Mackinaw Island

Well, we made it home safely. We had a good time. The weather was great for the guys. The women arrived on Monday and we had excellent, cool weather for the Traverse City area. Went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, Leland, Charlevoix. There were 8 of us in 2 cars. Then on to Mackinaw Island. It was beautiful when we arrived on Wednesday. Thursday when we were going to bike and see the fort, it was blowing like crazy and raining. There were now 16 of us, so we shopped and drank. Friday we headed out after buying fudge for the staff. I called Bert and he helped us find mom and dad's gravesite. Excellent directions, we stopped there, took a look and Charlie and Bernice's old place (now painted gray), Jim and Norma's old place and the schoolhouse lot. The original merry-go-round was still there, but the house (trailer) was a disappointment. I would have liked to find a cool house there. We flew home on Saturday, left out of Traverse City, spent 4 hours in Detroit airport and finally got in the house at 11:30 p.m. The leaves were just beginning to turn, but you could see the difference when we returned to the Traverse City area. A lot had changed in just a few days. The group we were with (Woehler Study Group), mostly from Florida, Texas and South Carolina couldn't believe how beautiful it was in Michigan and how clean and all the lakes. They all think of Detroit when they think of Michigan.

We are going to Bay City on Thursday for Rick's 45 year high school class reunion. We'll be back on Sunday. Gary Nearman is supposed to be home from Cleveland Clinic so I hope we will be able to see him too. Denny Poirier is running for Michigan State House Representative, so we'll see his signs around town. The election is in November, he was unopposed in the primaries.

Ryan and Tracy took Baxter up to Brunswick with them while we were gone. They brought him back last night and went with us to the Jaguar game this afternoon. We lost and they played terrible.

That's all for now. love, Marilynn