Took a Cruise

I like to take rides; I just get in the car and see where it takes me. This is something I’ve been doing since my sister got her drivers’ license, which would have been 1978 (sheesh!). We called it “cruising.” This weekend, I cruised to Manistee, a little town on Michigan’s west coast. The Manistee River, which is long and scenic, empties into Lake Michigan at this point; it’s very popular with fishermen and paddlers. I’ve been looking online at a vacation property along the river and thought I’d go see the area. (Real estate is like pornography to me – lol.) While I‘m not buying the property, the trip sure got me back in the “Up North” frame of mind, which is appropriate for all Michigan residents in the summer. Here are a few cool things I discovered while en route. Kids found a way to beat the heat.

I’ve never seen a barn this color.

A magnificent sunset over Lake Michigan.

Saying Goodbye

My mom said goodbye to her cousin yesterday. She had a wonderful name, Marvel. She was the last of my great-grandfather's decendents who carried the family name, Frank. She was 84. Interestingly, Mom and Marvel were actually double cousins. A pair of siblings married another pair of siblings, so their kids were cousins both ways. That used to be pretty common, I guess, since there are at least 3 instances of it in that generation of my family. I hate to see Mom having to say goodbye. It’s not sad, per se, when someone is old and uncomfortable and it seems that you take it better as you age. Still, when you get to Mom’s age, there are so many people dying, it’s got to be hard.

Morocco

My big news is that my sister and I booked a trip to Morocco this fall. This will be my first time in Africa and my first experience in a Muslim nation. We also get to ride camels into the Sahara and stay overnight in a Bedouin encampment! We’re both so excited and I’m really looking forward to traveling with my sister, which we don’t often get to do.

Dinner!

Musical Treat

Abby, my friend’s daughter, invited me to her 6th grade band concert last night. Wow, you forget how musicians that age sound! My mom is a saint for listening to me banging away through piano lessons and squeaking away on the clarinet . . . I had the opportunity to hear this same band at Christmastime and they’ve really improved. Last night’s performance was the wrap-up of the first year of band for these students and they sounded like first year students. There’s nothing like a little history to help see how much difference there is between the beginning of your first year and the end of it. The teacher had taped their very first song back at the beginning of the school year and she played that tape for us last night. I will never hear Hot Cross Buns in quite the same way again.

Pop-Up Gallery

My sister had an art show over the weekend, which consisted of her 20-piece series of barns. Sarge is really good at creating pop-up galleries, in which art work is shown in a non-gallery locale. Coffee shops often serve this purpose, but she was very creative this time.

Apropos of the subject, she held her show in a feed store! As it turns out, my cousin owns Deerfield Feed & Pet Supply and he allowed it to become her gallery.

All of the barn owners were invited, along with her usual array of friends, family and enthusiasts. I found a barn-shaped cookie cutter and we had a ball decorating cookies to be served at the event.

The best part? I get to keep the one she did of my barn!

Happy May Day

When I was little, May Day meant hanging a basket of flowers on someone's door, knocking, and running away so they didn’t know who had surprised them. It’s funny how easily kids believe that they can fool adults. How many people would make a basket out of paper, fill it with violets and hang it on your door? We also had a maypole on our playground. Not the traditional pagan festival piece, but the playground equipment. They have been deemed dangerous and removed; I haven’t seen one in years. It wasn’t easy to even find pics of them! In retrospect, they probably aren’t safe, but man, were they fun!

Check out the merry-go-round, another piece of playground equipment you don’t see much anymore. You could twirl on these things until you were sick. I’d love to have on in my yard!