My Michigan Adventure

I spent my birthday on a beautiful drive through northern Ohio and into Michigan, and successfully arrived at Dave & Theresa's. My heart nearly stopped when I saw that Allison and Nick are both now eye-level with me and that's just wrong, wrong, wrong. How do they grow up so freakin' quickly?

After recovering from my shock and getting caught up, I took the gang out for some really good local ice cream. Then I settled in to work for a couple of days while they went to a family reunion camping trip, which worked out perfectly as it allowed me to get ahead enough to enjoy the next several days work-free.

For Independence Day Dave and I made the drive out to Grand Haven to see the sights and have a burger at Rosebud's. It still gets me just how big the Great Lakes really are. Then that night we headed out to see the Grand Rapids fireworks, using super secret access to avoid all the crowds and traffic. There were some really interesting rockets in the show that would pop and then accelerate really quickly. I'd never seen that type before.

Next day was a full day of gaming, including Tichu as Allison is now a full fledged Tichu fiend. I also got to visit with Chris, Elaine and their kids. On Monday the gang went to Michigan's Adventure for some good coasters and water park fun. Shivering Timbers is a beautiful wooden coaster, and the Funnel of Fear is a very cool, unique water slide. We got wet on the Grand Rapids river ride, survived a trio of spin-and-puke rides and finished off the day with repeat rides of the Thunderhawk and Shivering Timbers and a bag of kettle corn which I foolishly thought was just regular popcorn until Theresa showed me the error of my ways. That stuff is addictively good.

Tuesday the kids escorted Theresa and I on a drive up to the beautiful Mackinac Bridge, stopped long enough to dip my feet into Superior and grab some pasties (basically a meat pie) for lunch, and then on to the Soo Locks in Sault St. Marie. We got to see a tug dropping down then a tourist boat rising up. So I've now seen 4 of the 5 Great Lakes. Some souvenir shopping, then back to the Lower Peninsula and a detour to Traverse City for a nice meal and then home.

It was so awesome to get to hang out with such great friends, play Tichu with Allison, play videogames and rubber band wars with Sam and Nick, and get to know the whole clan a little better. I've met the most wonderful people through Gulf Games and it was an incredible time to get to spend 1-on-6 time with them for a week. I'm already hoping that circumstances allow me to do it again sometime sooner than later.