NMG Picnic at Higgins Lake

Had a nice phone conversation with Dylan this morning to start our day off right! He wanted to talk about a dinosaur game he is working on.

Drove over to Higgins Lake to the Lyon Twp. Park #27 for a meet and greet picnic of the Northern Michigan Geocachers. This is a group which is kind of a break-off group of MiGo, the official Michigan Geocachers Organization. We belong to both groups, and we don't play favorites.

The picnic was delightful - good food - good friends - good conversation. And the day was cooler and not so humid. So it was delightful all the way around.

After the picnic, Dick and I did a dozen caches in that area - that's a lot to log! Thank goodness that Dick takes care of that!

It was almost a perfect day, except we made the mistake of stopping in Kingsley for dinner at the Pine Tree Cafe. Don't.

But the good far out-weighed the bad!

For Rent

I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe....we drove past Mother's ex-house today, and there's a big For Rent sign out in front. The window treatments have all been removed, and there are mini-blinds in the front window. What a strange feeling!

I know there will be a lot of changes yet to come. Like I said, it's now in a parallel universe.

Banker's Hours, or Hours at the Bank

Dick and I spent 2 hours at the bank today setting up 2 CDs with the check for Mother's house. It wasn't really that complicated, it's just that it was time-consuming. Plus we had to wait a bit before the banker was free to see us.

We deposited that big check, and got a free box of plastic storage containers. Whoopee!

Visited Mother with the details - she's relieved that everything is over and taken care of. And so are we all.

Closing

Jim arrived this morning to go to the closing meeting for Mother's house. We had good conversation, and then had to leave for the meeting. We were in the waiting area when John and Jillian arrived, and we all introduced each other. The meeting was not too lengthy, the papers were all signed, the checks were distributed, and all was well. The house is now sold. A fait accompli.

The buyer, Jennifer, is a real estate agent and a renovator. She plans to fix the house up and then sell it. She does most of the renovation by herself, surprisingly enough. I think it will be interesting to see what she does with it.

Jim went to spend the afternoon with Mother. Dick and I went on a Subaru Cruise until it was time for his haircut. I dropped him off and waited at Horizon.

Jim spent the night with us. Dick did burgers on the grill and we had sweet corn. It was fun to have Jim here - I really enjoyed it. Mother enjoyed it too.

Active July!

Laurie, Chip and Dylan arrived on July 8th, and Laurie and Dylan left yesterday morning (August 2).

During that period of time, for one long weekend, we had our whole family here at one time, a very rare occurrence. Tom and his friend Conni arrived on July 14th, and Jana got here on the evening of the 15th. Tom and Conni had to leave on the 18th, but Jana was able to stay for a week, leaving on July 24th. Chip left soon after because he had to go back to work.

The entire month went by in a blur of activities - it seemed to go so fast!

During July, we watched the Cherry Festival Parade, attended the Harry Potter Book Release, and the First Annual Traverse City Film Festival. (Laurie and I went to see "You, Me, and Everyone We Know" at the Opera House. And Dick, Laurie, Dylan and I went to see "The Princess Bride" at the Open Space. Such fun! Both times I wanted to see more movie! I wasn't ready for either of them to end.)

Laurie, Chip and Dylan went to the zoo (see Dylan's post) where he actually took marvelous pictures with his digital camera. His Mom put his zoo pictures into a little photo album.

We played in 4 counties - Leelanau, Benzie, Grand Traverse, and Antrim.

We went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes, shopping in Glen Arbor. Everybody visited Mother - Laurie and Dylan about 6 times, Tom and Jana once each. Mother was delighted. Altogether, Sharkie Crew and Basswoodbend found 15 or 16 geocaches all over the place. We boated on 2 lakes, Torch Lake and Long Lake. On Long Lake Shelly, Autumn and Brooke came with us. On Torch Lake we played on the sandbar, Dylan got to pilot the boat, and we pulled Chip and Dylan on the tube.

Dylan visited many playgrounds - Darrow Park, Kids' Cove, East Bay Park, Bryant Park. We played miniature (immature) golf twice at Pirate's Cove. Dylan loves it! It really was fun, even though the temps were in the 90s.

We ate out at every restaurant you've ever heard of. Well, maybe not. Mongolian Barbecue, Scott's Harbor Grill, Apache Trout Grill, Green House Cafe, Cafe Amical, North Peak, Dinghy's in Frankfort, Friendly Tavern in Empire, Docksides on the Clam River, Rico's - I know I'm forgetting something - oh yes, Mancino's pizza twice and subs twice. We really helped the economy in July!

The Basswood Bend Film Festival really turned Dylan into a budding director. We were subje.... um.... privileged to watch several Dylan productions after Gen Fest. There was Return of Pig, Sharkie Adventures I & II, Everquest videos too numerous to count, and a couple of videos showing Dylan saving the world. Whew!

In the meantime, Mother's house has been sold - the closing is today. Mother has already signed all of the papers - the title company was kind enough to send a notary to witness her signatures. Jim is coming up from Saginaw for the closing, and he will be staying with us tonight.

Tomorrow is my day off.

Bye Bye

Laurie and Dylan flew away back to Florida this morning. We returned to an empty and quiet house. Washed sheets and changed beds. Dick moved back into his bedroom. Heavy sigh.

Dylan's Day at the Zoo

Dylan says:

Today we went to the zoo. The thing I liked the best was the wolf and the coyote.

The first thing we saw was turtles. I took a picture of the turtles. My camera went click, click. I also took a picture of a swimming turtle. My camera went click.

Next we went to the birds. When we got to the birds, the first bird we saw was the bald eagle. I took a picture. My camera went click click clickety click click. Next we went to visit the turkey vulture. I took a picture of it. My camera went click. Then we visited the barn owl. I took a picture of it. My camera went click click clickety click... click.

Then we found the beavers. They weren't out. We went into the beaver dam. We saw one. I took a picture of it. Except the flash bounced off the glass and it was a picture of a big white thing. I deleted that picture. I forgot to tell you that my camera went click.

We moved on to the bear. I took a picture of that too. My camera went clickety click click delete, clickety click click delete click click. Then we moved on to a bob cat. I took a picture. My camera went clickety clickety click click clickety clack clack click. Then we moved on to the wolves and the coyote. I took a picture. My camera went click. Then we went to the big elk.
My camera went click delete. We moved on to the cherry buffalo. They were gone! No where in sight. So we walked back past the elk. I took another picture of the elk. Past the wolves and coyotes... to the minks! I took a picture of the the minks - click, click. Then we moved on to the red fox. I took a picture... click.

Then we went into a big building. There were animals in tanks there. We saw a snake that was fake. I didn't take a picture of the snake that was fake. We saw a real snake, a real frog, and I saw some crickets. I did not take a picture of the crickets. Then we went to the raccoon. So, because the raccoon wasn't there, I tried to take a picture of a chipmunk outside of the cage. But the chipmunk was behind the fence and I couldn't get the chipmunk into focus. I ran around the fence to get closer to the raccoon cage that would bring me closer to the chipmunk. But Mommy and Daddy yelled at me. They said it was time to leave.

But before we left, I took a picture of the most important thing of all.... Mommy and Daddy. And they weren't in a cage.

Then we went to the Boardman River. [Union St. Bridge at 6th St.] We went down the stairs to the Boardman River. I threw huge, gigantic rocks into the river. Ducks and a big fat dog came swimming by. A man shouted Lucy and whistled. The dog made a big splash and jumped out of the water. It ran towards the man and they went right up the stairs. And when they went up the stairs that gave me an idea.

I picked up a rock, and I climbed the stairs to the top of the bridge. I pushed the rock off the edge of the bridge. Ker-plop.

Then we went home and played with Auntie Jana on the computer playing Everquest. Then we were looking for Jloubelle's corpse. Grandma's advice was to cast enduring breath but we didn't have any fish scales. I sang an encouraging song to Auntie Jana:

I know you're gonna find the fish scales
I really know you are
Come on now, Don't give up now
Keep looking - You're going to get those gnolls back for what they did to you.
You're gonna get them back I just know you are,
You're going to find the fish scales,
You're searching the downtown streets,
Searching the uptown streets,
You're going to find the fish scales.
Oh yes those fish scales are yours!
Yeah yeah yeah.

So then Auntie Jana decided to go to the fishing supply store. No fish scales. Then we went to the other fishing sell-guy - no fish scales. Then we went to general supplies number one - no fish scales.

Long story short, we found Jloubelle's corpses with the help of some other druid.

Dylan's Report on the Making Of "The Piggy Mystery"

Dylan says:

Dylan liked the movie making the best. [The Piggy Mystery]
The movie we made was about two detectives. The detectives are 2 boys - one 7 [Dylan], one 11 [J.P.] They're visiting their grandma and grandpa [Uncle Doug].

The two boys were playing Toss the Pickle. The 7 year old had a bad throw, kneeled down to pick up the pickle, and they saw a red pig. The 7 year old picked it up. The 11 year old said What's that? I said It's a pig. The grandpa said Hey give me that pig and snatched it from me and walked right out of the room. We pulled out our detective hats, nodded, and got to work. We had every intention to figure out what was in that pig that grandpa didn't want us to get.

Grandpa got into the car, but it was tricky because there was one thing that the Wonder Boy Detective Agency didn't teach us how to do....and that was learn how to drive. We had to think of something, and really, really fast.

We ran into the house. Mommy [Jana], Daddy [John Lichtenberg], we have to follow grandpa - he's getting away with the pig. Dad said, the pig? Mom said, OK.

Following Grandpa was hard because there were no other cars on the road and we were only 10 feet behind him. It was also hard because we didn't know which way he was going to turn because he always had his left turn signal on. Grandpa parked the car. He threw the pig off the bridge!

After that, Grandpa reeled it back in after we went back home.

Dick's Report on GenFest 2005 - The Basswood Bend Film Festival

Dick reported:

Well another Gen-Fest is in the history books and it might have been the
best one yet..

We had a total of 33 enthusiastic participants. All of Gen's living descendants were in attendance except for cousin Molly who is in summer school at the University of Hawaii, and my eldest brother's two kids who are estranged for reasons that are not totally clear to me. I sent them
invitations with hand written notes that we missed seeing them but did not
receive a response.

Cousin Kevin had the most adventurous trip. He was attempting to fly in
from Phoenix through Detroit on North Worst but the flight to TC was
cancelled. He teamed up with others from the flight to rent a van and drive
up. He got here about 5 a.m.. One reason he made such an effort was to
announce his engagement to Amy. That gave us an excuse to break out the
Champagne and the wine glasses. The wedding will be in San Diego so Tom can
look forward to some house guests.

My day started at midnight sitting beside Dylan on the curb by the side of
Front Street in downtown Traverse City. We were waiting for the new Harry
Potter book to go on sale. Laurie stood in line while we waited outside.
We were certainly not lonely. Hundreds of people had joined us for the
festivities which started at 10:00 p.m. There was a scavenger hunt involving
quite a few of the downtown stores as well as numerous characters from the
books. Many of our fellow Potter fans were fully costumed although we were
not. It was a fun time but after a full morning of work at the Visitor
Center and an afternoon of pre party set up at home, I was bushed. The
fatigue bug had bitten Dylan as well and we decided to wait in the car. By
the time his Mommy got back with the books he was fast asleep. It was after
1 a.m. when we got back to the house.

I was up and at'em a little after 6 a.m. and discovered that I was nearly out
of charcoal for the grill. I had a trip into town scheduled anyway because
we had a video camera reserved for rental at the local camera shop.
Each year we try to have some unique and fun event that can involve all
ages at our Gen-Fests. For example, last year was competitive Geocaching
and the year before was a Rubber Duck race. So while the rest of the
inhouse crew, (6), ate breakfast, showered and dressed, I loaded up the car
with recycling and ran my errands.

All went well until I reached the camera shop. It turned out that they
didn't open 'till 10, I wandered the street for 15 minutes and then came
back at just after 10 and they were still closed. It turned out that little
Cindy, she with the nose stud, had also been out late the night before and,
as a result, was 15 minutes late for work.
I was in the door to collect the camera as soon as she opened. She went
into the back room and returned quickly with camera bag, attached to which
was a note with my name on it. She opened it to determine that it's
contents were correct and discovered that it did not contain a camera. She
made a phone call and informed me that Bob would be there in a few minutes
to take care of me. "A few?" "Well 15 to 20 or so".
I wandered off down the street to get a coffee. When Bob got there he
looked and indicated that the camera was missing and its location was
unknown but he told me that they would rent me their (his) in-house camera.
Unfortunately, he was out of the type of cartridge that it required. To get
me in business, he put in the tape of his kid's Physics project and told me
to "Just tape over it". After a quick tutorial, I was on my way.

By the time I got home, the troops had begun to arrive. I started the
grills and worked as greeter until 11:30 when it was time to assign groups
for the First Basswood Bend Film Festival. Their task was to create and
film a movie of at least 5 minutes length in a set genre in which they
utilized a couple of required props. After a short time to gather and
select a director, they picked their genre, Sci-Fi, mystery, adventure,
horror and fantasy were chosen. Then they picked their central prop. They
could choose from; a flag of New Brunswick, a fire extinguisher, a piggy
bank, a picnic basket or pom poms. Finally, they were presented with a
required prop, a large dill pickle and given about 2 hours to eat lunch and
plan their film.
Filming began at 2:30 and every one became quite involved, even those who
approached the concept with some trepidations. In our film, an adventure
saga titled Minnesota Smith and the Basswood Bend Booty" our stars were
reliving Gen Fests past and attempting to discover the plan for next year's
gathering. My roles were as "Indigenous Basswood Bend Native", a war
painted rock throwing thug, and "Evil Uncle Dick", a black clad villain
determined to protect the secret of Gen Fest 06 from our heroes. Cousin
Shelly was awarded the "Genevieve" for "Best Actress" for her performance
as "Drunken Shelly" while Cousin Derek won for "Best Costume". The
interspersed glimpses of a physics lecture between some of the gripping
scenes added greatly to the humor of the project.

In her film, "The Attack of the Slimy, Mutant, Green-Eyed Pickle People
Eater", Nancy played herself as "Dead Aunt Nan" who had been attacked by a
genetically altered version of the required prop, "She's been pickled!" It
won for "Best Film" and Laurie won "Best Director" and tied with Jana for
"Best Cinematographer". Cousin (Dr.) Kevin won for "Best Actor" for his
portrayal of a Doctor. (Type casting?)

Jana filmed and directed an effort that co-starred Dylan with cousin JP as
boy detectives attempting to determine what "Evil Uncle Doug" (see a
pattern here?) had done to the piggy bank. It was a 10/11 vote but Dylan
won the Genevieve for "Best Boy Actor". JP was "Most Enthusiastic".

In another film, Tom was an evil scientist who was creating an army of
Frankenpickles who were attacking and killing picnickers. Chip won for Best
Make Up as the catsup splashed victim of the killer pickle.

The cutest film stared four of the little girls in the under under five set
driving around town looking for pickles. They even got a park Ranger to
respond "No pickles here!" They each won a Genievieve.

Following the viewing and the awards presentation, more food was eaten and
the traditional Gen-Fest recreational activities took place. While some
canoed or tubed, and a valiant group of the moms performed what always
seems to be near permanent KP, others began the volley ball game. It seemed
to be less spirited than past years, partly a function of the lateness of
the day and the heat and humidity but mostly, I fear, the continuous
encroachment of age.

As dusk approached, the campfire was started and those with distance to
travel said their good byes. After an obligatory visit to the campfire and
volleyball observation, the most senior members of the clan blearily sat
and chatted awhile until finally giving in to fatigue and age we waved
farewell and drifted off to bed.

It is reported that the campfire crowd continued to socialize until after 2
but that too was tamer than some past years and there was no evidence of
Molson's ailment in the crew this morning.

Thursday Stuff

Tom and Conni arrive late this evening. We are ready!

Tomorrow night is the picnic set-up. It's all going to end at 10 p.m. or so when all of the Steigers are going to downtown T.C. for the release of the new Harry Potter book. Jana is arriving around 8:15 p.m. tomorrow evening, so she'll be here just in time for all of the Harry Potter fun.
Downtown is really getting into it - the shops have all changed their names to Diagon Alley shop names. The Horizon Bookstore is Flourish and Botts. There's going to be treasure hunt all along Front St. and a human chess game in the street. Somehow, they are planning some sort of Quidditch, although none of us can see how they'll do it. The release of the book is at 12:01 a.m., and we have 3 books reserved.

Today Dick did the final outdoor manicuring of the yard, Chip washed off and inflated all of the tubes, I changed and laundered bed linens and made centerpieces, Laurie set up the playroom. Laurie and I visited Mother and showed her the video of Dylan's Tae Kwan Do class, and a video tour of Laurie's home.

Then we went grocery shopping for the last minute items for Saturday.

Chip visited the chiropractor and Dick and Dylan had ice cream.

Long Lake

Dylan says:

We went on a boat ride. We went to an island.We played in the water. And there was this old water pump and there was a little dry spot that looked like it could hold water that went all the way down the hill into the lake. But then Mommy came and got to be the big funner messer upper ruiner and told me not to make the river. Then me and Daddy and Autumn did something fun. We got lost in the woods. We walked right off the path because it ended, and got lost. So we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and then Daddy decided to go into the water where there weren't cobwebs and spiderwebs and acorns. And then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and then we walked two more feet and then Daddy found a little bullet that was red. Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked up a big hill on the island so Daddy could see the path, and then Daddy came down and said he couldn't see the path and he said I'm sorry to Autumn. (for having to climb the hill)

After that we walked and we walked some more, and then Daddy found the blue bullet, and then we walked and we walked some more and then I asked Daddy if we should get back up in the woods. He said, Are you crazy? And then we kept walking, and walking and walking and walking some more. And then we found another red bullet. And then we walked and we walked some more. And then we saw a sign. Daddy read the sign. It said, No campfires, No dogs. And then we walked seven meters and saw an opening. We came out and we saw the pontoon boat! Me and Autumn ran as fast as we could towards the pontoon boat. Then I shared the Coconut cupcakes with everyone, and they were yummy.

Then we went to another island. And there were stairs on the island. Me, Grandpa, Autumn, Brooke and Mommy followed. Then we saw trees making some X's. Then we saw a giant sized woodpecker hole [probably made by a pileated woodpecker]. Then we walked and we walked and we walked some more. Then we walked ten feet. And saw a million tadpoles!! And lots of good skipping stones. I skipped one that almost went to the other island that we were just on where the pump was where Mommy was the big fun messer upper ruiner. Then we went back past all of that, and back onto the pontoon boat. And then we set sail for home. Then when we got home, we played a game of Follow the Signs. Grandpa won. Then we watched some TV. The we wrote this journal. The End Good Night Good Bye Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me Leave Please I Mean It! Thank You.

Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore (Sand Dunes)

Dylan says:
We went to the dunes and climbed up a big big big hill. And that hill was steep, steep. We got to the top. There was another hill. We climbed that one too. That hill was a steep, steep, steep, steep hill. But we got to the top and rested for about 10 minutes.

Then I ran off a ramp thingy and fell 2 feet. Then I ran all the way down to where these logs were. We went up the hill where the logs were. Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked. And then we saw that someone had built something on the dunes made out of logs. It was shade!! I rested for 3 seconds.

Then we kept going. Then I ran down a hill and went up a hill. This hill was not as steep as the other two hills. In fact, I don't even think that hill was steep. Then we came to this big circle thing. I took a wrong turn and ended up about 35 feet above the ground. Then I lost my balance, caught myself on my feet, and ran down really fast. And I'd say that hill was about 10 steep-steeps. We kept on going through the whole circle thing.

We found ourselves in the middle of a dune desert. We had a drink, then proceeded. Then we came to a slope - we ran down it and went up it. It was as steep as a ladder almost. We got up to the top of it - Mommy and Daddy were still trying to get up. I ran down the other side into a valley and up the other side. And then Mommy and Daddy got to the top on the other side of the valley. They asked me - Dylan - What's over there??!! Some trees, a mountain, and another path!!

Daddy shouts - we don't have enough water for that. I ran down through the valley again and up the other side. Mommy wanted to race me down the hill that's as steep as a ladder. I said, You're on! On your mark, get set, go! I ran - I was in first place. And it got really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really steep! I was twirling and whirling in mid-air! Ker-plop!!!! I went into the sand head first. I wasn't on the bottom - the race was still on. But when I landed face first, a giant sand cloud appeared around me, over my head, and straight at Mommy's face. She was blinded and went back up to the starting line. When the sand cloud went away, she realized that she was on the starting line of the race course, and she said, I won! And I said, Did you notice that you are up and I am down! She looked. She was up. I shouted - I win!

Then we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked and we walked past the dune desert. And we walked and we walked until we came to the big giant slope where we started. Then me and Mommy raced down it and Daddy too.

When I said On your mark, Mommy took a startling leap. She was ahead of everybody. She went before I said go. I started down after her. I picked up a lot of speed. There was a little ramp. I ran off the ramp. I was up in the air, I had enough time to do a flying side kick. It created another sand cloud like my face-plant did. This one stung Mommy's legs. I ran and I ran and I ran as fast as I could. I did a bad aimed flying side kick, and made a smallish sand-cloud that went up to Mommy's ankle.

Just as planned, it hit her in the feet. Before she could stop saying Owie, I was at the bottom. And I shouted I Win!! The End

Dylan Friday

Dylan says:

We were the first finders of a geocache. We walked in the Tunnel of Doom with Grandpa and Mommy. It was a hard hike through the Tunnel of Doom, but we managed. Although Mommy and Grandpa cheated by following a deer path and leaving the Tunnel of Doom to get out.

Alden is Kicking

Dick cooked breakfast for the four of us - he did the banana/pecan thing again - best pancakes in the Western World. He also cooked both bacon and sausage, so we had a most agreeable breakfast. We never run out of things to talk about with Bill and Jan. It was fun to hear about their new condo, all of their grandsons (4), and Belleville gossip. They had to leave early to be back down in Wayne County to pick up Mike and Kim at Metro at 5:45 p.m. So we waved good-by at around 10:30, and they were on their way.

Dick bundled up all of the cardboard out of the garage, loaded up the trash and we went to the dump. He swept the floor of the garage, which still had remnants of sand and salt from last winter.

On the geocaching website, he discovered 3 new caches in Alden, put out by the Alden Search Party. After a second trip to the dump with a forgotten bag, we were off to Alden.

As we entered the village, we couldn't help but notice all the cars and trucks with boat trailers that lined the road on both sides. Of course it is the 4th of July weekend, but we never expected such masses of boats! The boat launch is right at the end of the main street, and people were still launching, and trying to find a place for their trailers. Alden has about a block and a half of "downtown" with little shops and cafes - it's a really unique little place. The villages in Leelanau County, like Glen Arbor, are really a lot more upscale and boutiquey, while Alden maintains a village atmosphere. It was busy, busy, busy - people everywhere. (see link above)

The first cache we attempted was in the Helena Twp. park - a great little park with tennis courts, a nice play-structure, a fitness center, basketball, clean bathrooms, and swings. Our target was over near the swings, and the swings were totally filled with small children being pushed by their dads. So we decided to save it for later. Too many muggles.

Next we went back woodsing to the Helena Twp. Cemetery to find cache #2. This place was deserted, and so we found the cache easily. It seemed to me that the cemetery was way out in the middle of nowhere - kind of unusual. It was also unusual in that there were several plots that had benches as well as headstones.

Back to the park, and the swings were empty. The cache was cleverly hidden, the coordinates were right on, and we had no problem retrieving and replacing it this time.

The 3rd cache was at the Coy Mountain Preserve, which is a hop, skip and a jump from downtown. Dick hiked up the hill a quarter of a mile to find the cache, and that one was easily found also. I stayed in the shady, cool parking area and called Jana on my cell.

Having found all three, we started driving around the lake, and miracle of miracles, we wound up at Docksides for an early dinner. We found a table on the deck. The sun was warm, and the boats on the river were fascinating. You can see just about any kind of watercraft imaginable while sitting out on that deck. There was a profusion of boats on the lake, and the beach by Docksides was jammed also. It's very satisfying to be at Docksides on 4th of July weekend. Of course we can go there anytime we want to, year around, but there's a certain energy abroad today.

We drove home through Torch River, and we could see masses of boats at the Torch Lake sandbar. I've never seen so many people at the sandbar - the boats were in a huge clump 25 boats wide and 5 boats deep. It's quite a scene. http://www.torchlake.com/trr/Torch%20Lake%20Sandbar%20Large%20Photo.html

When we got to T.C. we did a modified Subaru Cruise - downtown Traverse was amazing - we saw huge groups of people (maybe 40 in one group) wearing matching t-shirts - we have no idea what that was about. Front St. was loaded with people - it has to be the busiest time of the year. The Cherry Festival started today. Discretion was the better part of valor, and we didn't go down on the Parkway. I heard on the radio later that the Parkway was bumper to bumper and barely moving.

This was a gorgeous day weather-wise, and activity-wise. We had a great time.

Bill & Jan

Dick worked at the Visitor Center this morning - they had 66 visitors in 3 hours.
Bill and Jan arrived around 11 a.m., and we had a nice visit, shared pictures, broke in the new guest room porch, and waited for Dick.

After a leisurely lunch, Jan and I went to see Bewitched (save your money). We felt that Nicole Kidman sold out a bit - the part was beneath her in my opinion. I went in thinking that she must be a really good sport to take on a part like this, and I left thinking that she made a really bad choice of roles. Will Ferrell was Will Ferrell - cute, funny, and "charming". The story is a yawner - it might have been better to just recreate some of the episodes of the original.

After more visiting and more picture sharing and more gossiping, we went out to dinner at the Big Eazy - very relaxing and casual. Watched the View on TiVo and went to bed.

The weather was rainy, dark and overcast so Dick and Bill didn't get on the river at all.

Sign Here

The carpet cleaners came this morning - they did the living room, dining room and sofa. So the house is a little torn up, with furniture sitting around in odd places.

Dick is working on the landscaping around the new porch. Today he battled the humidity to put down stones along the drip line and mulch around the front.

I took the papers for selling the house to Concord Place for mother to initial and sign. She seems fine, and looks good. She's glad that things are going so well with the house. She seems lonely to me though and a little wistful. I told Dick that maybe Concord Place should be called Wistful Vista - like the old Fibber McGee and Molly Show.

Talked to Laurie and Dylan - it was good to hear from them. Laurie thinks they'll be here for the Big Parade, but it's not etched in stone. They'll stay until the first week of August. Dylan is looking forward to visiting the "Tunnel of Doom". He says you have to keep walking, or you'll lose your shoes. I'm hoping that he'll still want to do blog entries this summer. Last summer was a hoot.

Tom writes that he's coming for a long weekend - Thursday to Monday July 14-18. His friend Conni vanBilliard is coming with him. She must be a brave, brave soul.

Dick and I went to the Cherry Speedway to place the new cache "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines". It's the perfect spot for a cache. We have the owner's permission, and he even sent free passes for us to include in the "treasures". The owner's wife is my nurse at the infusion clinic, which is where we got the idea. http://www.record-eagle.com/2004/may/07cherry.htm

We went for a leisurely ride around Long Lake - very pleasant.

Smoothie Highlight

8:30 a.m. - appointment for annual diabetic eye exam. Everything is great. Only thing is, they dilate your eyes so that you can't stand any bright light for the rest of the day. It finally wore off around 5 p.m.

Dick was my chauffeur. We went to the Flap Jack Shack for breakfast. Breakfast was great, and my eyes were OK as long as I faced away from the windows. Natural light doesn't have the same effect as sunlight.

Meanwhile, Sunday night the crown that was re-cemented last week fell off again. Dr. Kevin doesn't work on Mondays, so I had an appointment today at 1:30. Remember the dilated eyes? When they turn that light on you at the dentist's office, the best thing to do is just close your eyes. I was wearing dark sunglasses too. The crown was back on in 15 minutes. I'm crossing my fingers that this time it will stay put.

We did some errands - Square Deal, K-Mart, Sherwin Williams - checked Mom's house. Then Dick had this great idea of sitting downtown with a cuppa and watching the touristers. We decided on Crema, moved our table so we could see down the street, and I really enjoyed watching the babies and the outfits through my dark glasses. Traverse is really loaded with tourists of all sorts. We've had many 90 degree days lately, and it's perfect summer weather. We saw people walking directly from the beach to Front St. I had the Power Island smoothie - raspberry, strawberry, mango and banana. It was the highlight of my day...

...until later this evening when John called. The buyer person has agreed to our price for Mother's house, and we can initial the agreement tomorrow. Closing will be August 1. Hooray! Hooray!!

Now It's Empty

The Estate Sale was a huge success - only a couple of small tables and some very small items didn't sell. They are totally cleaning out the house today, and it will be empty now. (see link above) We'll get the results of the Estate Sale in approximately 2 weeks.

Our realtor has had an offer on the house which we think is too low, and today we plan to make a counter offer.

We're hoping to have some more interest generated by the Estate Sale. All of the flyers concerning the house were picked up.

Today (June 27) would have been Mom and Dad's 74th anniversary. Yesterday we attended the Concord Place Picnic. Mom used her walker and walked to the elevator and into the community room by herself. It was a very nice picnic - they actually cooked hot dogs and hamburgers out on the grill, so it was authentic. To be honest, these events are always slightly depressing to me - I have the feeling that everybody there, including the residents, would rather be somewhere else. Mother stayed downstairs for about an hour and then was ready to go back to her room. And so were we.

Mother seems to be glad to have the Estate Sale over with - she was interested to hear what I observed during the sale. She can't believe that people actually purchased some of those things - her bed, all of the dressers, the china cabinet, the dining room set, even the kitchen table - everything is gone. She doesn't seem the least bit emotional about it all - just interested. Now she wants to have the house sold. And so do we.

Second Day, Launch, & Power Island

I got up very early and boiled potatoes and eggs, chopped celery and onions getting ready to make potato salad for the Concord Place picnic tomorrow. I wanted to get everything ready because we have a busy day planned. So all of the ingredients are in the refrigerator and the potato salad is ready to be assembled - probably tomorrow morning.

I went in to town to watch the Estate Sale again. Today everything is 50% off, and it's much much cooler, so I think people will definitely have a more pleasant shopping experience. I was sitting there listening to the radio, and heard that the launching of the sloop Welcome was this morning - so I called Dick, and he came into town, and we went out to the coal dock to watch the launch.

There were historical re-enactors there. The soldiers were all dressed in 18th century British Army uniforms, carrying muskets and looking very spiffy. They were re-enacting the King's 8th regiment which was stationed at Fort Michilimackinac in the 1700s and whose soldiers manned the original Welcome. (See link above).

Two huge cranes lifted the vessel off its resting place, swung her around and lowered her into the water. When her hull entered the water, the regiment fired their muskets in unison as a salute. The Welcome's sister ship, the schooner Madeline, honked her horns and everybody cheered. (http://www.mhatc.net/photow.htm)

It was a fascinating event. We were glad we witnessed it. Those two vessels will look so lovely out on the bay. The Welcome still needs to have its main mast installed and most likely won't be sailing around until 2006.

I went back to watch the Estate Sale. Lights were on in the basement - Mother will notice the increase in her Light and Power bill - take my word for it. From where I was parked, I could see people inside the house through the big windows - I don't know why it was so interesting to me, but it was. Lots of ladies came out with blankets and bedding. One man carried out 3 huge boxes of who knows what! Another had one of Dad's power tools still in the original packaging. Once again, there were tons of people coming and going.

Dick's mission today was to take the pontoon boat to Power Island because there are two caches there. He had previously contacted Ray and Jerry and they planned to meet us at the Bowers Harbor launch site to ride along. We got there at the appointed time, and had a very pleasant boat ride to the island. It was overcast and cool, and the bay was flat - good for boating. They found both caches with little trouble. One of the caches is the oldest cache in the entire State of Michigan. I think the whole project only took about 2 hours from launch to take-out. (http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?ID=53) (Scroll down to Basswood Bend)

Dick and I had a very late lunch at the Peninsula Grill, and came home to our computers. When Dick logged on to the geocaching web site, he immediately noticed a new cache over in the Hoosier Valley, so off he went, and he was the First to Find!

I talked to Joan of the Estate Sale people, and they like the location of the Sale so much that they're actually going to open it up again tomorrow morning from 9 to 12. She said that they have sold almost everything of Mother's, and she said that "we think that we've done very well for you". So hooray! They'll clean it all up on Monday.

Right now it seems like a very long time since I chopped those potato salad ingredients (yawn).

First Day of Sale

This was a big day! The first day of Mom's Estate Sale.

They were open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and there were tons and tons of people who stopped to look everything over.

I parked to watch for a while, and people were buying the most unusual things - one lady bought all of Mom's old Christmas wrappings on rolls. Another lady bought all of the gift bags.

People were leaving the yard with boxes, and two kinds of bags, so it was hard to tell what everyone bought. I did see one little old lady who bought two shovels, a hoe, and some pruning shears! And an old gentleman who was all bent over actually bought the ice-melter jug that was 3/4 empty!

One man who bought a shotgun was wearing a State hat. I guess Dad no longer cares. I saw baskets, Kennedy memorabilia, Army cots and sleeping bag and furniture being loaded into cars. One lady had both arms full of books.

The Sale looks to be very successful - a lot of traffic passes by that corner, and I'm sure a lot of the customers stopped on impulse. The Antiques Appraisers people seemed very efficient.

It was a very hot day - the temp got up to 95F, and it was also very humid. I'm sure the upstairs was not very comfortable.