A desperate lengthening of days

Yesterday was our last vacation day. Woke up; eggs and cheese for breakfast; state park beach in the morning; read more book on the sand; heading for home.  Home?  Who ever wants to go home from vacation?  While laying on the beach we concocted a scheme to extend the trip a bit… and add one more national park to our belts before our annual pass runs out (next month).  After lunching on the deck with Lonnie we hit the road at 2:30 and headed for Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.  It was a great stop and worth the extra time… we haven’t ever seen so much sand in one place.  And we got there as the day was waning, so everything was bathed in an evening shade of mystery.  We didn’t stay for sunset.  As it was we didn’t get home until one in the morning, and four plus hour drive felt like a real crawl.  Just as a note… Tim Horton’s is a good bet if you ever need coffee after midnight while on the road.

We are on vacation...

why are we blogging?  We’ll make this short.  Slept in; great coffee; lunch at the bar; quaint shops; nap in the breeze; read a book (DaVinci Code, together); swimming in Walloon Lake; dinner with relatives; sunset over the bay; reprise of putt putt (Cortney won); drinks on the deck; reprise of the fire.

Beach Blanket Bingo

For a beautiful day at the Sturgeon Bay beach, we took the scenic route through the “Tunnel of Trees,” winding through the “Devil’s Elbow” curve and past “Legs Inn” at “Cross Village.” Is this northern Michigan or Middle Earth? The water was nearly bath-water warm and Jon pretended to be a beached whale, and Cortney got artistic, Tarantino-style, photographing Jon’s feet. We shared a delicious picnic lunch while wondering if a capsized kayaker would ever manage to right himself (we’re still not sure, since he refused help from a rescue boat that his concerned wife sent out).
We took advantage of pay-per-view to watch the Will Smith comedy “Hitch.” It’s all about about the dance scene in the epilogue.
We ended the day with a fire on the deck (in a firepit, of course). The flames, smoke, pine trees, and elevated deck made Jon feel like he was in the Ewok village. Cortney was on firefighter duty, spray bottle in hand, furiously putting out any stray sparks. One landed in Jon’s lap, and he ended up with soaking wet shorts. Good save, though, Cortney.

Tip of the Mitt

We have managed to escape to our haven in northern Michigan, Harbor Springs, for a four-day weekend. Arriving on Thursday night, when it was pitch black, made for a refreshing view on Friday morning, when we were greeted by the beautiful bay view. It has been one year since we last were here, and it has been interesting to see the changes. Pirates Cove Adventure Golf added several pirate mannequins and a big lighthouse, which will certainly warrant a nighttime visit. The Roast and Toast coffee shop added delicious scrambled egg wraps to their menu. The Emmett County Medical Center completed its renovations. More multi-million-dollar mansions have sprouted on the waterfront. New fast food joints have appeared. But in spite of all the development, it still remains a beautiful getaway. And it is the simple pleasures, like a walk along the pier, and a nap on the deck covered with the dogs, that make this a wonderful vacation.

Memberfest

After complaining for an entire month that we had no evenings to relax together at home because Jon was busy directing the music for the musical, tonight was our first night to return to normalcy. So what do we do? We went to the zoo with Cortney's parents! Tonight was actually the "I'm a member and I want special privileges" night at the zoo--meaning that the park was open to members only for three hours in the evening, complete with animal feedings, puppet shows, and live music. While we did not partake in the live music nor the puppet shows, we did greatly enjoy the feeding of the animals--I had a gyro and Jon had a cheeseburger (thanks, mom and dad). After securing our own dinners, though, we all really enjoyed watching the wolverine mom and babies get treats from a bike-riding zookeeper. The best part of that display wasn't even the feeding itself, but the behavior exhibited by the mother before the treats arrived. She started getting antsy about ten minutes early, and she knew which direction to watch, too. She would run (lope, actually) around the enclosure, pausing on top of rocks to look far into the distance. This is where a picture is worth a thousand words. As the hour drew nearer she began to stand sentry on top of those rocks, and bouncing as high as she could to watch for the arrival of her food. When he finally did bike up to the enclosure, she knew him right away. The sweetest thing about it? After he threw the treats in, she let the babies eat first.
And who has ever seen a hippo try to eat a whole watermelon? A half hour later, in another part of the zoo, Jock the hippo waited, mouth agape, for his own special treat. Unfortunately for Jock, he's not a good catch. Nor is he a neat eater. He scooped up the watermelon that landed in the water and, in one closure of his giant mouth, crushed the melon, turning the water around him red. The remains of carrots and lettuce floated all around him in the wading pool. Okay, that may be a little dramatic, but not as dramatic as the half hour wait in line to take the train ride back to the front of the zoo. We could have been in the car and half way home by the time we boarded the train, but the tunnel WAS a lot of fun.