Local animals

Ashley checking out the local animals. Samuel and Bethany got a
chance to drive the riding lawnmower.

Vacation 2009 – Day 7 - Michigan Day 2 – Food and Views

I needed to add some additional information about the Soo Locks area,  We went to a couple of great restaurants. 

The first restaurant was “Maloney’s Irish Pub”.  I had my first taste of Whitefish.  It was delicious and very reasonable, across the street was a view of boats going through the locks.  The second restaurant where we had dinner was a restaurant that Aunt Pat had worked  at when she was younger.

The restaurant was called the “LockView restaurant”.  Aunt Pat and I had the perch, it was battered and fried.  It was good, everyone had a difficult time finishing their food, because there was plenty.  A grilled Whitefish and Walleye was on the menu, which other people tried and shared.  I liked all of the above.

Before we had dinner we drove by  to see if any of the houses that Bob and Aunt Pat lived in as kids were still there.  We found three of them, but I only have picture of two, see below:

(Spruce Street – Most remembered House)

(Minneapolis Street)

Soo Locks - Michigan Day 2

Well I don't have a bunch to see for today, but We are in Day 2 in Michigan, after visiting with relatives the day before, we continued to the Soo Locks. They were awsome. Everyone had a great time. I got to try lake perch, walleye and whitefish. It was all delicious, These were all local varieties.

Vacation 2009 – Day 6 – Driving to Michigan

Well, this started our mini-trip within our vacation.  We drove to Petoskey, MI, by way of Grand Rapids, MI.  We stopped in Grand Rapids, to pickup Aunt Pat, which was great because we had not seen her for 5 years. 

Afterwards, we ending up in Petoskey, MI, where we had dinner with Deb, Kacey, Kelsey and Korey. The kids went to the beach, which was not far away and went swimming.  The lake was Lake Michigan!  Sam and Korey jumped in and they said it was very cold.

The funny part was on leaving the beach, Sam accidentally got into the wrong car and someone was actually sleeping in the front seat of the car.  Fortunately, he was only in there a few seconds and the person in the car did not notice the extra passenger. This really seemed to break the ice between the kids.  It had been 5+ years since the kids had had a chance to get together.It was a great time to be had by all,  I ended up cooking burgers and they actually turned out good, surprise.  Before leaving to stay at the hotel, we made plans to meet on Friday at Mackinaw Island.

Day 5 Evening

Well after spending time at the local watering hole, before going to bed my in-laws have a nightly visitor.  A raccoon, that we all call “three-legs”.  She has been visiting them for 11 years, some years she brings her babies and lately she has not. 

The first picture, is her showing up at the door waiting for her two peanut butter sandwiches. The second is her eating the first one and she returns for the second one in about 10 minutes.

Day 5 - Rest Day

Well, this day we went to the Water park in Layafette, IN. The "Tropicanoe Cove", the kids had a great time just going around the lazy river and the slides, the bad part is that all of the kids ended up getting sunburned, even after putting on sunscreen. Below are some pictures.

Day 4 Notes

Well, it is Father's Day, it was nice to relax. We really did not do much for the day. I did call my dad, and with him "Happy Father's day" and let him know that we arrived safely. It was nice to talk with my dad. I got cards from my kids, wife and in-laws, my other card is in the mail. After having a good breakfast, which now I can understand my Mac gained weight over last summer. There was plenty of food and it was very good!!

My wife's best friend Dina and Rich showed up with their son Daniel and Hannah. The last time we saw them, Hanna wasn't born and Daniel was shorter than we were. Just to give you perspective, Rich is about 7 ft tall and Daniel is around 6ft tall and is a teenager. I just wish I had those genes, not really but it would be nice. We have some pictures of both families together. It was great catching up and it was sad when they had to leave, they had to get back to Fort Wayne, In, which was about a 3 hour drive from here.

The rest of the day was my son and I playing Sims 3. Ashley found some neighbors that had animals at their farm and walked over to introduce herself and asked to pet the animals, (If you knew Ashley, this is totally in character). They actually let her and Vicki went over too and explored.