Summer Vacation at White Lake

Bobbie's parents retired to White Lake, MI. Their modest place was the scene of many family gatherings over the years. Though they have both passed on, the tradition continues as we spent a week there recently. It is a time to relax and simplify.

One of the first stops is always Pitkins Drug Store to pick up White Lake t-shirts or hats. Across the street is the General Store where the knowledgeable grab a bag or two of the best dark chocolate malted milk balls in many a mile.














White Lake is connected to Lake Michigan by a channel, thanks to the Army Corps of Engineers. Here are Grif and Lauren , who for the sake of this picture are each pretending to not be actively plotting the demise of the other as they stroll the beach.









Grif , believing his sister to be dead at last, begins to tunnel to China and a new life in the Orient.













A short drive to the north allows a visit to the Little Point Sable lighthouse...












which can be climbed. Here we are at the top.

That's Bobbie way down there (in the middle).









Grif excavating a small dune.












Remember "Surf City" by the Beach Boys? I don't they think ever loaded their boards into a woodie with the panache of this one by Rolls Royce, spotted at the Whitehall Wooden Boat show.










Of course, there were actually some wooden boats at the Wooden Boat Show. Nice little craft here.
















Posing for a family shot before returning to home.

The Annual Scout Camp Haircut

Last Sunday we packed up the van and drove Grif to Boy Scout summer camp. It's a nice private camp owned by Crystal DeHaan.
She and the scoutmaster go back a few years and she allows the troop to use it for their week-long camp. It is on Monroe Lake, so there are opportunities for canoing and fishing.























Grif got settled in to his tent...













and his sister paid him a little visit. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?


In the weeks before camp, a release form is sent home with regard to haircuts. It is a camp tradition to provide bizarre haircuts to the campers. The release specifies that the resulting cut will, no doubt, be one of the worst haircuts ever seen. They haven't been wrong yet.


And so, we were anxiously awaiting Grif's return to see the creative output of the clipper-happy scouts.





Upon his return home, things initially looked pretty normal, except he seemed to be missing his eyebrows... Hmmm...













Whoa! Are we looking into the future?
































Grif fancies himself as a film director some day. There may be a resemblance to Ron Howard...











He's smiling in this picture, but immediately after it was taken, he was whisked away to the barber shop for a buzz. When he did the math regarding when he was likely to need another haircut, he was not smiling so much.

He speculates that this may be the last year for the
special cut. Who can blame him. He will probably look like this soon enough, without the possibility of growing it back!

It was twenty years ago today...

At the time we were married, July 11, 1987 (when I was merely an Approaching-Middle-Age Curmudgeon), I thought twenty years seemed like a long time. As I look back on it, it seems like a very short time to be able to spend with such a wonderful woman. I think our relationship has gone rather well for two people who met and fell in love on a psychiatric ward! Little did I know that having lunch at the old Cattle Company would lead to a marriage and two beautiful children (not to mention dogs, fish and hermit crabs). Now our lives are sufficiently intertwined that I cannot imagine a world without Bobbie; fun, hard-working, loving, spiritual, intelligent, beautiful Bobbie. As time goes by, I increasingly believe that marrying her was the best thing that has ever happened to me. Today's video is my attempt to depict the woman I have been looking at for the past twenty (plus!) years.

Happy Independance Day!

Our subdivision had the annual fireworks extravaganza last night. One of our neighbors provides 45 minutes or so of pyrotechnic entertainment for one and all. Folks drive in from all around to see it. The streets are choked with automobiles parked on both sides, leaving a single-lane channel to navigate through. We are fortunate enough need merely to travel to our back yard.













Lauren found the whole affair rather tiring, as did faithful Bella.