I think I forgot to mention this, but last week as we were packing up the truck I kept having this funny feeling that the realtor was going to call us on vacation and want to show the house. So, as I was packing, I was also straightening and cleaning up a little. Sure enough, just before we pulled out of the driveway the realtor called and had a showing for the next day!! We made arrangements for him to get a key, and left confident that the house was in pretty good shape -- except for the front lawn which hadn't been cut in a month because our mower was (still is!) broken!
He called last night to give us feedback. This was a younger couple, early 30s, who are looking to relocate from Detroit to Ann Arbor. The man is apparantly a record promoter, and is expecting a large increase in money from investors. So, they are looking for a house suited to their "new stature", whatever that means. They found our home online, and asked for a showing, but according to the feedback from their realtor our home wasn't quite "glitzy" enough for them - but neither were the other 4 houses they looked at. So, nothing new on the home front, but that's OK.
As for the RV, it's been at Duncan RV Repair in Elkhart, IN for the last 3 weeks, where they have been taking care of many minor imperfections to bring it up to "new" condition -- pretty much all of which is covered by the Newmar warranty. The folks at Duncan have been great, and they are going to have it ready for us to pick up Monday morning. YEAH!!
I can't believe that today is the last day of July -- the summer is going SO fast!! The start of school is just around the corner. My boys go back on Aug. 25th, which is 2 weeks before Labor Day, and WAY TOO EARLY, if you ask me! I'm half tempted to keep them home those 2 weeks! Oh well, I probably won't . . .
Have a good weekend, everyone!!
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Our tenting trip comes to an end
We got rain again Saturday night, but not too much. It was still pretty gloomy in the morning, so we just got dressed and headed right into Frankfort for the 9am mass at St. Ann's. We got there by 8:30, so we sat in the truck for a bit and I uploaded the rest of my pictures from the camera to the computer. After mass, we went to the Crescent City Bakery to enjoy donuts, coffee and wi-fi. When I finished up the Wed - Fri post, it was still overcast, but the radar said that we should get some sun in the afternoon. Our friends had gone to the dunes in the morning, but all the kids really wanted to go tubing down the Platte River, so we decided to all meet back at the campground for lunch and then go tubing.
We stopped at a little farm market to get some fresh cherries and cinnamon bread (YUM!), and then picked up subs from Subway for lunch. It was still only about 63 degrees and cloudy, so I decided to skip the tubing adventure and stay with the dog. We had already gotten one warning about leaving her "unattended" -- in her crate, in our screenroom!
I dropped everybody else off at the river and told them I'd meet them at the beach at the end of the river in 2 hours. Casey and I took a long walk around the campground, and then I headed down to the beach. I could see them floating along in their tubes, and knew I'd have some time still before they reached the beach. I took a stoll on the beach, collecting some pretty rocks and a few petoskey stones.
Just when I got back to the truck, they were walking up from the river - freezing! I took a quick picture of the tubers, and then loaded them up to go back to the campground.
They all decided to go for warm showers, and then we drove up to the little village of Empire for dinner at "Joe's Friendly Tavern." It was indeed a friendly place, and Joe himself seated us. Tari had whitefiish, Paul had a grilled chicken salad, I had an "award-winning" hamburger, and tom had the special -- duck medallions on a bed of spinach greens, with goat cheese and dried cherries. It was quite a presentation -- too bad I didn't bring my camera!! Nicolas had a philly cheessteak sandwich, Bryce and Hannah had noodles, and Jensen had chicken fingers. Everybody's food was delicious, and we left there stuffed! Not too stuffed to pass up the ice cream at "Tiffany's" next door, though!! Tom and I shared a cone . . .
Since we were all eating ice cream, we decided to take a walk. Our camping neighbors had told us that the beach in Empire is quite beautiful, and they were right! Just a few blocks from "downtown", it's a lovely beach with a playground, seating areas, and firepits on the beach. It would be a great location to watch the sunset over Lake Michigan! We didn't stay for the sunset (no cameras!!), but we did let the kids play in the playground for a while -- even Nicolas enjoys playing still!
Back at the campground, we started a fire and enjoyed the evening.
Casey was apparantly exhausted!
No more rain Sunday night, so we only had to wait for the dew to dry off the tents the next morning before we could start packing up. We got everything in the truck and were ready to hit the road around 11:30am, 30 minutes before checkout. We said good-bye to our good friends, hoping that we'll be camping with them again soon - but in our camper next time!!
We stopped at a little farm market to get some fresh cherries and cinnamon bread (YUM!), and then picked up subs from Subway for lunch. It was still only about 63 degrees and cloudy, so I decided to skip the tubing adventure and stay with the dog. We had already gotten one warning about leaving her "unattended" -- in her crate, in our screenroom!
I dropped everybody else off at the river and told them I'd meet them at the beach at the end of the river in 2 hours. Casey and I took a long walk around the campground, and then I headed down to the beach. I could see them floating along in their tubes, and knew I'd have some time still before they reached the beach. I took a stoll on the beach, collecting some pretty rocks and a few petoskey stones.
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| From 200907_Platte River |
Just when I got back to the truck, they were walking up from the river - freezing! I took a quick picture of the tubers, and then loaded them up to go back to the campground.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
They all decided to go for warm showers, and then we drove up to the little village of Empire for dinner at "Joe's Friendly Tavern." It was indeed a friendly place, and Joe himself seated us. Tari had whitefiish, Paul had a grilled chicken salad, I had an "award-winning" hamburger, and tom had the special -- duck medallions on a bed of spinach greens, with goat cheese and dried cherries. It was quite a presentation -- too bad I didn't bring my camera!! Nicolas had a philly cheessteak sandwich, Bryce and Hannah had noodles, and Jensen had chicken fingers. Everybody's food was delicious, and we left there stuffed! Not too stuffed to pass up the ice cream at "Tiffany's" next door, though!! Tom and I shared a cone . . .
Since we were all eating ice cream, we decided to take a walk. Our camping neighbors had told us that the beach in Empire is quite beautiful, and they were right! Just a few blocks from "downtown", it's a lovely beach with a playground, seating areas, and firepits on the beach. It would be a great location to watch the sunset over Lake Michigan! We didn't stay for the sunset (no cameras!!), but we did let the kids play in the playground for a while -- even Nicolas enjoys playing still!
Back at the campground, we started a fire and enjoyed the evening.
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| From 200907_Platte River |
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| From 200907_Platte River |
Casey was apparantly exhausted!
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| From 200907_Platte River |
No more rain Sunday night, so we only had to wait for the dew to dry off the tents the next morning before we could start packing up. We got everything in the truck and were ready to hit the road around 11:30am, 30 minutes before checkout. We said good-bye to our good friends, hoping that we'll be camping with them again soon - but in our camper next time!!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 26th - a BEAUTIFUL day
We had quite a bit of rain overnight on Friday, but woke up Saturday morning to a promising day . . . and we stayed pretty dry overnight!
We had waffles and sausage for breakfast, and then discussed our options for the day.
Our neighbors from West Virginia told us about a really nice hike to Paradise Point, a sand dune bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands. They also told us about some "secret beaches" along the Good Harbor Bay, which sounded like a great destination to us.
We packed lunches, loaded up the beach gear and the dog, and headed out. Our first stop was the Paradise Point Trail, and we weren't the only ones who thought it was a good idea -- we were lucky to get the last 2 parking spots! It's a 0.6 mile hike UP to the overlook,
but boy is the view worth it! The day was really clear, and you could see for miles! We could see South Manitou Island clearly in the distance.
Here's our group, contemplating the distance down to the lake!
The kids would have loved to run down that dune, but no way were we letting that happen!
The Gimmarro's pose for a family picture.
Here's Casey taking a rest after her swim.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped in the little town of Glen Arbor to walk around and check out the various shops. Our favorite was The Cherry Republic -- with more cherry products than you can possibly imagine! They had snack mixes, several versions of chocolate-covered cherries, cookies, salsas, candies . . . and on and on! The best part was -- they had samples out of pretty much everything!! We all enjoyed the offerings, and left with some chocolate covered cherries and sour cherry candies for the kids. Next stop was the wine and pop tasting room . . . there were several varieties of wine for the adults to taste, and a half dozen cherry soda pops for the kids to taste . . . we really liked the cherry cream soda -- YUM! Tom and I purchased a bottle of wine to add to our wine rack at home . . . we need to start drinking them - our shelf is full!
We had waffles and sausage for breakfast, and then discussed our options for the day.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
Our neighbors from West Virginia told us about a really nice hike to Paradise Point, a sand dune bluff overlooking Lake Michigan and the Manitou Islands. They also told us about some "secret beaches" along the Good Harbor Bay, which sounded like a great destination to us.
We packed lunches, loaded up the beach gear and the dog, and headed out. Our first stop was the Paradise Point Trail, and we weren't the only ones who thought it was a good idea -- we were lucky to get the last 2 parking spots! It's a 0.6 mile hike UP to the overlook,
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
but boy is the view worth it! The day was really clear, and you could see for miles! We could see South Manitou Island clearly in the distance.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
Here's our group, contemplating the distance down to the lake!
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
The kids would have loved to run down that dune, but no way were we letting that happen!
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
The Gimmarro's pose for a family picture.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
We hiked back down to the trucks, and then headed down the road to Good Harbor Bay. There's a dirt road that runs parallel to the coast, and multiple locations where you can park and take a short little hike to the beach. We picked a spot, grabbed our beach gear, and headed to the beach -- through the woods, across a small river, and onto the sand. We all ate our lunches, and then spent a couple of peaceful hours searching for petoskey stones, swimming out to the sand bar, and napping! Even Casey spent some time swimming -- we found a stick to throw to her, and she would have jumped into the water to retrieve it all afternoon! It was an awesome afternoon!
Here are Bryce and his friend, Jensen, swimming back from the sandbar.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
Here's Casey taking a rest after her swim.
 |
| From 200907_Platte River |
On the way back to the campground, we stopped in the little town of Glen Arbor to walk around and check out the various shops. Our favorite was The Cherry Republic -- with more cherry products than you can possibly imagine! They had snack mixes, several versions of chocolate-covered cherries, cookies, salsas, candies . . . and on and on! The best part was -- they had samples out of pretty much everything!! We all enjoyed the offerings, and left with some chocolate covered cherries and sour cherry candies for the kids. Next stop was the wine and pop tasting room . . . there were several varieties of wine for the adults to taste, and a half dozen cherry soda pops for the kids to taste . . . we really liked the cherry cream soda -- YUM! Tom and I purchased a bottle of wine to add to our wine rack at home . . . we need to start drinking them - our shelf is full!
Arriving back at the campground, we decided to have pizza hobo pies for dinner, so we got a campfire going right away. This was the first time we have made the pizza version of the pies, and they were definitely delicious! Our friends use biscuit dough instead of bread, and those looked really good, too . . . more like thick-crusted pan pizza. The rest of the evening, we just enjoyed the campfire while the kids played Uno, and called it a night around 11:30. What a great day!
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