and went to change out of her uniform. We dropped by the Bistro to see if Alex was able to join us. To our delight, he got permission to go off. So he ran back to the room, had a quick change of clothes and joined us on the trip. We bought a pizza from the island's grocery store before we boarded the ferry.
Upon reaching the dock at Mackinaw City, Huijun and Maurine walked briskly w/o informing us exactly where they were heading to. At one point we lost track of them cos they ran too far ahead of us. It turned out that they wanted to capture shots of the sunset from the bridge and the sunset was fast approaching.
In the meantime, the rest of us spotted a bar selling 12-inch pizza for 5USD. We went in and ordered one while waiting for them to return. After they returned, we finished both pizzas before Sam, Alex and I went to a convenience store to buy some beer and chips for the night.
We checked into Best Western Hotel - our accomodation for the night. Initially we wanted to save on the cost by booking only 1 room although it can only have 4 legal occupants. We even tried to walk in separate groups into the hotel vicinity but was discovered by the staff. In the end we got 2 rooms - 1 for the guys & 1 for the gals.
spotted a few Harleys in the hotel's carpark
We were so glad to check into our rooms as it was freezingly cold outside with the strong winds. The room was quite spacious and well equipped, much to our delight. We took turns to wash up then played some card games until late into the night.
The next morning, all of us woke up and went to eat ate the complimentary breakfast after washing up. We took a short walk to where Shepler's dock is located to wait for the 9.45am shuttle bus to Walmart in Cheboygan.
it was seriously cold out there!
After an approximately 30-min ride, we finally reached Walmart and started our shopping spree.
Spongebob-inspired products, 'Congrats Class of 2009' paper bag & strawberry milkshake oreo
sunglasses galore & PCK-inspired outfits!
act suspicious?!
look carefully, one pint of B&J ice-cream for only 3USD!
Coke plus - Coke with vitamins and minerals
I bought a pair of sunglasses, a bottle of shampoo and two tubes of toothpaste. The rest which are mainly foodstuffs and detergent were shared by Alex and me. Sam and Stella stayed behind as they weren't done with their shopping yet. The rest of us took the 1.15pm shuttle bus and left Cheboygan for Mackinaw City. As there wasn't much choice of dining outlets, we settled for KFC - 16pc chicken with 4 boxes of potato wedges and Popeyes-style biscuits. The 7 of us finished 3 pints of B&J ice-cream too! Delicious!
After the heavy meal we walked around the shops in Mackinaw Crossings.
Mackinaw Outfitters, which sells outdoor lifestyle products, was our first stop
We took the 4pm Star Line ferry back to Mackinac Island
Xuemin finally bought herself a red 'Mackinac Island' sweater at the clothing store after much persuasion from us. I wanted to get one too but couldn't find the design I wanted. Alex and I reached back at our rooms around 5plus. We skipped dinner as we weren't hungry yet and napped for a few hours instead. We then went to the cafe to eat cup noodles (courtesy of Xuemin) together with Vivek and Xuemin at 9plus and used our laptops.
