Vacation Recap Part II-The Cities

After we went to the UP and before we tried to watch the sunset, we hung out some in Mackinaw City.

Walking the beach in front of our hotel room we saw that someone built this gigantic house since the last time we were there!

We thought it was a resort at first!

And we walked the marina in town. Check out this gas pump.

Would you look at the price of that gas? $45.00 per gallon!

We'll never get our boat in the water at those prices! Actually, we'll never get our boat in the water period because we don't own a boat . Good thing, because putting gas in our cars is expensive enough!


After dark I spent some time trying to get a good picture of the bridge lit up...this was the best I could get, which isn't great but kind of cool, too!

The next day we headed south to Traverse City, which is about 2 hours southwest of Mackinaw. 

On the way there we stopped here to do some metal detecting. 

Love those dunes!

And Lake Michigan!

Stopped in Traverse City to check into our hotel and then took
a drive to a little fishing town called Leland...very pretty.

It had some cute little shops. I love the Dam Candy Shop!

We just walked around and bought some magnets for me and Shauna, and some fudge of course!

In the evening we met Rich's sister and her husband and their friends for dinner at Turtle Creek, the local Indian casino. Had a nice dinner, played a little video poker then back to our hotel for the night.

Wednesday we headed home for a day of rest until the next part of our vacation.

Coming up: Cousin Carole's place.

Vacation Recap Part 1-Under Bridges

Well, that was a quick week of vacation even if I did extend it by one day, today, due to this nasty cold that I picked up somewhere!

Before I get in our little vacation I want to put a quick thank you to Wenn from Experiences for sending me this tiny little magnet...it's barely an inch big and so cute! All I had to do was tell her three places she traveled to, which was easy because she travels all over the world! Thanks, Wenn!

Now on to the vacation. We left on Monday morning and drove all the way to the upper peninsula, to the Cut River Bridge. The Cut River is not really that big but it's in the bottom of a gorge that the bridge goes over. It was a little freaky being under the bridge, though!

Then we walked down approximately 20,658 steps to get to where the Cut River flows into Lake Michigan.

See the bridge way up there?

It was worth the hike!

Then we crossed back into the lower peninsula and stayed the night in Mackinaw City. We hung out under the Mackinaw Bridge to try to see the sunset, but it was too cloudy!

This is underneath the Mackinaw Bridge facing north. To the left is Lake Michigan, and to the right is Lake Huron. Can you see the difference?

Ha Ha just kidding, there is no difference, obviously!

Coming up: Part II The Cities.

The Brenda Photo Challenge-Portraits

Oh man, this one got away from me...I only just remembered when I saw other entries on my Google Reader. Yikes

Yep it's time  for another Brenda Photo Challenge. This one is Portraits..so let me see what I can find in my files....

The Kids

The Great White Hunters

Self  Portrait

Cat Senior Picture

You knew there would be a cat pic in there, didn't you!

Inspiration In The Park

The other day we took a walk through the park in our neighborhood.

Seems like someone was having fun with chalk and decided to leave messages for everyone to see!

First there was a welcome...

Then a little warning...

Then lots of good advice!

But this one was my favorite..

Good advice....let's hope lots of young people walk through the park!

I am on vacation now for the next 10 days. Got a couple little trips planned. I'm sure I will be writing all about it!

Garage Sale Finds

Friday I went to a few garage sales. I had been a while since I did that due to it being too hot and me being too lazy! But it was cooler on Friday and I actually had some excess energy so off I went!

I admit I'm a sucker for anything cat related and how adorable are these two little kitties? They're about 3 inches big  and sit perfectly on the top of the doorway to the family room! And they were only a dollar!



I also got these cute silver earrings for 50 cents (why don't keyboards have a cent sign?). The ear wires are a little tarnished and need replacing which I don't think will be a problem!

I already took this necklace apart. I have plans to make a necklace and matching earrings with the pink and white stones.

I also bought a book and the pretty blue and white scarf was in a box marked "Free"!







And the inner sucker in me bought this pillow for 50 cents (where is that cent sign?) and now I'm wondering why!

It has cute embroidered cats on it but, it's not my style and I don't really like it! Oh well, maybe I'll try to sell it at my garage sale for a dollar and make a profit!

That's pretty much all I bought. Total spent: $3.50!

Just getting through the week and looking forward to vacation!

This, That, And Forever!

It seems like it's been forever since I posted anything but it's only been 11 days!
We finally got some relief from the relentless heat and humidity! We were able to open the windows on Tuesday night and let the fresh, cool air in the house! It's starting to heat up again, though and the humidity is rising. This could just be a short break!

Last week as I mentioned we cancelled C0mcast and had AT@T U-verse installed. We love it so far although it's taking us a little while to get used to how the remote controls work!

Remember when there wasn't remote controls and we had to get up and actually change the channel manually? I don't know how we managed!!

Anyway, C0mcast sent us a huge box filled with boxes to ship all of their equipment back to them. We had the main control box, the modem, two digital converter boxes and three remote controls!

They also included a shipping label so we packed everything up and I hauled the box to the UPS store. When I walked in the door with the box the guy said, "C0mcast?" Ha! Seems lots of people are either cancelling their cable or making the switch these days!

On Sunday I saw a recipe for no-bake cookies and happened to have all the ingredients so I whipped up a batch.

They were really good! We both took a bag to work, though because we did not need to have these sitting around the house. Everybody loved them!

One more week of work and then we are on vacation for a week! We are planning a small trip up north for a few days and then at the end of the week we will be going to my cousins cottage with my brothers and their wives! Looking forward to it!

That's all that's going on right now in these dog days of summer! Went to a few garage sales today and got some cute stuff! That's for another post!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Crazy But Good Weekend

This past weekend was one of those weekends that just flew by..actually who am I kidding..they all fly by!

Anyway, it started on Friday. I was off as usual and we had AT@T come out and install u-verse. After many years with our original cable TV and  high speed Internet supplier, we got tired of their constantly rising bills and not so great service. AT@T was offering a super deal for their u-verse and so we decided to go for it. So Friday was the day. Normally on my days off I do the usual cleaning, dusting, vacuuming and floors. However, when I have someone working on something in the house, I pretty much can't do anything but pace around and wait for them to finish so I can get on with my life! He was there from 9:15 until approximately 3:00, so I didn't get much done that day!

In the evening we went to dinner with my dad. It was nice to spend some time with him.

(totally unrelated to this post picture of the rock in front of the house)


Saturday morning Marie and I walked a few miles and then had breakfast. After I dropped her off at her house I met my SIL Linda so we could go shopping for a shower gift. Then over to her house to wrap everything up! After I got home Rich and I went to visit his sister, (Hi Jackie!) who had back surgery last week. We had a very nice visit with her and her husband. Always nice to see them and she is recovering nicely!

Sunday I picked Shauna up, we drove to Linda's and went with her and her mom to a wedding shower for my nephew Mikes fiance, Sarah. It was a nice shower and I got to see some cousins that I don't see real often.

(another totally unrelated picture of a bunch of ducks in my neighbors backyard)


After the shower I came home and still had to go grocery shopping for the week. I don't know if I ever mentioned how much I hate grocery shopping?! Anyway, I do!  With the passion of a thousand suns!!! So I put it off every weekend until the last minute! If I ever win millions of dollars in the lottery, the first thing I going to do is hire a professional meal planner/grocery shopper!!

That was our busy weekend. And it continues to be hot here like every where else, but I'm not complaining because come January I'll be wishing for warm weather!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Three weeks and counting to vacation!!