Island Time

The last time I took a girls' trip was . . . never! After high school, my group of friends swore we'd do a cruise when we turned 40. Then a few of them got married late and had toddlers when we were 40, so that didn't happen. My local group of friends would often talk about going somewhere, but there was a lack of leadership, so to speak.

Finally, last spring, someone stepped up to the plate (not me!) and did all the planning. I felt bad for her, because I knew there'd be the issue of getting people to commit in order to reserve hotel rooms. So, what started out as a dozen people saying they wanted to go, dwindled down to five of us.

Frankly, I was okay with that. When it comes to women, my personal opinion is that the more is not always the merrier. Get a group of women together and attempt to make a decision about anything and it will be all discussion and no action. I honestly don't have the patience for it, love them as I do.

But yes, five was a good number. We left at 7:30 a.m., bound for an island in Lake Erie in July. This involved driving close to two hours to a port, boarding a boat, and then another half hour to South Bass Island. This isn't a place you want to visit on the weekend, as it is overrun by bachelor/bachelorette parties and drunken boaters. However, mid-week wasn't so bad and a good time was had by all. Here are some pictures (some mine, some pulled off internet) from the trip:

On the boat ride in, you can see this 'house.' The island has everything from dilapidated shacks to multi-million dollar homes.

 After dropping off our luggage at the 'resort' (I use that term loosely), we stopped for a drink at one of the many outdoor bars . The bartender was a bit of a wack job/flirt and kept trying to give us free shots and telling us to come back later. I stuck with my Bud Light with Lime as I didn't want to get sick (11 am), nor encourage the madness. Some of my friends don't know any better. Then it was off to the Boardwalk for lunch.

 

 

This was the view from our table. I had a shrimp basket, something I haven't had since I was a kid. Delicious!

 

The rest of the day was a lot of this! Driving a golf cart all over the island. This was something new for me and was rather quite fun and relaxing, especially when you are not the driver! We spent a lot of time just driving around the side streets, admiring the homes, big and small, and the beautiful flowers that grace so many of the properties.

 

 Because we're weird, we stopped at the two old cemeteries on the island. This was the most unique tombstone that we saw that day.

Another stop was the German-themed winery. The wine was terrible and there was nothing German about it.

 

After a lot of tooling around all day, we stopped at The Keys, another outdoor bar (you get the theme of this island, right?) I had a delicious pina colada and pretended I was in the real Keys.

 

We ate dinner at an outdoor restaurant that featured a band and this guy. A woman celebrating her 40th birthday rode the bull. It was not a pretty sight.

After more riding around, we headed to the island's main attraction, the Perry Monument. It honors those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. We watched the sunset from the lawn of the memorial.

 

Then it was on to the Beer Barrel Saloon, home of the longest bar in the world. I did not understand how that was possible until I saw it. It just wraps around and around and around.

 

We stayed for the main atraction, a band called Mustang Sally. The lead singer is the woman with the hair in the middle. They mostly played country music, which I don't care for, but they were quite talented and I think I saw just about every instrument played that night except for a clarinet! 

The next morning, I took a peaceful walk around the island with one of my friends. After breakfast, we all headed back to the ferry for the trip home.