Unexpected Jetset Lifestyle

After hauling home from the show last Sunday, I finally made it home to sleep in my own bed. But before I could do that, I had to unpack, do laundry, and repack. But this time it wasn't for a horse show, on Monday morning, I flew out to Tucson, Arizona to stay at a ridiculous resort through last Friday. 

It was so weird to be at a place like this!

How freaking weird life has been the last two weeks as I've shown at a hunter show and then stayed at a resort (???). I am not a resort person, I am a camping person or a cheap airbnb person. But my family was all going to the resort for a somewhat distant family member's birthday and at the last minute I decided to go. 

Initially I had not wanted to go because I felt weird asking about yet another working-from-not-at-home-or-office week after they were so kind to give me DTO to go to Kentucky and then say sure about going to the horse show. I was also not entirely enthused about person being celebrated, but that's family drama for a different kind of blog (I do not have a secret family drama blog, but maybe I should?? Is that a thing? If so I want to follow other peoples' family drama blogs, please send them to me). We are also replacing the roof and so the SO wasn't going to be able to go anyway. 

Insanity

It was really cool to be there

One of the pool areas

Buuuut at the horse show I realized how much I missed my niece after seeing all these adorable kids on ponies (since without going on this trip it'd be a solid month between seeing her given their and my schedules) AND I realized that working from not-home and not-office was actually super doable and easy and no one at my job actually cared. My company has a Work From Anywhere policy and I was about to flex that shit for two weeks. 

Impulsively, I booked tickets and my SIL figured out a room situation for me. And then on Monday I got on a plane with my work stuff and a very differently packed suitcase. 

Seeing myself not in riding clothes
is always a trip lol

Breakfast

Hiking with the birders lol

It was a crazy weird week! Every morning I'd go down to either the Starbucks in the resort or one of the restaurants for breakfast. Then I'd either go on a hike, swim, or just hang out with the family before work. When I had to work, I did so on a lounge chair by the pool, or on the beautiful patio, or in a cabana, or up in the room when it was too hot to work outside. 

In between meetings and working, I would play with my niece, swim in the pool, float down the lazy river, or go on a walk. I booked a massage at the same time my SIL did, so we got to spend time in the spa and hang out. My dad and I also took an afternoon to drive out to the National Park! 

Work from pool

Work from patio

It was SO MUCH FUN to hang out with my niece so many days in a row. I'm turning into the kind of aunt who brings her things all the time so when I told her I had something for her, she was excited but seemed unsurprised. Sure enough, one by one, I pulled out a small figurine of each of her ponies at the ranch. I had found them at a Tractor Supply in Paso Robles at the horse show and figured they looked enough like the ranch ponies to get her obsessed with them. I was correct. She spent all week carrying them around and talking about them. Every morning her first words were something like "I'm gonna ride TC when I'm a big girl" or "Riot!" or "Sunny horse is a palomino" 

She even bonked her head really good and when my brother grabbed her to whisk her away, she SCREAMED and we thought she'd really hurt herself. But no, the screaming was exclusively "MY PONIES MY PONIES" and he had to bring her back to get them. 

On the night of said birthday party, I babysat her in my room so that my brother and SIL could enjoy themselves and I could get some space from someone I've deemed unhealthy to have in my life. We watched Frozen and I let her cut her own fruit with a knife... I never said I was a good babysitter. But she survived given that it was a plastic knife and she mostly used the handle to cut the fruit. It was fun to sit with her and actually really fun to watch Frozen again while I blogged about the horse show. 

PONIES!

It was actually really pretty there

It was such a great week to spend with my family. Getting home was a bit of a nightmare, but I did finally get myself home on Friday evening and then spent a pony filled weekend with my horses before going back to work on Monday! It was no fun to miss out on riding TC for ten days, but I am glad that I got to have two really fun and out of the ordinary weeks doing things that I love to do! 

Kentucky 2022 - Show Jumping & Shopping

The last day of the event was really great. We woke up late-ish and I had actually gotten enough sleep and a good amount of sleep, so I felt pretty good, or would have if my entire body wasn’t sore from the day before! I’m definitely getting myself fitter (and not having a hip injury) the next time I go to this event. 

Seats for show jumping also thanks to Nicole!

We first went to the Correct Connect booth in the trade fair because I’d seen a jump strap I wanted. I’ve never really used one, but I want to get used to using it and figured it’d also be helpful for my niece learning to ride too. While holding the jump strap, I saw that they made super cute breeches in a very light fabric. And so I walked out with a jump strap, and two pairs of breeches, and two shirts to match. I also got a free halter, but it’s gold and brown, which are the opposite of my colors, so I’ll probably donate that. 

We walked around for a bit, but I didn’t find anything else to buy. I did talk to the Free Jump stirrup people but ultimately didn’t buy stirrups for my niece on this trip. She doesn’t need them until she wants to ride by herself and I think we are at least three months out from that. She’s also very little so if I’m going with a safety stirrup, I want something that is actually going to break away if she falls. I think she’s too little for the Free Jump stirrups to actually work. But it was good to learn about them! 

I also had to get this shirt, I love the
color and the fabric was very cool

I legit tried to spend money, I did! I
wanted to buy these boots for schooling
but Ariat does not think that tall
calves go with small feet

When show jumping was an hour out, we went to get lunch and then find our seats. What a fun experience it was to be there in person! We watched the early rounds, learning how the course was riding, but then once we were in the top six or seven, it got super serious. The crowd was silent except for some gasping after tough distances, groaning when a rail came down, and clapping after the insane combination and the entire round. 

There was one option to either make a couple of tight turns to one jump, or to go around over another. It was interesting to see who decided to do what. 

Michael Jung won the event of course. What I didn’t know at the time was that this was his fourth win at Kentucky, which is a record for the event, and it was the lowest score ever won at a five star, making it a world record. How incredible. The man is the best rider in the world, there’s just no doubt. It was so amazing to be there to see him ride in person. 

What a horse, seriously

At the end of the day, I snagged a couple of saddle pads from Smartpak that were on sale and we walked around the property. We ended up seeing fischerChipmunk getting unpacked and hosed off as we walked by. What a cool horse! He was yawning and relaxing as his people fawned over him. 

On Monday, we went to see a thoroughbred breeding farm to see some baby horses. That was super fun! We also went to the museum of the horse at the Horse Park, which was also great. Soon though, it was time to drop Nicole and I off at the airport so that we could fly home and get back to work. And then we were on our respective planes and I was back in California in the very similar weather. 

Look at the little baby! This one warmed
up to us quickly for some scratches

The farms out in Lexington are also unreal!

I’m SO glad I went to Kentucky. It was such a blast to be able to go for the first time ever. It made me so grateful for my new job that allowed me to go so early in my tenure there and for my friends, most of whom agreed to go with me when I announced that I was GOING this year and wanted them to come with me. And they dealt with my incredibly weird affect while I was struggling with my insomnia, thank you friends! Unfortunately I got home and it got worse, but I'm hoping I have broken it now. 

I am DEFINITELY putting this on the calendar as an annual tradition. Even with some of my shopping decisions, I was way under budget for the trip and am excited to come back as often as I can. What an experience! 

Kentucky 2022 - Cross Country

We woke up fairly early on cross country day so that we could spend the entire day at the horse park. The four star went in the morning and then the five star started just after lunch. 

The classic shot

After declining Jen’s tailgating invitations for years, we finally got to go! We spent the morning there watching the four star from the tailgating spot while we enjoyed Jen’s amazing food. Legitimately it was the best food we had all weekend (we did cook for ourselves a few times, which was also very good, so that’s my advice). 

It was blogger central, which was fun! I finally got to meet some new bloggers after so many years of not meeting anyone in person. As expected, everyone was super nice. My insomnia made it really difficult to interact normally with other humans, but I tried! 

After an amazing lunch, we decided to go to the start (and end) of the course to try to watch every jump. It was kind an out and back course, so we were able to see the first and last jumps and zig zag between the tracks before we ended up at the head of the lake. 

Watching the four star from Jen's tailgating spot,
which I neglected to get a picture of

The jumps are HUGE, obviously, these horses are so incredible. Seeing it in person is other worldly at times, like what even is this place where the grass is green and the jumps are as large as a small house? 

We were lucky to not see anything too scary. The worst we saw was a horse landing a little hard on the ditch and wall and the rider popping off. Horse and rider were totally fine, just an unfortunate moment.

There was a really long hold out on course and we had no idea why. This was the challenge all day. I bet if we had been better at paying attention, we could have figured it out, but it was really hard to hear/pay attention to the announcer. So we were sitting at the Normandy bank wondering what was going on and the longer the hold was, the more nervous we were. Without being afraid of what was happening, it was honestly nice to just sit down and relax, but we were on edge worrying. 

Later on we found out that a horse had fallen in the water and had to be sedated and taken off course. No one knew anything else around us though. Only that afternoon when the day had ended did we finally figure out which horse it was and that the horse was going to be fine (we knew the rider was fine from earlier in the day), so that was good! Still really scary to be out on course and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to see it happen.

All of my pictures were from videos on my phone
if you can't tell lol

I was so impressed when the hold stopped and the horse finally came through our jump, what a jump to be held in front of! But whoever came through was amazing and just popped right through. And then we continued our walk! 

The coffin complex was absolutely amazing to watch, as was the sunken road. We finally saw Boyd Martin and Michael Jung come through when we were at the edge of the course. Seeing both of them up close was pretty cool, different styles of riders but both rode so seamlessly over the fences we saw them at. 

We ended up at the head of the lake watching the last few riders. We moved around a bit to make sure we got to see it from different angles. During that time, a rider ended up causing a jump to collapse, so that was interesting to see! We’d seen one earlier on the 4* course that was being stored collapsed and it’s really amazing technology. Not like I’ll ever jump a jump with frangible tech, but I still love that they’re working hard to make the sport safer. 

These open ramp jumps are pretty scary, yikes

At the end of the day, I was feeling so inspired. I’ve had a rough time with the dressage for the last few years and jumping has been a fun thing to do to take my mind off of it. I wondered whether this weekend would make me want to event more or make me shift my gears toward another sport where the jumps fall down. But after that weekend, I am very confident that I want to make my return to eventing. I sat down that evening and did some calculations on where I needed to get to in my career and how much I needed to save to buy my next horse, who I want to be an eventer. 

I love dressage and I always will. I want to continue to learn and take TC up through the levels. But I want to be in a sport where I don’t have such a sour taste. And for that, eventing is perfect. 

It’ll take me a little while to get to the point where I can buy a horse (since I’m going to want a hefty budget so I can buy something very safe and who is my very specific ride over fences), but I do want to switch disciplines. Or at least, add another discipline! So, two to three years from now, I’ll be in the market for something very specific and hopefully will be gearing up to run my first BN in fifteen years. 

Kentucky 2022 - Dressage

Oh man, I have been wanting to post these posts for this entire week! But work has been so busy. The two days right before I left and the three when I got back were absolute madhouse. I did get some exceptional food for Cinco De Mayo yesterday though and we have today off so I'm spending it with the horses of course. And setting up these posts!

Unfortunately, with work being so busy the couple days before and my insomnia returning with a vengeance last month, most of my weekend in Kentucky was spent in zombie mode. But luckily I took a lot of pictures, so I'm sure I can piece together what happened!

Thursday! L spent the dressage days
seeing thoroughbreds so it was just
the four of us for a couple days

My brother came to pick me up on Wednesday morning because he lives on the other side of the airport and the SO was in meetings all afternoon. It was fun to chat with him on the way to the airport (and tell him that his child is going to be obsessed with eventing one day) and then in no time, I was waiting outside the gate. I grabbed some food and moved myself up in the plane because my flight had been delayed and I was facing a short layover. 

When planning, it had turned out that Nicole and I had booked the same flight from DFW to Lexington, so we chose seats next to each other and she was able to hold the plane for a moment for me to get there! Both myself and my bag did make it to Lexington. 

Proof we made it: ponies were the
first thing we saw when we landed

The coolest part of all of this was landing in Lexington and seeing how horse centric the city is. The Bay Area is essentially the opposite of that, with most of my coworkers being shocked that there are horses anywhere near us. There were advertisements for thoroughbred studs and farms, tons of horse statues and pictures, and signs that said Equine something or other all over the place. 

We got a ride from a very Kentuckian Lyft driver to our AirBnb and met up with L there. Our other friends were driving in from Louisville and by 1am, there were six of us in our cute and quirky AirBnb! 

Insane to see it all in person!

Wednesday night I did sleep better, but that isn't saying much and that plus the jet lag meant that I was an absolute zombie the entire day on Thursday. I have vague memories of wandering around the horse park and also of Peony chatting excitedly with Amanda and Hillary while I tried to stay conscious and took in just enough to realize that I came across as a huge weirdo. Great!

Luckily we didn’t have anything we *had* to do on Thursday, so we hung out in the morning, made some breakfast, and then made our way to the horse park. 

 

Of course we had to go see this guy

I’ve never been to the horse park, but I’ve heard it’s incredible and I can confirm that it’s incredible. We didn’t have seats for dressage on Thursday, so we kind of watched here and there but spent most of the time wandering around shopping. There were tons of tents set up with lots of brands I’d only heard of. 

My goal for the trip was to find a helmet for myself and stirrups for my niece. I want her in safety stirrups since she's a little daredevil (she is already cantering with me double at 2 years old lol her favorite words are "MORE FAST AUNT MIMI") and will probably fall off a lot, but I want to find the tiniest ones I can because she's in like, the 14th percentile in human size and will probably stay that way since her mom is so tiny. Neither of those I ended up finding, oh well. If anyone has any non-peacock safety stirrup recommendations for a tiny person, let me know. I want her to start riding on her own later this summer because my legs are tired from nudging the pony along. 

I came close to buying a OneK but their medium is just the tiniest bit too tight on my head. I love how you can change up the plates though so I was very close to just buying it and seeing if it'd break in a bit. It would have been so fun to have different plates for my different horse sports! The best fit came from a Charles Owen AYR8 Plus, but that’s a $520 helmet and it was not on sale, so not worth buying just to have to bring it home. But it was good to know that it fits, so when I do go to buy a helmet, I will just buy that one.

I did buy a jump strap though!

Thursday night, we ended up ordering food for pick up from a local restaurant, and that, plus the lunch earlier that day which was supposed to be Mediterranean but they offered us BBQ for a sauce, started us off realizing that Kentucky’s food is… it’s fine. It's edible and it's fine. 

On Friday, we did have seats, so we slept in and then headed over to the horse park to watch dressage for real. Thanks to Nicole, we could see the court easily, unobstructed by pillars! We were also protected from the elements, although it was sunny all weekend. 

Seats, courtesy of Nicole, thank you Nicole!!

We saw some of the bigger names go and I was generally really impressed with the dressage. The test looks fun and flows well, with some challenging parts, such as going from an extended canter to a stretchy canter circle (which I do really like, it used to be part of Second level and putting it after an extended canter, amazing, I love it). I definitely want to ride it on TC when we get back to that point. 

Obviously Michael Jung was in first place after dressage, it was a beautiful test. Boyd’s test was also really fabulous to see in person and he did this amazing counter canter circle to come up centerline which I was *obsessed* with, I'm definitely using that when TC and I get to Fourth level. What a brilliant way to enter the court to guarantee you're straight AND that your horse isn't going to go do a line of tempis up the centerline (erm, Rico and I got a lot of 5s on centerlines). Not all show facilities will allow for this around here, but I am determined to enter in counter canter from now on when I can.

There were some less well known riders (I mean, to me most riders are less well known so don't take my word for it) who put in really quality tests with correct basics. No one is perfect of course, but the quality of the basics were seen in the quality of the extensions, stretchy canter, and rein backs, and there were a lot of great basics. 

INSANE and very well deserved score

Smartpak ran a course walk with Boyd Martin, so we did end up going on that and getting to see some of the course. To someone who is jumping solidly BN right now, the jumps looked HUGE. It was cool to hear what he thought about each of the harder parts of the course though. I really like the technical aspect of the sport! 

On Friday, we ended up going out to dinner and continuing our uninspiring tour of Kentucky’s food scene. We did get really good ice cream though! I’ll give Kentucky that, they do unhealthy food really well, which I can definitely appreciate. I think it was that evening that we decided to cook for ourselves from then on. 

Friday night we decided to go to bed relatively early to get up early for cross country day!

Kentucky Bound!

Today I fly out to Kentucky! I'm so excited, it's my first time ever going to this event. I've wanted to go for so long but could never swing it. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog, while there, but I'll definitely try to write about it on the plane on the way back. 

If you're also going and want to hang out, message me on IG or your preferred way of contacting me, I think my email is on this blog somewhere. I'll be there with friends (bloggers and former bloggers mostly) from late tonight until midday Monday! Fair warning, I will likely complain about the weather. 

Woohoo!

Another Weekend Away

Last weekend, we zipped up to another little cabin in the woods! This time, we went to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park, just a couple hours north. This cabin was really cute and way more hotel-like than the one we had at Little Basin last month. There was a kitchenette and a full bathroom! Plus, the bed was more comfortable. And, we were there for two nights instead of one!

We slowly made our way up there on Friday. I went down to the barn that morning to ride TC around bareback and just hang out with him without worrying about work. Then we packed the car and headed out.

View from almost the top of the hike we took 

These Manzanita trees were so cool!

I’ve been telling the SO about this one taco place in the east bay since we met. It’s my favorite place in Northern California even though I’ve only been there a few times. FINALLY we got to go for lunch on our way up there and it did not disappoint. The SO hasn’t had enough good tacos to be obsessed with them like I am, but the three he ate got him a bit closer.

We then drove another hour or so and stopped at the grocery store for some food for the weekend. We didn’t know we’d have anything but a tiny fridge and a microwave, so we mostly grabbed prepared food or things we could microwave.

Finally, we made it up to the cabin and settled in. Luckily, we had phone signal, though we spent a good amount of the time keeping our phones on airplane mode so that we could get away from the constant news cycle. We made ourselves at home, relaxed for a bit, then went on a walk around the campground and out to this really odd little cemetery/nature walk.

Full sized bed with a surprisingly comfortable mattress

Kitchenette (there was a sink to the right of this picture

Tiny, but full bathroom with a shower next to the toilet

Saturday, we had the whole day up there. We decided to sleep in a bit, then head out on a hike after finding out that the visitor center would remain closed the whole time (it's been a little bit of a bummer because I collect magnets from wherever I go, but it just means we have to go back!).

First of all, everyone on the hike was once again really respectful and kind about masks and social distancing. Even on trails where you could stay apart, we put on masks as we passed each other.

The hike was super fun, but the view from the peak wasn't anything too exciting. We actually enjoyed the views from a few other places more, but there was a feeling of accomplishment of making it to the top.

Coming down on a different trail, we must have passed a yellow jacket nest or something because poor SO got stung (for the first time ever! wtf how has he escaped being stung by a bee for so long) and then to my horror, the bee kept landing on each of us, so I'd swat it off and then we'd both run away while he was clutching his finger, which then started to swell.

We made it back just fine (we were luckily about a mile out when he got stung) and he felt better, but we still opted to go into town to both explore and see what we could pick up for the sting.

Starting out on a nice wide road/trail

This was the "view" from the top of the peak

On our way up to the park, we passed through a little town called St Helena, which is really rather adorable. So we headed down there and went to a couple of little shops before they closed.

I've been talking about getting hiking shoes for a long time now. I wore tennis shoes for a long time to hike and now that I have no more tennis shoes, have been wearing my metcons out there (since I don't do CrossFit anymore after not being able to find one suitable for me nearby, maybe when we move this fall, I'll find one!). Those kinds of shoes are so slippery and we do a lot of hiking, so I've been interested in finding something that has a bit more grip and is rather lightweight/breathable.

Sure enough, the first shoes I looked at in the little outdoor sports store were PERFECT. They were lightweight, had great tread, had a boa dial rather than laces, were exactly my size, and the best part: they were 50% off (because the original price would have been *way* too much for me to spend on shoes).

We then went across the street to this cute pharmacy and chatted with the pharmacist about the bee sting, she had some good recommendations and we bought a couple of things that made SO's finger feel much better.

St Helena was rather liberal, lots of BLM signs
and these signs too!

RIP

That evening, we went out with the camera and tried to take some pictures of the night sky but kind of failed, it was our first attempt with the camera, so we need to read up a bit more on that. Still, it was fun to wander around at night.

We then went to sleep and got up the next morning to pack up and head out. We stopped in St Helena for breakfast and to wander around a bit, then leisurely made our way back home. We were home in the middle of the day, which was perfect because we were able to get everything unpacked and relax a bit from the drive before having to work on Monday.

It was such a nice trip! I'm so glad that I impulse reserved all these little cabins for the rest of the year. It gave us something to look forward to at the end of June/early July, and these days there's just not a ton to look forward to. We're already talking about coming back up next year and staying in one of the yurts (my only complaint about the cabin was no fire pit, booo, so the yurt is a good compromise on that front), which sell out more aggressively. But overall, such a fun trip!

No Cars Allowed

Last we left off, I was four days into my reluctant time away from TC. Wednesday morning, we took off toward Mackinac Island, a small island in between the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.

The island has a place in my heart because as a kid, it was the BEST place. It has NO cars on it, just HORSES! They also make amazing fudge. Sugar and horses, definitely my longest two loves of my life.

When we were in Michigan previously, I had wanted to go there, but it's a 2.5 hour drive from where we were staying (the cabin on the lake) and it's not really a day trip kind of place unless you're closer, as it requires you to ferry over to the island and ferry back. This time, I was excited to be able to go.

The Fort

The Grand Hotel

We got there midday on Wednesday and after checking in at our really cute suite/condo/bungalow place, opted to eat a late lunch (or for me, a very late breakfast) right away. It was delicious, though this was the moment I began REALLY missing ethnic food, or just any kind of food with spices.

From there, I stopped by a fudge shop because you JUST can't not. My family and I stood waiting for our carriage tour, eating fudge and chatting about the horses.

The carriage tour was AMAZING! Highly recommended, it was absolutely beautiful. We went through town a bit and learned about the history, then headed up past the Grand Hotel and to the Butterfly Conservatory. When we got up to the conservatory, they let us off to wander around a bit before we got on another carriage (they do this to make sure the horses aren't overworked). There was a cute little spot there to wander around, so we got off the carriage and wandered. They had some information about the horses, mostly their enormous shoes, which was interesting. My mom told me that they were TC sized, they were not.

Once back on a new carriage, we went into the woods and saw a few interesting historical places (skull rock, arch rock, some cemeteries, and Fort Mackinac) before arriving back at town.

Carriage tour horses (not ours though)

The drivers talked a lot about the horses and horse care, as it's a common question. Apparently most horses only work the summer months because there's not much going on in the winter. There are 500+ horses on the island in the summers and only about 20 on the island in the winter (because there are people who live there year round and they need to get around/get deliveries/etc). The horses don't work a ton, maybe one or two hours each day total and they live in stalls with group pasture turnout when on the island and they live in large pastures when off the island. It's easier to bring the horses to the food vs bring the food to the horses in the winter. The drivers are in charge of their horse care, our first driver had four horses (two pairs) that were "hers" to care for. So it's nice that they get to have consistent people working with them, all handlers are professionally trained.

I was impressed with the horses in a few ways. First, they were all in good weight and had pretty good muscle on them for horses who pull carts at a walk all the time. Their farrier care mostly looked good (one of them that I saw was a bit long and one had a loose shoe but other than that) and while they were sweaty and occasionally breathing hard, my horse is also sweaty and occasionally breathes hard. Apparently many of the horses stay in work on the island until their mid-20s! But they are always retired when they let their people know they're done working.

I was also beyond impressed with their tolerance. There are bikes EVERYWHERE, people yelling and running (in addition to there just being so many people there), the Fort has cannon/gunfire at least three times a day, and the ferries are pretty loud too. TC would definitely be skeptical of at least the cannon/gunfire and ferries, and I consider him pretty unflappable outside the arena.

Carriage in the gardens of the Grand Hotel

Such sweet ponies

I definitely looked up a lot about horses on the island during some down time. Apparently there is an equestrian center outside of the tourism area, you can board your horse there for $60/night, there's an outdoor arena and a round pen. It costs about $200 per horse to get the horse onto the island, you drive your trailer directly onto a ferry and unload the horse in the ferry (when it's docked), tack them up, and ride them to the equestrian center. I'm pretty sure there's a separate dock for that (we saw it on our bike ride, much quieter than the one on Main st). There are 60+ miles of trails on the island and they looked beautiful, I'd love to teleport TC over to the island and ride him on those trails.

If you can't bring your own horse, you can lease a horse for an absurd amount of money if it's a monthly rate. It's $2,000 to lease (again not sure if that's for the entire summer or per month) and you get 14 hours a week with the horse that you have to arrange with the people in charge.

Or, if you're just visiting, I saw that there were horses for rent for $50/hour. You can just take them off by yourself. I think they require you to go on a guided ride if you've never been near an animal bigger than a dog, but I for sure could have just taken a horse and wandered around on the trails, and I was tempted to do this but it's expensive and I have my own horse at home. It felt like I was driving past a restaurant trying to convince myself that I HAVE FOOD AT HOME. I mayyyy have mentioned to my family that it'd be nice to ride so that I could practice what I had learned in my lesson before I left.

Delivery horses

Heading up our street in the taxi

Wednesday night ended with a quick bite to eat at a bar and then wandering around on Main St in the evening after all of the day-time tourists left. Staying on the island is definitely a bit pricier than not (there was no cost to stay in MQT because we stayed with extended family, so it was easier to justify the two nights on Mackinac), but it was totally worth it IMO. The evenings and early mornings are beautiful and quiet.

On Thursday morning, first on our list after breakfast was renting bikes (way cheaper than horses) and biking around the island. It's an 8.2 mile loop and it's pretty much all paved and flat. It was SO much fun. I think it was really good for me to have a kind of exhausting day, I didn't feel nearly as stir crazy by the end of the day. It was also just such a fun bike ride. It was right along the coast and while there were plenty of other cyclists and hikers (er, walkers), there was no cars! There were conveniently placed viewing areas and stops so we never really got tired or even out of breath.

The one selfie that managed to come out okay!

My bike for the day, I loved it and wanted to take it home but
uh, my neighborhood isn't safe enough to ride around in

Stepped off the bike to hike around this little nature preserve

At the end of that, we returned the bikes and took a taxi (carriage) up to the Grand Hotel. This is NOT my kind of place, it's very ritzy (we had to pay ten dollars to get inside just to look around) and IMO very gaudy. I was not about it, but it was a cool experience to do once and never do again. We got to wander around in the gardens and then stopped at the ice cream shop just outside to get some ice cream before walking up to Fort Mackinac, which was way more my speed.

The Fort was SO COOL, there was a museum on sight and you could go into all sorts of restored rooms, like a school house, the barracks, and so on. We saw both a cannon demonstration and a rifle demonstration from guys dressed as soldiers from the 1800s.

The Grand Hotel, not my jam

Very fort-like with the walls

Lots of stairs, the barracks are on the left here

That evening, we went to dinner and headed to bed a bit early for an early morning ferry ride back to the car, which we then drove back to Marquette to fly home. I really appreciated an entire day of travelling as it allowed me to read, do my crossword, and play video games on my computer - a bit of a vacation from vacation.

Then this weekend it was back to real life with riding, teaching (I have two new clients, wee), and all the chores I needed to do in order to unpack and get everything ready for the week.

I don't travel a ton (and honestly wouldn't travel at all if it weren't for my family's persuasiveness, all my money => TC basically) but I am so grateful for my family who encourages me to attend these vacations and get away. After six months of being back in the bay area, I'm still working on acquiring enough work where I am not financially stressed, but not so much work that I'm stressed because of lack of sleep/free time. I was definitely on the latter side (hence all my lessons, I love it! But I was losing it mentally by mid July) before we left and I feel so excited to get back to it. Nothing like a wonderful vacation to make you realize how much you love your life at home.