Stonington

Friday in the UP is behind us.  It's 6:45 in the morning on Saturday as I start to write this, and I'm trying not to listen to the noise of the lobby and coffee shop right around the corner from our suite.  It hasn't woken me up during our stay here, but it's a lot to have to hear early in the morning.  If only this hotel had a doorway to close between the lobby and this wing of rooms.  Oh wait, they do.  Sigh.  I've already written a bad review on TripAdvisor and will argue with Conrad if he considers staying here again.  And yes, I did talk to them about this two days ago when it first happened.  So much for customer feedback, right?

Enough of that, though, Peter (and no, I'm not naming the hotel, but if you ever come up to Conrad's hometown, ask me where NOT to stay, and I will tell you). Let's get back to yesterday.

Two days ago we had grand ambitions of a drive over to St. Ignace and the ferry to Mackinac Island.  By yesterday morning, that had downgraded significantly.  We had breakfast with Karen at a new place in town (generous portions for the most part, but my breakfast burrito was mostly potato instead of egg) (I swear, this post is not just a litany of complaints), then spent time in the room doing some paperwork things that needed to be done.  It was after 1:00 when Conrad and I finally got ourselves going for a drive.  Mackinac Island?  Nope.  The Stonington Peninsula.

Yeah, not very ambitious.  A drive to a lighthouse at Peninsula Point. 

A nice drive, mind you, and the lighthouse was a lovely little setting. 

Everything so green there.  We were able to climb up the stairs inside the lighthouse

and take in the views from there. 

Lovely.  Back in the car, we headed through the tunnel of trees to the paved road, then past fields and occasional houses.  There was something about the green space that invited, and it would have been fantastic to stroll or run through those places.  Alas, aside from most of it being private land, I can only imagine what sort of ticks a person could pick up among those tall grasses and such!

We left the Stonington Peninsula behind us and meandered through the nearby communities, admiring some of the homes and gardens that we rolled past.  We headed on into Escanaba and picked up a few things needed for a night-in in the hotel room.  Once back at the hotel, we headed to the bar for a happy hour drink.  We've been enjoying the Mammoth Gin, a Michigan brand, and for all that we have had issues with the hotel, the bar has had good service and good drinks.  Credit to them for the terrific martinis. 

It's clear from the crowds at the bar when it opens at 4:30 that flood on in that they're keeping folks happy.

We came back to the room and began our grazing for the evening.  Veggies and dip, then a nice assortment of meats and cheeses with almonds and biscuits.  A good wine to go with it. 

Re-watching season one of The Crown on Netflix.  Eventually reading with music.  Little fuss, just us having that easy time together to end our last night in the UP for this trip.  A nice day for a drive, a nice evening, and the promise of being that much closer to being home.

one goal

Conrad and I learned years back that we can travel well together. Though our friends tease us about our propensity for planning things well in advance, in fact, we don't do a lot more planning than booking necessities: transport, hotel, some restaurant reservations. Instead, when on holiday, we tend to take this approach:

• Set one goal for the day.
• Do anything else that comes along, so long as you can still reach that goal.

Case in point: 5 years back (wow, THAT long ago!), we spent two weeks in Spain. One day, in Granada (now there's a place to revisit!), we decided to drive down to the Mediterranean coast, about an hour away. En route, we let ourselves detour into Las Alpujarras, the mountain villages, and it wasn't until, oh, sunset, that we made it to the seashore. And yet, ask us about the best day on that vacation, and we will likely both point to that day of wandering through the little whitewashed villages.

Anyway, on to New Zealand where we took a similar set a goal and do everything else en route approach - for the most part. The day that we left Dion and Minna behind in Queenstown largely fit that.

Another thing about us: we love maps. We love to look at them and trace our routes and speculate and just admire the craft that goes into them. So it was that we found ourselves considering various routes to and through The Catlins, in the far southeast of the country. Sparsely populated, scenic. Oh, and home to the southernmost point on the South Island. When Conrad caught sight of that, it became (other than reaching our B&B) the goal for the day.

Here's how we went about it:

• Drive south, avoiding Invercargill and hitting the coast at Fortrose. Stop for a snack.




• Take photos of wind-sculpted trees.


• Park with the other vehicles by a paddock and walk through the pasture to Slope Point. Take photos. Check the goal off the list.





• Take more photos of trees.


• Stop at Curio Bay to see the ancient petrified forest remains.



• Stop for another snack, this time at Niagara Falls. Bluff oysters, in season and fried in batter.


• Find the falls, snicker at the joke.



• Stop to admire a bigger waterfall: Purakaunui.



• Get to the B&B, take the owners up on the offer of a pre-dinner drive over paddocks to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.



• Follow the owners' advice on visiting a cove to see the yellow-eyed penguins - and sea lions (we think).






• Enjoy a good and very generous dinner of venison at the B&B, washing it down with a bottle of Devil's Staircase Pinot Noir picked up two days before.


• Sleep well.

Not too bad, hmmm?

The next day our goal was to get to Dunedin Airport in time for a flight to Christchurch connecting to a flight to Auckland. Easy enough. Conrad and I had some good conversation with Helen-May over breakfast, said good-bye to her and her husband, Alan, then headed up the coast. On their advice, we veered off to see the lighthouse at Nugget Point. Sound advice: the fog rolled over the hills and humps and rocks,





clearing to give us a lovely view of the Nuggets and of the seal and sea lion colonies far below.
We made it to Dunedin in good time but with the additional memory of the sights along the way.

This is the point in the blog entry where if I haven't recommended a business enough, I will. We did a lot of hunting around the Web to settle on a Catlins accommodation before choosing the Greenwood Farmstay,
and we realize we shortchanged ourselves on its hospitality and on the Catlins itself by limiting ourselves to one sole night. Foolish us. We utterly recommend Helen-May and Alan and their B&B, and we suggest not rushing through the area, even if you have only one goal in mind.