Back on Walloon

August for me is a calming time of self gathering and contemplation. It's the time of year when the garden work is done and the most beautiful flowers are blooming, the most delicious foods ripening. The beginning of the month is also one of the hottest times of the year and as such has historically sent many a family headed to cooler, more relaxing climes. I remember Jon's dad once referring to the Zilwaukee Bridge as the place where, when headed north, he leaves all of his worries behind. Although for me that drop point is probably farther north, in Westbranch, I completely understand the sentiment, and for the past week my worries have lived in Westbranch while we took in the turquoise waters of Walloon Lake.

Saturday saw us up bright and early, headed for north of the forty-five, our spirits weighted only by concern for what we may or may not have forgotten. Good thing they have a Meijer up there now. One thing we didn't leave behind? The caterpillars. By the time we left only one of them had strung himself to a branch and was preparing to go into chrysalis mode.

We arrived in time to share in the beautiful sunshine and warm water (78 degrees!) with my cousin's family before they headed back south. It's hard to believe that thirty years ago we were those little kids, our parents were the "kids" and our grandparents were the parents. 

Two kids in a hammock. I think our grandparents would have loved to see this.

Sunday dawned bright and windy. Did I say windy? I mean batten down the hatches kind of windy. The sun was warm, the water was warm, the wind was windy.

The caterpillars were happy. And just look at the color of that lake.

Wind just means having to work up a sweat before getting in the water, for whatever that's worth when you go to get out and you're wet all over.

Look at that churned up water.

Monday was sunny and windy and slightly less warm and we headed to Charlevoix for some entertainment and some smoked fish. Because you can't go north without enjoying smoked fish and smoked fish dip.

Tuesday, after breakfast in Petoskey, we spent the morning on the farm of an old friend (of Gram's) who was kind enough to invite Calvin for the morning chores. We met pigs, fed chickens and collected eggs, drove out to count cattle (who were elusive in the woods, of all places), and bottle fed a calf.

Wednesday dawned bright but chilly, so half the crowd headed to town for Pirate's Cove golf.

But it turned warm and sweet by early afternoon and we ended the day in the beautiful lake as the sun dropped lower and lower in the sky.

Thursday, after breakfast in town, we were lucky enough to meet Ada, the newest member of our extended family, who was born to Polly and Justin just the day before. I can certainly say she's a beautiful baby. I can also certainly say that Calvin was glad to be leaving her there.

Calvin seemed to greatly prefer these babies, which we passed on the way home, to the human one.

Thursday afternoon was almost as beautiful as Wednesday afternoon and we spent the time relaxing on the dock and in the water, but ended the day in town at the aptly named Sunset Park. Every year, it must be done.

 Friday morning I took my coffee out on the dock and watched the storms rolling in, by, and beyond.

With weather like that predicted all day we headed into Mackinaw City for fried fish at the Key Hole and fudge from Murdick's (what you don't know is that we'd gotten fudge in Charlevoix, too...)

And would you believe, by the time we got back to the lake the sun was shining and the storms were blowing just north of us, close enough that we could visually enjoy the line of contrast between the storming clouds just north of the lake, and the wisps of vapor sporadically obscuring the sun shining over us.

What a beautiful afternoon with which to bring up the rear of our vacation week.

And the storm that came after we were already inside for the night was like a final farewell, a reminder of the baggage waiting in Westbranch for pickup on our way back down.

We don't give in easily, though, so on our way home we made a stop at the Huckleberry Railroad for one last bit of vacation (the touristy kind), but that's for another post.

There's another 44 pictures from throughout our week at the Lake in the Walloon Lake 2010 photo album. Enjoy. We did.

Camping, a dry run

I camped with my family when I was little and have fond memories of the experience. The Girl Scouts often got me out and about, too, and then in high school I camped several times with friends. That, however, is the extent of our camping knowledge, but we have friends who have also enjoyed camping in the past (with far more experience between them) and our sense of adventure got the better of us, so this weekend, on a day's notice, we packed up and headed over to Irish Hills to camp for one night in the state park there. The event was an unqualified success.

There was a lot of teamwork setting up tents.

And then we were hot and tired enough to have to go swimming.

Then more setting up—a fire and lanterns, water for dinner, food stuffs, yadda yadda. A one night dry run was probably a good idea, but I'm not sure I'd ever plan to camp for just one night again.

Mmmm...campfire food.

Scavenger hunt in the woods.

Roasting mallows for s'mores by the fire.

Playing card games with four year olds is a whole different animal.

Bedtime story by the fire. Thankfully Curious George is the only one who got sprayed by a skunk.

The biggest success of the trip? The Stanley Thermos we got for Christmas. We made coffee before leaving home on Saturday, around 11am, and poured into the preheated thermos. On Sunday at 7:30am the coffee was still hot enough to enjoy.

And yes, by the way, that is Calvin peaking out from behind a tent room divider. We had a three room tent for the night. This was new to me. Also new was the existence of electrical outlets (several of them) at each and every campsite, and the rampant use of them throughout the camp. Aside from the apparently popular trend of stringing your tent or RV with gaudy novelty lights (so, as my dad says, you can find your own site when you're stumbling in drunk at 3am), there was even a site with a flood light trained on an American flag all night. Camping. It's not what it used to be.

But we got a good night's sleep, and had just as many helpers the next day to take the site down.

Then we went GeoCaching.

And then we went into Irish Hills for a little amusement before heading home. Finding amusement in Irish Hills, however, is a little like visiting a graveyard for good eats. All the places Jon remembered from childhood visits were dead, though not gone.

The Prehistoric Forest—closed for about seven years(?) but listed as a creepy place to explore uninvited.

Stagecoach Stop has only been closed since 2008, but its heyday was back in the 1970s when US12 was still the main route between Detroit and Chicago, before the interstate. All this according to the creepy fat old bearded guy who was driving around the place in a golf cart. We think he used to own it and/or the hotel next door (which is still open). Either that or it's even creepier that he was buzzing around on that golf cart.

There is something photogenic about dead and dying 1970s attractions, though.

What? Unnecessaryquotes.com it is.

There's nothing quite like sitting on the feet of a giant lumberjack. Actually, according to creepy bearded guy this lumberjack used to be one of the Muffler Men.

And lunch at neon barbecue. Creepy bearded guy was here, too. Maybe he owns the whole US 12 strip in Irish Hills. Or maybe he wasn't even there at all—all that shows in the picture is his cart...

Camping. It's something we will definitely be doing again.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Last weekend Jon played the piano and acted in a performance of the Snow Queen at a conference of the Music Teachers Association in Kansas. Since they needed a prop car to get all the stuff from Ann Arbor to Kansas, and since we are a family that loves to travel by road, we drove there and back. The border of Kansas, by the way, is upwards of thirteen hours from Ann Arbor. We broke the drive down into two days of six to seven hours of driving each and broke each of those days into two blocks of driving separated by site seeing and a picnic lunch. In so doing we were able to take in the sites of four zoos, four national parks, and the Ansheiser Busch Clydesdale Stables all in one trip, not to mention Jon's show, a dinner with some music teachers, lots of weather, lots of construction, and a very exciting (and loud) fire alarm in the middle of the night. We had a great time, Calvin is really a great traveller, and we already can't wait for our next road trip adventure. Perhaps we ought to look into an AirStream.

Day 1, Zoo 1, the Potawatomi Zoo in South Bend, Indiana

Cool tiger.

Sweet tortoise.

Day 1, Zoo 2, Scovill Zoo in Decatur, Illinois

The tufted deer really liked Calvin. We really liked the tufted deer's teeth.

We road every train at every zoo on this trip, by the way, which might make up for the fact that we almost never ride the train at our own zoo. Or, more likely, it will just make him ask for that privilege more often.

Yeah, the goats may looks sleepy, but that brown goat got up right after this picture and tried FOUR TIMES to eat my skirt while I was busy taking pictures. Bad goat! Bad goat!

Day 2, potty stop 1 (and the only one you'll hear about), Griggsville, Illinois

On road trips we refuse to stop at cookie cutter locations for bathrooms or food. Instead we look for rest areas or use the bathrooms of the places we stop in for entertainment or food (again, never cookie cutter—we get enough of that at home). On day 2, after getting an early start with plenty of coffee, we were in the middle of nowhere looking for a quick stop between destinations when we saw a sign for a Visitor's Center in Griggsville. Getting off the highway it was immediately apparent that said Visitor's Center was not an easy on easy off kind of thing and we ended up driving about five miles further into nowhere before finding the small (don't blink, you'll miss it) town of Griggsville with a poll of bird houses worthy of someone's envy.

The Visitor's Center was hilarious—a tiny brick building as old as the town was small, with two old ladies sitting behind ancient machines (one computer, one typewriter). We perused their visitor's guides and listened to those two old biddies tease and flirt with a young guy who must have been employed by the town for general maintenance of their one street. Before we left we signed their visitor's book and asked some questions. Apparently the town used to make TV antennas that are now obsolete and when the factory(?) was no longer needed for that (some forty years ago) a man converted it for building Purple Martin Bird houses. They no longer make those, either, because that man died a few years back, but they are still Purple Martin Capital of the Nation, and when I asked the women what they did do in the town there was some general confusion. I guess it is probably now mainly a farming town. Only the human population was dwindling, though—we saw plenty of Purple Martins while we were there.

Day 2, National Park 1, Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, Independence, Missouri

In Independence we visited the ranger station in town and took a walking street tour of the residential area which included Truman's boyhood home and also his adult home where he lived with his wife, Bess (who also grew up in Independence and whose childhood home we also saw). They had nice signs.

Day 2, National Park 2, Harry S. Truman Farm Home, Grandview, Missouri

I actually liked this better than the the park in town. Although the farm home is boxed in on all sides by modern cookie cutter conveniences, the home has been well preserved and still has some of the original furniture in it. While waiting for the walking tour to start (which included ourselves only as participants) we had a really nice time talking to the park rangers, a man maybe a few years my senior. He'd actually grown up in Royal Oak and had worked at Isle Royal as well as in Sequoia in California before going to the farm home. He is what they call a lifer, or a permanent ranger, of which there are only about 250 to cover the 300 parks, so they tend to move around at times, taking new positions when old ones end. His chatter before the tour was very candid and informative about the park system and way of life, while his tour of the house was clearly rehearsed, but still informative.

The second ranger we talked to was an elderly woman who had taken part in the various organizations aimed at saving the farm home over the years and, in the early 90s, was part of the group that traveled to DC to again request that the home become a national park. On their second try, during Clinton's second term in office, the request was granted. Now she is a local ranger at the house. From her we learned all kinds of interesting, unrehearsed things abut the home itself, the history of the area, and Truman as well. Sometimes it's the people as much as the place that make site seeing interesting.

Day 3, zoo 3, Kansas City Zoo, Kansas City, Missouri

While Jon was busy with rehearsing and hob nobbing in Olathe, Kansas, Calvin and I decided to scoot back over to Missouri and visit the Kansas City Zoo. the weather that day called for scattered storms but things looked alright when we left. Much to our chagrin we found a scattered storm on our way that nearly stranded us at a flooded zoo with no power. When they say storm there, they mean it. The picture below, by the way, is after the rain greatly let up, the storm had passed, and we had made a dash to the zoo from the somewhat deep parking lot, only to find out that they were without power.

We ended up having a great time anyhow. We waited for about an additional hour for the rains to let up and in the mean while the zoo staff handed out ponchos, bottles of water, and packets of animal crackers to the patiently waiting visitors. Apparently we were the only people from out of state (who, I ask, would wait around that long if they were from within the state and could just come back?) and we ended up being interviewed for and aired on the local evening news. We saw the zoo in a light drizzle while caring zoo employees drove around on golf carts offering to give patrons rides to farther exhibits. Plus we scored some neat ponchos, and a chance to see the New Guinea singing dogs, a species I'd never seen before, believe it or not. The only heartbreak was that Africa ended up being flooded and we didn't get to see the bat eared fox. Well, that and the train wasn't working since the power was out.

Day 4, Budweiser Clydesdales, a.k.a. Grant's Farm, St. Louis, Missouri

And Grant's Farm is more than just the Clydesdale stables, it's also a mini zoo of sorts. I'll never understand, though, why this wasn't a Clydesdale carousel.

I can't imagine every looking this bored if my job was to play hose with an elephant.

Free beer (two nicely sized cups of it each, in fact) and some yummy brats were a good addition to the day. Too bad I wouldn't call it real beer, but it was still fun and refreshing.

And the elephants weren't the only ones with splash time...

Day 4, National Park 3, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, St. Louis, Missouri

Grant's Farm, surprise surprise, is actually on the land that once made up the home and farm of Ulysses S. Grant, so the trip from the farm to the historic site was walkable. Strangely enough, Grant's actual farm was once known as White Haven. This is strange only if you note the color of the actual house.

The tour of this house was just as informative as the one of Truman's farm home, though the house was actually completely bare because they weren't able to procure the original furniture.

And, as was our luck on this trip, we met with quite the storm on our journey from the outskirts to the center of St. Louis. Lightning, thunder, driving wind and rains. Patience is a virtue, though, and it blew over in plenty of time for us to enjoy...

Day 4, national park 4, The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, or the St. Louis Arch and Museum of Westward Expansion, St. Louis, Missouri

We were prepared to enjoy the arch from the ground, convinced that an experience of that height might be traumatic for Calvin, but once he noticed the windows at the top of the arch he insisted on going up, so we did. The ride up is not for the claustrophobic, but in general is a non-entity, and the view from the top is not overwhelming in its height, because the windows are small and the structure itself is engulfing. Calvin loved it.

We finished the day exhausted; this was certainly the most fully packed day we'd planned yet, but we figured that since we were on our way home being tired wasn't of too great a concern (as opposed to needing good behavior for the conference in Kansas) and there were so many great things we wanted to see. We decided, though, to go easy on ourselves and stop at a hotel (in I don't know what town) an hour earlier than our original plan. Little did we know that the hotel we chose would have a fire alarm sounded only minutes after Calvin was settled into bed and on his way to dream land, sending outside into the night and keeping us from enjoying that extra hour of rest. Hind sight is clearly 20/20. Oh well, only one day of driving and site seeing is left.

Day 5, zoo 4, Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Little sleep or not, the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo was quite an adventure, and we left absolutely no experience unturned. The sky tram, the log ride, the endangered species carousel, and the train...we tried it all. There was also ice cream, a wading fountain, and lots and lots of fun animals. This is one of the top zoos in the country and we can see why (even if nothing, and we mean nothing, beats the San Diego Wild Animal Park for wild creature experiences).

That would be Calvin riding a Manatee and Jon riding a Sun Bear on the endangered species carousel.

It's a gnu romance burgeoning at the watering hole.

He was soaked.  Good thing we had a suitcase of clothing in the car.

We thought he'd sleep in the car for the remaining leg of the trip, but no such luck. For our own amusement, and so that I wouldnt' have to fix dinner when we got home with nothing in the cupboards, we stopped in Marshall to enjoy the fine dining at Schuller's Inn and got home in time to fall into bed at a reasonable hour. Phew.

Tulip Time 2010

I've been talking about our unseasonably warm weather for some time now—I cannot remember a year when things have been so green so early, or when I have already had to mow the lawn a handful of times even before the arrival of May. We have really delighted in the early spring, but there are pros and cons to any deviation from the norm and Tulip Time had not the visual delights it usually holds for us each May because most of the tulips had already absconded with their aesthetic charms by the time we arrived on the first of the month. Thankfully Holland has many other charms to offer, most notably the beautiful lake, but the dining and shopping in their quaint downtown are enjoyable as well. We took in some Klompen Dancing around Centennial Park, enjoyed two meals at New Holland Brewing Company (I'd say these were enhanced by the new smoking ban, but I don't remember the place being smoke-filled in previous visits), walked the beach, played frisbee, played tennis, cooked a great Cinco de Mayo meal with family, and had an all around relaxing and enjoyable time.

Shopping found us a literal rainbow of KitchenAid stand mixers. Ahhhhh.

Lake Michigan sunsets are a real Michigander's greatest joy. Well, that and the sandy beaches and dunes.

New Holland beer samplers—with three people ordering one each you can just about cover every beer, or at least every beer we deemed worth trying.

Who knew Cookie Monster was a fan of Tulip Time?

The pictures are up in the May 2010 photo folder.

Up north in spring

Last Thursday, as I chatted with the bakery ladies about the beautiful weather we were looking forward to having over the weekend, I realized that spring is not really the ideal time to head north. In the summer it's a cool break from hot weather, in the fall the vast spanses of trees provide a beautiful display of color, and in the winter the thick snow covering nothern pines brings a festive feel to any trip, but in the spring the thaw is generally behind ours here in "the south", the blooms come later, and brisk temperatures linger long after we have packed away our winter jackets at home. But spring is spring no matter where you are, and time well spent with family is always a boon to overworked spirits, so north we went for a long weekend in Harbor Springs.

Jon's dad once said that he felt a weight lift from his shoulders as soon as he was north of the Zilwaukee Bridge. My "weight lifting" latitude is a little farther north in Westbranch (that's where the traffic lightens and the distance between towns lengthens), but I fully agree with the sentiment. And when we got north we were met with a rather welcome surprise—an upgrade in the weekend's weather report from cold and rainy to chilly and sunny. We hadn't counted on spending time outside, but with such improved weather we found ourselves taking nature walks, going for outdoor runs, and even doing a little shopping in town. Jon got quite a bit of work done, since the long weekend was gained by promising some work "from home", and I completed a lot of sewing, and sewing lessons. We stayed up late watching home shows and movies, we napped and enjoyed snacks after mornings spent out and about, we ate good food, and we accomplished much. It may have been chillier than it was at home, but it was at least as beautiful, and the company was twice as good.