Canoeing and Rain and Deer - Oh My!

We headed north to Michigan this past week. Grandma came along again this year. It's getting harder and harder to get a site at the Platte River campgrounds, unless you are in line at 5am. We weren't. So we spent the first night at a little motel we found last year (when the same thing happened). The Pine Knot Inn is for sale, and of course there's a big part of me that would love to buy it. The kids love it up there~
We settled in for the day, and the kids played around the property before we went over to the lakefront~

The next day Scott saved us by getting up before the crack of dawn to reserve a campsite. We set up camp, and then went swimming~




The weather was uncomfortable hot, and made sleeping difficult on Monday night. Tuesday, we stopped for our ice cream breakfast, before going blueberry picking~

Grandma spotted this old bowling sign, and loved it~
Can you think of a more magical street name than this??
The blueberry pickings were slim :( But we had fun anyhow~
No bee stings this year!
After dinner and showers, Sam enjoyed some s'mores~
Mary, too~
Charlie melts my heart with his smile~
I can't remember why, now, but by Wednesday, we already had a lot of laundry that needed washing. So after finding out there isn't a laundromat in Leland, we drove over to Sutton's Bay. What a cute little town~

Wouldn't it be nice if this were your neighborhood playground?
Because it was raining on and off, we figured this also would be a good day to check out the Pierce Stocking drive (click to enlarge photo to see one of the several deer we spotted) ~
Sam begged to go miniature golfing~
And only pouted on about 1/2 the holes~


Because we had more rain than we expected, we ended up eating out a lot more than usual. We had pizza in downtown Beulah, and then took a quick walk by the lake~
I am so glad we were able to convince Grandma to leave after canoeing on Thursday. With so many of us, we needed a canoe, an innertube and Charlie wanted to try kayaking, which Grandma indulged. Somehow, Sam got to go first~
Mary loved it~
It is unbelievably beautiful on the Platte River~

No leeches!
It's only a little bit like Deliverance~
Daddy and his girl~
Mary even got a turn in the kayak~

It was a little windy, but the temps were perfect~
Thankfully the rain held off until we were off the water. Then we did have some heavy downpour while Grandma was packing up to leave.
We tried stopping at a county fair, but it was so small (and had such a steep admission price), that we drove around until we found a bowling alley~
Mary loved it~
So did Sam and Charlie~
But "Hammer" reigned victorious (when Scott and I were first dating, we joined a bowling league together. His ball had the word"hammer" on it and I thought that was his nickname. It's a brand of bowling balls ;) ~
We planned on eating dinner at the Cherry Bowl Gifts and Goodies (where we had cherry pizza last year) before heading over to the Cherry Bowl Drive-in. Imagine our surprise and disappointment to find that the restaurant was already closed for the season :( The Thursday before Labor Day!
It rained while we watched Toy Story 3, but we still had fun~
Scott and I decided, based on the weather forecast, to head home a day early. Our last night in Michigan, the winds were upward of 40mph! At one point I got up to check on Charlie (who was sleeping in Grandma's tent she left behind) and his rain fly was blown back, and rain was sprinkling him in his sleep. I fixed it the best I could in the pitch dark.

The next morning, Scott and I started breaking down camp as soon as we woke. It's good thing we did, because Charlie stuck his head out of his tent and reported he had just vomited :( Three hours later, we were cramming the last bits into the van, and were finally on our way (after chatting briefly with some LDS's). I started feeling sick about 30 minutes into the drive, and Scott shortly followed. We debated stopping and finding a hotel, but figured it would just prolong our misery. Sam and Mary were fine, and we weren't sure what we would do with them while we rested. Seven hellish hours later, and we were home sweet home. I felt like I had been beat with a baseball bat. I realize now, that I've never actually had the flu before, because I would remember something like that. Thankfully, the worst of it seemed to last only about 12 hours - Charlie was up and about that evening. Sam and Mary never actually got sick!

Even with the distressing drive home, we still had a blast! We can't wait until next year :)