Island Getaway, Part Two

Friday morning, the big, but also quietly observed, birthday! We'd evaluated the whole ferry back and forth thing ($42 round trip) and decided to spend one day wholly on the island and today was to be it. Stepping out our front door in the morning, I saw these two neighbors, crossing the road:


Our main 'activity' of the day was to be to drive around the island, just so we could say we drove all around it. We saw (but didn't enter) the State Park and a little further on found the 'city park'. We stopped and found a very lovely beach, and better yet a huge, I mean really huge pine tree under which we spread our blanket and read for quite awhile. This photo really doesn't do justice to the hugeness of this tree:
We also watched people snorkeling and beachcombing.















We found this little seat made of stone which made a good photo spot:


A surprising lot of the island is served by gravel roads, and also surprising is the amount of property for sale on the island. It must take a special breed of people to want to build/live there, especially year-round.





We made our way back to La Pointe where we ate lunch at sort of self-service kind of cafe and had two of the most picture perfect veggie burgers we'd ever seen:












Then it was back 'home' for more reading, etc. and later beers and Russian Bank an the picnic table:

The beers (and a few other provisions) we acquired at the 'Island Market' which was one of the most idiosyncratically stocked country stores we've ever seen. Gourmet cheeses, charcoal ($7.50/bag), NY Times, individual Lipton tea bags (which I had to buy, having forgotten to bring tea) fresh fruit, used books, frozen bread, meat and booze galore (of course) and basically everything you'd want (for a price). Here was also our first encounter with that slightly crusty tourist/local friction which seemed to permeate the whole town. The feeling that they were dependent on our presence for their existence but resented it nonetheless.

Anyway, just another note about the cabin/house where we stayed; we really appreciated many of the little touches we found when we looked closely. Here are a few of them, including a note taped to the door which we never did quite figure out. Any theories as to what it might mean would be appreciated!