Goose and I enjoyed a nice tour of Michigan over the long weekend, during which we spent good time with my family and with friends we hadn't seen in a while and got to celebrate Carl and Anna's wedding with them! We left Chicago on Thursday and spent the night in Holland. It was great to see my mom and step-dad and Cessie and to allow my mom to practice some of her new massage moves she's learned since I've seen her last. Both Cessie and I got to try out her new massage table!
On Friday, we headed north to Gaylord, where I was born. We met my dad, grandpa and step-mother Jamera at the always-classy La Senorita (the only Mexican restaurant I've ever been to where I didn't see a single Hispanic person). We also visited my grandpa's new home, which is just two blocks from where Rose and Justin and I grew up. He's doing lots of work on the inside:
Eric patiently endured the tour of Gaylord..."and there's where I learned to ice skate....oh, my babysitter used to live there...that's Mooney's--that's where we got ice cream...right there is where they had the hula-hoop contest during Alpenfest..." It was all very fascinating.
Goose and I drove out to Boyne Falls where we shared a condo with some seminary friends in the appropriately named condo area, "Disciples Village." Carl was able to join us for dinner that night, which was really nice because we didn't get to see him a whole lot over the weekend (he was a little busy with the whole getting married thing). Goose, me, Mark, John G, Carl, Jeff, April and Vince:
Here's the whole condo crew on the last day--Yanela and Alejandro and Bridget and Casey completed the group! This photo was taken by our neighbor, Aunt Flash.
On Saturday, Goose and I met my dad and Jamera at a little campsite on Lake Marjory where my grandma and Uncle Justin were staying for the weekend. It was so nice to see them!
Carl and Anna invited folks to bring a pie to share at the reception, so April, who is an amazing cook, led Eric and me in the making of two pies--one apple and one peach raspberry!
Thankfully, someone pointed out that I was holding the salt and not the sugar.
The yummy-looking pies taunted us on the counter for a day before the wedding. Thankfully, we had lots of ice cream on hand to stave off the sweet tooth (I took full advantage of being "on vacation" by eating two bowls of ice cream every day). The peach raspberry actually turned out amazing and disappeared quite rapidly at the reception.
On the way to the church with the boys. After a freak tripping incident at the beginning of the weekend, Casey finally began to trust Eric a little bit.
Hanging out in the condo before the wedding:
John G and the boys:
It was truly a beautiful wedding. The chapel is surrounded by leafy trees and overlooks Lake Louise (in the picture at the top of the post)...and it was just so so nice to see Carl and Anna so happy.
They sang a beautiful song that they had written together:
Mark and Yanela with a sleepy Alejandro after the ceremony:
We shared a lovely dinner with some Albion folks--Rich, Heather, Zac, Kristin and Dan, plus Kat, Andrew and Amy. A bluegrass band played great music and, of course, we ate lots of pie!
That night, like every night at the condo, we played a couple of rounds of El Padrino ("The Godfather" in Spanish), a fabulous (and addicting) board game from Venezuela that involves making money and offing everyone else (by shooting, stabbing, poisoning, and blowing up cakes). It is quite the game.
On Monday morning, some folks gathered at Carl's family cottage for gift opening.
We decided to take the scenic route along Lake Michigan back to Holland, which was well worth the extra time and distance. We stopped at a neat little park on Torch Lake, number one on the list of clearest lakes in Michigan (Lake Louise is number three):
We drove along Crystal Lake and stopped at the Point Betsie Lighthouse. It is one of Jim's favorite spots and is also featured by this video reflection by David Gladstone, Carl's dad, who grew up in nearby Frankfort.
We also stopped at a scenic overlook a bit further south, where we climbed 124 steps for this incredible view:
The sunset was amazing, even from the car! We couldn't have asked for a better day to drive!
We had another nice night in Holland before heading back to Chicago yesterday morning. It was a lovely lovely weekend.
3 comments:
Great Pictures, Awesome time! We were so excited to see you all!
Nice job summing up the experience - we really did have a great time! I like the shot of us lounging around where Casey has no pants on and is playing with a pot from the kitchen - this looks a bit like neglect. I love the El Padrino shot! You got great ones from the wedding too. Take care!
Hey guys, great shot of the pie and the mafia game. Makes me a little worried that you'll show up in Birmingham sometime and give me a new pair of concrete shoes! Fuggeddaboutit!
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