Visiting, Fiber Fairs, Fleeces, Bottle Trees, Racing and Chickens

So just to recap my visit to Charlevoix:  my cousin, Cheryl, came along with me to visit our Aunt Marge and cousins who live in Charlevoix.  We stayed at the Bellaire Bed and Breakfast- See pictures below- which we love.  We shopped in Alden and Elk Rapids on Thursday.  The yarn store in Elk Rapids had closed early because it was "too hot".  I'd say more than half of the businesses didn't have AC up there and it was in the 90's.
Thursday night we ate at Moka in Bellaire (great).  Friday we met Aunt Marge and cousin Ellie at Garfield's in Petosky.  We had a great visit before Ellie had to head off to work.  She loved her gloves (see pictures below).  Cheryl and I took Aunt Marge home and stayed to visit for awhile.  Couldn't reach the other cousins so we went back to Bellaire, walked downtown (sneaked across a bridge under construction that we probably weren't supposed to be on) and had dinner at Lulu's.  Saturday we headed off to the Fiber Fair at Castle Farms.  Really nice selection of vendors.  Lots of rug hooking and wool fabric (Jeanie).  I bought an 8 lb black Bond fleece from Big Hand Farm.  A real beauty.  We decided to try to get it to Zeilenger's for processing on the way home.  While we were racing to Frankenmuth, we saw a yard with two huge bottle trees in it which reminded me of the ones in Karen's book, Act of Grace.  We rode into Frankenmuth on gas fumes, only to be slowed down at the last minute by an Amish-looking carriage carrying tourists.  As we maneuvered around the carriage, an American Indian in full buckskin wearing a headband with a feather in the back also crossed our path.  Shouldn't that be some kind of omen?  The lady at Zeilinger's agreed the fleece was beautiful but thought I paid a lot at $10/lb.  Oh, well.  I love it anyway.  They are really backed up and the fleece won't be ready for at least 3 months.  They have a great reputation so that doesn't bother me. I probably won't be ready to spin it til then so I'm just glad I'm not processing an 8 lb fleece myself!! Had a big chicken dinner at Zehnders.  Listened to a couple of Cast-On podcasts on the way home.  One with the Free Mending Library guy on.  Reap What You Sew.  That was a great episode.  Glad to be home