Remembering Past Fun Times

Sometimes I seem to regress in my memory to the fun we have had with family and friends…today is one of those times.

Last July (2010) we took a trip to the Upper Michigan area with our dear friends Bob and Connie Roberts.

The Upper Michigan area and Mackinaw Island have been on my personal “bucket list” for a very very long time, and we decided to do something about it. We packed up our RV’s, loaded the motorcycles and bicycles and off we went.

For the trip up we decided to go up through Wisconsin and come across the Mackinaw Bridge. The first day was a beautiful warm and sunny drive. We parked for the night in the lot of a Sam’s/Walmart (after getting permission), in Green Bay and went out to eat at a nearby restaurant. There was a casino close by so why not go there to kill a little time before turning in for the evening. It was such a nice evening and the drive had been good so we weren’t really that tired. Well Connie and I weren’t anyway. We eventually went back to the RV’s and sat out in lawn chairs for while and chatted before turning in.

Since it was such a hot evening, and we were parked with our doors next to an unoccupied semi (which is a no no in this parking lot), we opted to not use the generator and just leave the door open. Pat hit the bed first and instantly fell asleep…I on the other hand wasn’t so lucky. I wanted him to get his rest since he was the driver so I went back down to the living room.

I first tried stretching out in my recliner, but that didn’t seem to relax me either, then I went to the floor with a pillow…no luck there either. It was around 2 a.m. and still no shut eye for me.

I heard some laughing and looked out the window to see some young people zipping around on motorized Wal-Mart carts near Roberts’ RV and heading towards ours. They had no idea I was standing at the screen door in my jammies. When they came between us and the semi one of them happened to look up and there I was…to say they were startled is an understatement. It gave me a real giggle, even though they had on Wal-Mart “staff” shirts and shouldn’t have been doing what they were doing. They immediately flew on by and headed back to the store. Shortly after that I was able to get some much needed sleep.

The next day started out cloudy but dry. That didn’t last long. By the time we got to the bridge going in to Mackinaw City we had been driving in rain for the better part of the day.

Here is our first view of the bridge. Even through the rain I was SO excited!

Here we are following Roberts and it is almost our turn to go over the bridge. Even with the rain, and being a Sunday there was a lot of traffic going in and coming out.

More random bridge shots…

 

and finally we were on the bridge…

…and viewing Machinaw City, Michigan
for the first time!

We had reservations at Mackinaw Mill Creek Campground which was only about 3 miles from the other end of the bridge and just a couple of miles from downtown Machinaw City. It is a huge campground (600 sites) that runs along the shores of Lake Huron. The bridge in all of its glory is viewable from the campground.

One evening I wanted to try and get a night shot of the bridge lit up. So with plenty of “Off” slathered on, long sleeved hoodie, (more for protection from skeeters than temps), tripod and camera, I walked to the end of our row and setup waiting for sunset.

I must admit I did a lot of dancing around to avoid being bitten by the mosquitoes, while trying to capture my dream image. I took many shots, but this is the one I finally decided I loved the most. Not perfect by any standards, but I took it anyway, and one of these days I might get around to framing it.

 

Also at the top of my “bucket list” was a trip over to Mackinaw Island by ferry. You either walk, ride horse drawn wagons and carriages or ride a bicycle on the island. No motorized vehicles are allowed except for one emergency vehicle that stays there and possibly one other vehicle that are a part of the island. This day we walked and walked and walked some more. It was hot, but we took our time and meandered up and down many streets.

Ferry Ride was on one just like this one. I loved that spray of water!

Bob really was enjoying himself
more than his look conveys…lol!

 

Famous “Grand Hotel” view from ferry

Viewed up close and personal!
It was beautiful inside and out.

Look closely, there’s Bobby again, looking pretty relaxed on front porch of hotel.

One of the horse drawn carriage to take you around the island and up to the hotel.

Other modes of transportation on
and around the island.

One of the island workers that helps in keeping the island so pristine! 
Guess what he’s scooping up?

There were flowers everywhere you looked.

Now this looks relaxing. 

At the top of the picture you can see the yellow umbrellas that are at a restaurant which is run by the Grand Hotel even though it is a distance from the actual hotel. We had to hike up this huge hill that looked down on the marina just to get there. But the food and view was worth it!

There are a few permanent residents on the island, and they live in lovely homes.

 

Along with a scattering of  hotels and B & B’s.

These lighthouses are all still operational.
The first two are between
Mackinaw City and the island

Round Island Lighthouse

 Round Island Passage Light

McGulpin Point Lighthouse

Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse
Located in Mackinaw City,
notice bridge in background

Presque Isle Light House
at St. Ignace, MI 

Something about the lighthouses and the stories of sunken ships, storms and all of the history that goes along with them, was so fascinating that I now have a mission to photograph more of them in other parts of our country. 

All too soon, it was the end of the day and time to start heading over to the pier to catch our ride back! We plan on going back to see a lot of the things there just wasn’t time to see in one day. Next time we are taking our bicycles with us to the island.

This trip showed us another beautiful spot in our Country that was relaxing and fun to visit. We met many friendly, nice people that live and work in the area, even though the winters are long and brutal they stick it out. And the scenery during the spring and summer are nothing if not intoxicatingly beautiful.

This trip was everything I had hoped it would be and a whole lot more!

See you in my next posted memories and here’s hoping you are making some great memories of your own!

Magazine Article

I am so excited and wanted to share the reason with our family and friends.

A few months ago, while we were still wintering in Arizona I ran across an email from Blue Magazine put out by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It was one of those form emails that so many times get dumped in our spam folders.

Because I was in a “relaxed” atmosphere, which is how we are most of time while down there, I took the time to read it. It was asking for people, “seniors” that were still active to submit a short article about themselves to “possibly” be published in one of the upcoming magazines.

Needless to say, when I received an actual email from the editor a few weeks later, asking me if I could elaborate more on the few lines I had sent in earlier and also attach a picture associated with them, I was really starting to get excited. Someone actually reads the things we submit…huh…go figure!

When a proof was sent to me for approval before it went to press, more amazing was the fact that not a single word of my entry was changed or deleted. It was printed it exactly the way I wrote it!

Many of you may get this magazine if you are a senior and carry BC/BS Medicare insurance, which I did at the time. The article is on page 19.

Anyway, I’m so honored to have people read about Pat and I in our “old'” age, and what fun we are still having.

Below is the actual article layout that was printed in the “Blue Summer 2011” magazine.

If you click on the article you can read a larger version.

Spring in Iowa

Well our 3rd winter in Arizona was as wonderful as the first two…but our cold, wet and windy Iowa spring is producing a total reality check. Evidently I’m still experiencing AZ withdrawal.

Our trip home was fairly uneventful except I didn’t get much skiing in because of my knee injury that occurred before we left AZ. I was on my bicycle about 10 days before our scheduled departure and for some odd reason, (probably my clumsiness), while turning a corner near our RV…down I went. My left knee cap was the first thing to hit the pavement. Needless to say, it HURT! And it is still in the healing process. I think my ego was hurt as much as the kneecap itself.

Went to ortho doc when I got home and the
x-rays showed no breaks, chips or cracks, so that was good news. It did however bruise and inflame the tissue and muscle under the kneecap and the healing process can take awhile…hence the reason my skiing (during our stop in CO on the way home) consisted of 3 short runs and one long one before I finally had to concede that it wasn’t worth the pain and headed to the lodge with my book and diet coke. But I did get to enjoy watching our niece Michelle and her husband Chad put my great nephew on skis at the ripe ol’ age of two and a half. Isn’t he a doll? Maybe I’m just a tad prejudice.

Gavin all geared up, and even in Aunt Claudia’s goggles.

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter with our children and grandchildren. It even warmed up enough to do a cookout and Easter egg hunt for the 8 and 9 year old granddaughters. The sun actually gave us about 15 minutes of its full glory before escaping back behind the clouds.

Maggie, Jeni and Jenna

Can you tell how cool it was when the sun went away. Notice two of them are wrapped in blankies.

Easter Egg Hunt

They each had twelve plastic eggs filled with candy to find. One of the eggs had their name on it and a dollar bill in it. I think the money was better received than the candy.

Jordan (8) is in front, Joy (9) in back.

The hunt was on…

and showing their treasures!

Pat and I did not get to plant potatoes on Good Friday as we have every past year. The garden was just too wet from all of the rain, so he played golf with our son and a couple of friends and I had a friend over for coffee and gab session. He finally got them in a couple of days ago.

Our daughter bought a small picnic table off of Craig’s List. We picked it up with the truck. It had several boards that needed to be replaced but it was cheap so she got it.

Original Table

Pat decided to replace all of the boards with nice new ones. After cutting the new boards, and rounding the corners, he sanded them to a wonderful smoothness, then we stained them. He painted the metal frame and we will  reassembled the table today. It is beautiful and should give Jeni and Joy a wonderful place to sit and have a sandwich and do a few crafts on a nice day.

Pat at work…

or trying to figure out his next move.

He is such a perfectionist. He hates working with wood because he says, “if I make a mistake I have to go buy more.” He equates that to his years of working as an ironworker and when a mistake was made, he cut it off and re-weld a new piece of steel in place. But he always does such a beautiful job, no matter what he is building.

Table redone

I almost hate giving it back to Jeni, but I will.

Foggy Morning

One morning about a week or so ago, I got up to a lot of fog. The sun was just coming up and as I looked out our bedroom window what a sight to behold. I could not resist grabbing my phone and taking this picture.

It was such a moody morning image and had a very calming affect. Not long after the fog burned away…you guessed it…back came the clouds. Oh well, it will be back in the 70’s and 80’s one of these days and until then I’ll just throw on a couple more layers and be glad to be alive.

Keeping Busy!

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, grandpa and I had the pleasure of two young visitors. Jordan (7) and Joy (8) spent a couple of fun filled days with us.

Since Jenna and her parents had to be at the University of Iowa for orientation and dorm business Jordan was going to stay with us. I figured it would be more fun for her (and me…lol) if Joy  was out here also. They are really good little girls and have a lot of fun together. But let me tell you…two days is about max until they are older. After two days, they start to get cranky, and so do I.

Do you suppose I tried to pack too many fun things in to a short time frame?

They arrived around 7-7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, had their hugs of greeting to one another and headed for the Barbie basket. I told them I had a couple of things to do and then I would take them swimming. I was determined to find water someplace, because it was pushing upwards in to the 90’s, and they needed to get outside. So water sports was our only option!

Here are my two little bathing beauties taking a snack break at waters edge.

Aren’t they adorable!!

Before going back in to the water it was time to do a land sandscaping. Since we had no pails or shovels, and grandmas are notorious for improvising, we robbed grandpa’s stash of empty coffee cans, added a couple of tablespoons from the kitchen and voila’ we had sand toys!

After the snack and sand time they decided it was time to go back in the water and work some more on the water ballet that they were putting together for my enjoyment. They didn’t actually realize that just watching them put this little show together was giving me great pleasure!

After our 3 hours in the water, sand and sun it was time to pack up our stuff and trudge back to the jeep. On the way home I decided that since they had been so good, I would stop in Polk City and treat them to an ice cream cone. We stopped at a new little cafe on the square called Sunrise Cafe and each had a small cone. The ice cream was delicious and very refreshing. My two little ladies were so polite and ate without much mess at all!

We then headed on home to see how grandpa was coming with the yard work. I made the girls undress in the garage, for which they preceded to inform me that they really didn’t want to do that, but since I’m bigger than them, I convinced them it was the way it had to be. They had sand and moss in their shoes, suits and on their little bodies, and I didn’t really want it all over the house.

So, off came the clothes and two naked little girls ran to the shower. Twenty minutes later with clean bodies, clean hair and clean clothes, they rested with a movie while I fixed dinner. We had a fast bite and then headed to the ballpark so Jo Jo could practice with her softball team for a tournament this weekend, (following in her siblings footsteps).

Back home at around 8:15 p.m., we did some bubble blowing on the deck and then got in to jammies for popcorn. Brushed our teeth, read a story and it was lights out…whew…and collapse time. I really do need to get in to shape sometime soon!

Wednesday dawned sunny and bright with the two girls jumping on me while I blissfully slept. Afterall, it was 7 a.m. and you can’t expect them to sleep all day…or can you?

French toast for breakfast, played for awhile in the morning,and I got things together for our day at the zoo. Our trip started at Mickey D’s (McDonalds) for lunch then on to the animals!

Isn’t he handsome?

This pair of swans never got too far from their furry little ones.

The girls got a kick out of the Lemer, and he pretty much ignored them and just kept hanging around like no one was there.

I really had to do some heavy coaxing for this next picture. They just did NOT want to get inside of this big egg, but I knew in my …uhmmm, artistic mind, that it would be an adorable picture…and again I WON! Two for grandma, zero for girls!

 

Can you tell they are getting less and less happy with me snapping their pictures all the time.

We ended our day at the zoo with a train ride. We had to wait about 20 minutes, because the train had jumped the tracks earlier and they had to get it lifted back on and then do a couple of test runs. But it was a fun ride and worth the wait. Well for me anyway, it meant I got to sit down!!

We stopped for ice cream again on the way home. Grandma deposited her two little charges with their parents, kissed and hugged them good-bye and made plans to do it again.

AFTER I rest!

On Thursday, I went over to Roosevelt High School to take pictures of the seniors and their coach (seated) on the softball team. These six girls have been together all through high school, and we have enjoyed the privilege of being part of their fan base. I’m sure that even though Jenna and the others have graduated, you will still see grandpa and I at some of the games. Count on it!!

Jenna

 

Jenna in action!

We have a few more Roosevelt games coming up and a couple of tournaments and then our lil’ ballplayer is retiring her glove. It has been a great ride, and now it is on to supporting the…

 Iowa Hawkeyes!!