Michigan 2023 July 8-15
Friday, July 7, 2023
Our travel started at 3pm on Fri July 7. Dave and I crammed in as much work as we
could…Dave was working at Brad Stroh’s pool house, then did another thing, I
was helping move boxes from one garage to another, brought a box out to Sam who
forgot one. Dave had just put a mailbox
at the 721 office the night before. We
just moved our office from 506 W 1st St to 721 Ansborough two weeks
ago and it has been an all-consuming effort.
Thursday before leaving I spent 3 hours at urgent care and a pharmacy
getting ear drops with Calvin and Eli who had swimmers ear. That’s a disappointing diagnosis when you’re
going to vacation the next day.
We drove from our house to Green Bay on Fri
night. We stopped at Sonic in
Dubuque. Dave drove, then Violet drove.
We stayed at a Delta hotel that had a waterpark. We tried using silicone earplugs but Eli’s
fell out right away. Oh well.
Pool closed at 1030 and we had hungry people,
so we ordered pizza.
Sat, July 8, 2023
Boys woke up earliest at 7am – this does not
jive with the girls’ morning preferences.
Violet came in our room (adjoining) and fell asleep in bed next to me
“for some quiet” she said. Dave ate the
cheese off the leftover pizza for a morning snack. Some showered, some did not.
Vanessa braided my hair. We made a plan
for the day…it was breakfast (Big Apple Bagels) à
Cabelas (lures) à
Fireworks (Sky Slam) à
Seguins Cheese (duh, cheese) à
Zingers coffee (yum)à
Cabin (unload) à
grocery shop. We unloaded groceries, met
up with Sean and family, with Logan and Baylee and their boy Luke (3 months), played
some volleyball and outside games (we brought Kuub), and then the families
split up and did their own thing. Dave and the girls went around the lake to
fish (caught nothing), boys lit fireworks off of the floating dock, I read a
book and journaled. I also made a pot of
noodles. We tried a card game (Gin 500)
and ended up being too late/tired to learn a new game. The getting ready for bed process was a long
and loud thing. We plan to go to Ted
and Cindy’s church with them tomorrow!
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| April and Luke (3 months) |
Sunday, July 9, 2023
I woke up at 730ish…my alarm was set for 830
but I just got up and got ready.
Apparently Eli was up at 4 am and at cereal. We had to leave at 9:15 so I cooked up
scrambled eggs, bacon and toast – we all ate and took off for an hour long ride
back to Escanaba. The church Ted and
Cindy go to is Wellspring Community Church.
It was pretty amazing actually – to be singing familiar worship songs
with them. The pastor covered Psalm 22 and related how we can bring God our
concerns and end up in a place of praise like David did at the end of the
chapter. Also connected the fact that
Jesus spoke the same words on the cross. It seems like a great place for them
to be – we’re praying for their salvation.
It seems God is working in a mighty way with them and other members of
their family.
We stopped at Walmart after church and Vanessa
got a swimsuit, Dave and the boys perused the frozen treat section of the
store, and I got carrots for the Tuesday meal we’re cooking for the group.
The ride home and the afternoon were very
chill. I took a nap. Dave and the boys went fishing (caught two
northern too small to keep). Logan and Baylee cooked up a taco meal with
cilantro rice for everyone – very yummy.
Alyssa and Jackson arrived and we got to meet their daughter, Savannah.
Dave went out fishing again and I spent some
time writing here and reading a book.
Dave then took me around fishing and I caught a 23.5” northern and we
kept it and cleaned it. Violet went to get firewood and we started a fire and
we had to put it out in order to go to bed at midnight. Everyone was pretty tired!
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| Jackson and Alyssa's girl, Savannah (5 months) |
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| the only catch of the week....24" northern. Barely big enough to keep - we cleaned it and got a tiny filet |
Rain! Pouring rain. We had thought about going
out on the pontoon but not sure about that plan yet. We’re sipping coffee and
making creamed eggs at the moment!
It was another chill day – people hung out by
the water, we rented kayaks, munched on snacks for lunch, Ted and Cindy showed
up around 4, chatted with Sean and April at our cabin, went fishing (caught
nothing), and watched some big storms roll in with some loud thunder and
downpouring rain. I worked on tomorrow’s
meal – made a pan of scotcharoos and marinated the pork for tomorrow’s Hawaiian
meal. It has been raining for a few
hours, there isn’t much to do in the rain here!
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| boys with their swimmers ear medicated ear drops |
Today was pontoon day! We set an alarm for 830 hoping to meet up
with George to drop the pontoons in Corner Lake at 930. We got to the store by 945. The morning on the boats was a bit chilly at
first -we were all bundled up and went in and around all the lakes for about an
hour and a half. We beached at the
island in Straits Lake, Eli smashed down pulpy wet trees, we snacked on lunch
stuff, then we found the volleyball net in the middle of Corner Lake and turned
up the music and played vball for about 2 hrs.
That was super fun! We went
around the last lake, stopped in the middle, and kids jumped off and swam for
awhile. We met George back at the
landing point in Corner Lake at 4.
Dave and I started getting dinner ready for
the whole group. We got charcoal from
the store, I put carrots and rice on, Dave grilled the meat, Violet and I cut
up the pineapple. It was a yummy meal
and fun to have everyone at our little cabin, cramming in however it worked.
Dave and Sean went out fishing together. We
are not catching anyyyything this year!
We all hung out at Ted and Cindy’s fire and cobbled together seating
with crates and coolers. I brought
s’more stuff.
Today was “hike Miner’s Castle trail to the
Beach” day – we met up at the store at 11am after a green pepper sandwich (Dave
and Calvin only), and sausage gravy and biscuits breakfast. The intention was to skip lunch and get pizza
early afternoon. We hiked the trail and
to the beach like years before. Each
year the trail seems shorter because it is more and more familiar. We spent 2
hrs at the beach. Logan and Bailey’s little guy Luke wasn’t the happiest so
they went back early. Alyssa and
Jackson’s little girl Savannah did great – seemed happy and even took a 30
minute nap at the beach. We had Main
Street pizza – which is the greasiest cheesiest pizza – but it hit the spot
after skipping lunch.
We souvenir shopped and came back to our cabin
and went fishing, some of us played volleyball, the plan is to light off some
fireworks later.
Dave, Vanessa and Calvin have a fishing story
where a 30-inch northern “got away” somehow. Vanessa reeled it in, Dave netted
it perfectly, and somehow it dropped the lure and slid through an unknown hole
in the net and got away. They’re not
sure how it happened. Sad situation,
good story.
Oh and fireworks we did! For about 15 minutes
Dave and Sean lit off all the fireworks we had.
The girls took pictures with the colorful blasts.
I climbed into bed and Violet reminded me of
the pecan rolls to prepare the night before.
We prepped those and went to bed.
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| these two are the only ones who like green pepper sandwiches |
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| rescued the floating paddle boat |
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| Miners beach hike starting point |
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| Savannah got her toes in the water |
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| Sean and April holding their grandbabies |
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| who is taller? |
9:40 – waking time. Chipped beef on toast,
pecan rolls, and firework clean-up was the morning’s activity. Ted and Cindy had a birthday party with gifts
and cupcakes at noon before Logan and Bailey had to take off. We snapped a group photo. Dave and I spent a
little time at the store getting a wifi connection to respond to some work
questions. We rented a jetski for a
couple hours and Dave and Sean gave all the kids rides. The rope accidentally got sucked up in the
engine so Dave spent a little time figuring out how to get it out before our 2
hrs was up. Sean and Dave got it all fixed up and working a minute before the jetski got picked up! Jackson and Alyssa made spaghetti bake which was delicious!
We stayed near the cabin this whole day. The excitement of the morning was seeing a baby hawk swimming toward shore after flying over the lake and getting too tired.
When Dad got out of bed Adalynn and Lynnea were in our cabin - apparently they had so much fun hanging out til late that they agreed to come hang out at 7am. They really did - but I think they were all so tired they just sat and stared at each other.
Pack up and leave. We settled with the store and paid for the cabin/rentals and were gone by 11:30am!
This is Calvin's drawing in the guestbook that wrapped up the week.
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| volleyball, getting smoked out by Dave's cigars while fishing, being amazed that some of our cousins are married with kids now, boomsticks (fireworks!), sunsets on the lake, rope on the jetski broke |
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