CHAPTER TEN: THE MITTEN TRIPPIN’ CONTINUES

 

Saturday’s Miles: 0.0  Total Miles: 1619.6

I rose today before everyone else…..no surprise there.  I did a fast shower and got ready.  My grandson, Ivan, was asleep in his bedroom.  I took over Nancy’s, my granddaughter, bedroom and she slept on the foldout couch in the living room.  Their cousin and another granddaughter, Sunny, also spent the night sleeping in the living room.

As Monique and the kids slowly started coming to life I was typing and trying to catch up on my journals.  Maybe I should hire a ghost writer and a secretary to go on rides with me.  That would leave me some extra time to focus on important issues like…what to eat for breakfast.

In this case it was some local bacon, local blueberries, local cinnamon rolls, and not so local orange juice (there are not many orange groves in Northern Michigan for some reason).  We downed everything and did a quick surface cleaning.  We packed up the car and off we went.

Our first stop was in Harbor Springs which is a bit farther north and west from Monique’s.  It is a quaint little town that is on the north side of the Little Traverse Bay which is a leg off of Lake Michigan.  We met up with my other two kids, Kristen and Josh, along with Josh’s wife, Jen, and the remainder of the grandkids.

We met at the Lyric Theater in Harbor Springs.  It is a really well kept, old, movie house where they show older family movies for…….get this……25 cents a person.  I don’t know if that is always the case but it was today.  So for about four bucks we all got in.  Of course, popcorn and candy was a must so that amount of four bucks grew pretty significantly.

We saw Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which was the 2017 version starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson and Kevin Hart.  I was surprised that virtually none of the group had seen it before.  They all loved it and as we were leaving I was talking about the sequel, Jumanji: the Next Level, and how good it was.  Immediately plans were being made to rent the movie and watch it tomorrow.  You will have to stay tuned to see if that happens or not.

The 13 of us piled into 4 cars.  The adults (I was not included in their number) decided to go to the bowling alley restaurant.  They called ahead to tell them that there were 13 of us and could we come there to eat.  We were told that it wouldn’t be a problem so we paraded our cars through town to the Northern Lights Recreation Pub and Bowling.

Our poor waitress, who only had two other customers, freaked out when she saw us saying that no one told HER that we were coming.  We told her not to panic and that we were not in a rush.  That didn’t help…..she still panicked.  However, she got all of our orders perfect and did a greats job.  I’m not sure how it happened but I wound up at the Kid’s Table.  Then again, I think that it was more fun at the Kid’s Table as they showed me how to make hats and boats out of the place mats.

We piled back into the 4 cars and headed even FARTHER north to a beachy area nearly at the top of The Mitten. This was at Sturgeon Bay Beach which is another inlet off of Lake Michigan.

The day that started off kind of cloudy and gloomy was now sunny and warm.  Lake Michigan’s waters were calm and for some reason there were only a few beach goers.  The kids and adults alike hit the water and had a great time………I would like to clarify that the list of adults swimming in Lake Michigan did NOT include me.  I am used to 80 plus degree water along Daytona Beach and NOT stupid cold water like Lake Michigan.  I did, however, give in and let them take pictures of me “ankle deep” in the water.  I was able to chip the ice away later as the St. Bernards were refreshing me with their offerings.  When not swimming the kids were digging a hole.  I am not totally sure of the purpose of the hole but it was deep.  I told them that if they happened to break through to order me some egg foo young and egg rolls.

As dusk was rolling in we packed up and all headed out.  Ivan is my next grandchild in line for a driver’s license was allowed to drive us back under the supervision of his mom.  The fact that I am writing this is proof that all went well.

We stopped at the store and got some DiGiorno pizzas to munch on after we got home.  To say the least, it was a very full, exhausting, and absolutely wonderful day.  However, it WAS the end of the day and by 10:30 or so we all made it to our various places of slumber and Day 11 was now in the history books.

 

Sunday’s Miles: 0.0  Total Miles: 1619.6

 

Today was one of those rare days when everyone in the house……ok, there are only 4 of us……were allowed to wake up naturally.  After we were all up and walking around we did still have to put a little flame under the kids to keep them on track.  The “plan” for today was to get to Josh’s house around 10:30 or 11:00 where Josh and his wife, Jen, would be preparing a pancake breakfast.

That part of the plan seemed to go really well.  I am always a sucker for anything cinnamon and Jen made a healthy batch of cinnamon swirl pancakes with a bowl of cinnamon sugar spread to cover them with…….hmmm, I suppose that using the word “healthy” might not have been the most accurate.  All was delicious.

The rain that started the day had long since moved out and the sun was shining.  Since there were some able bodies around there was some moving, removing, and shifting of furniture between rooms, floors, and inside/outside.   Making sure that you have the complete and accurate picture of the event you can note that I did not include myself in those able body lists.  There are some definite advantages to being the OLD guy on the premises.  I did carry some of the couch cushions up the stairs but I insured myself that I took plenty of breaks and drank lots of fluids.  The kids helped by……..by not helping.  That is something that carries on from generation to generation.  I can remember me and my siblings helping my dad the best by staying totally out of his way.  And if we forgot that process he was quick to remind us.

A couple of games were pulled out.  One was “How Well Do You Know Me” where each person in turn would read a question about themselves such as, “what was my  favorite toy” or “who is my celebrity crush” and all the other players would try to guess the answer.

The other game was called “Things”.  In that game everyone took turns being the “reader” and they would read a card that would say something like “a thing that you wish you could buy from a vending machine”.  All the players would write down an answer and then everyone tries to guess who wrote what.  Lots of fun, lots of laughs, and lots of trying to come up with the weirdest answers.

The grill was fired up and there were plenty of hot dogs and burgers for everyone.  Everyone got their fill and were happy as Punch.  Monique and Kris then loaded up most of the kids and took them to a creek for a small (about a mile or so) hike to burn off a little bit of the cinnamon, burgers, and dogs.  I preferred to hang onto my cinnamon, burgers, and dogs so I bowed out choosing instead to stay at the house and give Lisa a call.

The group got home telling stories of seeing owls and splashing in the creek.  They rewarded themselves with some ice cream before we all settled down to watched the promised Jumanji: The Next Level.

After the movie came the hard part.  I had to start saying goodbye to kids and grandkids.  Since I would be leaving in the morning and I was staying at Monique’s house I needed to say goodbye to a lot of bodies.  I’ve had to do this so many times over the years and it has NOT gotten any easier.  In fact, it has gotten harder because there are so many more of them.

At Monique’s house she got her stuff ready because she would be going back to work in the morning.  At the same time I did my “preliminary” packing and loading of the bike.  I bid her good night because I knew that I would see her in the morning.  Then it was off to bed for my last night in Northern Michigan on this trip.

If you enjoyed your read give this a Like and Share.  Also, feel free to drop me a line by email at donbova1966@yahoo.com, in messenger, on my Facebook timeline, or a comment on the blog.  Lastly, if you have missed previous chapters all you have to do is find them over to the right and catch yourself up.