Michigan, October 2011

This weekend we headed up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to see some of Allan's family and get in some hiking (or more to the point, walking). Allan's family house is EIGHT hours away. The good news is that this trip, we made it up and back with no major delays either way. It is the first time that I have not been ready to kill Allan after one leg of the trip.

We got in late Friday night (after 11) and saw this..... apparently there had been a giant windstorm right before we arrived and a huge tree fell over the road. The good news about the UP is that there always seem to be guys around with pickup trucks, chains and chainsaws. The delay was less than 30 minutes and we got to the house and fell into bed, twin beds.....Lucy and Desi style!:)


After breakfast the next morning, we headed out to Mountain Stream Falls. The wind had blown down lots of trees so we had to do some of off roading to get there.


When we got there, we sat for awhile and ate lunch. I needed a break after the hike. Apparently, these falls are in the top 10 most beautiful waterfalls in Michigan. Did I take a picture? iroll


We walked down via the road (I could not have made it back by the trail) and headed back to the house where we took a nap and rested up for family dinner! Again, we fell into bed but had trouble sleeping because it was HOT!!? When it is in the upper 70's in northern Michigan in October, there is really no other evidence needed for climate change in my book.

Sunday we were up fairly early and then headed out as a family to "the narrows" via row boat. This was Allan's mom's favorite fishing spot and she had wanted it to be the place where we scattered her ashes. I am glad that we were able to respect her wishes. We then headed out for a hike around a lake (or walked 30 minutes or so an then turned around). Again, the weather was beautiful: sunny, warm, with beautiful leaves. The UP really is a beautiful place.

We headed out by 12:00 and were home by 8:30! Yeah! Weekend!

Labor Day Weekend, 2011

Spent the weekend in St. Joe's (Michigan) with friends. It was a fairly low key weekend. I drove up with River on Friday afternoon and AC joined up by train after work. I was happy to miss traffic and it worked out well. Friday night, we had pizza at Silver Beach Pizza, located in the train station at St. Joe's. Highly recommended and VERY yummy.

http://silverbeachpizza.com/

Although some of the people stayed up late on Friday drinking and making merry, as an old pregnant lady, I crashed early and hard. Honestly, I don't miss drinking and carousing. I AM getting old!:)

We were up fairly early on Saturday and D made an awesome breakfast. We loaded the car up with dogs and humans to head to Grand Mere State Park (about 10 minutes away). We had heard it was about a mile walk to the beach (which was dog friendly). The walk was a paved trail through the woods with a last 10-15 minutes of climbing over sand dunes. I had to go sloooooww but made it! The beach was very nice, not crowded. Dog and family friendly. As normal, River avoided the water - stupid webbed footed dog!

After a nap and a late dinner at Clementine's Too http://ohmydarling.com/. It was clearly a family run old school place. The boys ate steak. I had a baked potato. We joined up with friends at the St. Joseph's Royal Yacht Club and tried to stay dry on a rainy evening. I knew A wanted to go to the Casino and offered, but he said no thanks. Again, back to the house not so late, followed by a hard crash into bed.

Sunday started with another fabulous breakfast, a nap, a walk with one of the other ladies at the house (or a drag as I called it). It was good to walk with someone who kept me out walking longer (and faster) than I would have myself. I'd pretty much stopped working out/exercising since I have felt so crappy, but am getting back into it now:).

Sunday ended up with a home cooked steak dinner, corn on the cob, tomato salad and a quick drive into town to see fireworks. We narrowly avoided a rain storm on the way home and crashed early.

Monday was up early again. We set off, it the outlets on the way home and hit NO TRAFFIC. A low key weekend but nice none the less!