Fun, Family, Friends and Food

Our son, Michael, is visiting from Thailand.  When his cousin, Mike, found out he was coming home he hopped a flight from Philadelphia to spend a little time with him.  

Bonus - he brought his wife, Michelle along and extra bonus - his son, Andrew as well.

Time was short so we packed as much as we could into yesterday.

A trip to Saugatuck included lunch at Phil's and a little shopping. 

We rounded out our time there with a trip up Mt.Baldy.

A different perspective of the "big lake" was had from the channel in Holland - Ottawa Beach and "Big Red."

The evening was capped off with a delicious meal at our new, local restaurant, The Redtail.

L to R:  Michael, Mike, Peter and Andrew

Michelle and me

Steps up to Mt.Baldy - 303 of them times 2 for coming down.

They lived to tell.  No one fainted.

No sweat was involved.  The quads squawked a bit, tho'.

No photos of the other meals.  I was totally focused on these fantastic ribs.

Michael's 2 buds (Travis in the middle and Chris on the right) came to sweep him away for a while.  They were only missing the "4th amigo," Ryder but we'll see him soon in Traverse City.

I was going to do a blog about Redtail when I took Petey there for his 70th birthday lunch but never got around to it so here are the pics I took for that blog.

This one and the 3 above are all of the bar.

This is the dining area looking back toward the kitchen.

This is John.  One of the smiling fellows you'll see making the goodies in the kitchen.

A good time was had by all.

My Mom

Life is different without mom but she left a lot behind.  She left her love of reading which my sisters and I share.

She left a zest for life which everyone whoever met her felt.

This is a picture of 4 generations and I'm so grateful that the 4th generation shared many, many visits with mom.

She got a real kick out of her younger (by 13 months) brother as did the rest of us.

When mom wanted to know how to do something, she searched until she found someone that could guide her.  This day, the experience of riding a Harley fell into her lap and she couldn't jump on fast enough. That was mom.

We adored her.  So did her two son-in-laws Peter and John.  Her grandchildren Laura, Jeff, Mark, Chris and Michael.
Her influence on her two great-grandchildren, Cody and Kaelyn, will be felt for the rest of their lives.

I haven't cried much since mom died because I was so grateful that she died content and comfortable but something is dripping from my eyes today.

Thank you to everyone who reached out to my sisters and me.  Your calls, cards, emails, etc. have meant the world to us.

I read and heard, over and over, two words:  "Influenced" and "Inspired."  Mom touched so many people.  If you were one of the lucky ones - you know what I mean.

Wind Chimes

How do you feel about them?  Do you have any?  Are they the ones that emit the light, fairy-like tinkling sound or the ones that sound like a soft gong?

If you have wind chimes, do you have neighbors nearby?  Do they like your wind chimes?

I think it's kind of like your favorite music that you're sure everyone else loves too. You want them to hear your favorite tunes - all the time and at max volume.

Possibly not.

We had very close neighbors at the family cottage in South Haven. When I say "close" I mean when someone next door sneezed, someone in our cottage would politely say "bless you."  Well, we really weren't "bless you" people but I don't know how to spell the German word others use.

Anyway, those neighbors had a wind chime that hung from a front corner of their cottage.  It was small.  It was made of glass.

You can imagine what it sounded like when the wind blew.  

Yeah, glass breaking all damn night long.

I finally couldn't take it any more so I politely asked them to take it down.  The lady was nice and complied.  If it had been up to the man (whom we did not like) I would have had to make the thing "disappear" in the dead of night.

So if you have wind chimes you might want to think about your neighbors.