Monthly Archives: August 2013

Last Days at the Lake

Posted on August 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

Failure to Thrive?

I can’t remember what I did yesterday. I read and responded to a weeks worth of work e-mails. It was a beautiful day so I did it all on the front porch. I indulged in a morning kayak to get in the mood. Dad noted that I was wasting a beautiful day so I went for a run before fixing dinner. I thought about going for a swim after my run. I jumped in with my running clothes on inspired by the fact Holly was taking the plunge. I only got up to my waist. The water is still COLD!

Today Dad and I went kayaking to the Point, we returned my rental car, made the obligatory stop at Walmart for groceries. After that exhausting morning Dad took a nap, while I tackled more e-mail. The highlight was a visit to the Gingko tree at Greenwood Cemetery. We took a bucket in case Gingk needed water but they seem to be taking care of that. Dad was pleased with the planting spot but Gingko isn’t thriving.

View Little Traverse Bay from Greenwood

There was an appropriate picturesque sunset for my last night.

Madison, WI –Gardens-Gardens–Church–Garden

Posted on August 12, 2013 | 1 comment

I’m having a great time in Madison. Friday was the zoological garden

I guess they weren’t interested in us.

and biking along the lake to Muir Woods and Picnic Point.

Saturday was a the very crowded downtown Madison Farmer’s Market, a solo bike along the lake and the Olbrich Botanical Gardens with butterflies in the conservatory.

Today we toured the Frank Lloyd Wright designed First Unitarian Church of Madison

and Allen Centennial Gardens at the University of Wisconsin.

The Madison finally was walking to campus and having a beer at the Memorial Union on Lake Mendota.

Wisconsin Capitol Building

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Drive to Madison

Rest stop Newton, MI

It took me about 9 hours to get to Madison. I did make three stops: one rest stop, one lunch stop and one gas/coffee stop. I arrived in Madison about 5:30pm. It was like a replay of last year: find parking, find Leigh, find dinner. We did visit the most high-end Target I’ve ever been to.

It’s nice to be here and Madison is very fun and beautiful at least in the summer.

Sailboats on Lake Mendota

Homeless Owls, Batteries and a Boat

Posted on August 7, 2013 | 2 comments

Non-standard Owl House

Typical “What did we actually do today at the lake?” Kris and Dad relocated two rejected owl houses making use of the new extension ladder to place the potential homes higher and on different trees. Pictured is the house not built to owl specifications. The corrected owl house is in the woods.

The twins called, as I was in Petoskey, and asked me to join them for lunch at the Foot. (Walloon Village) There is a new place that no one can remember the name of. Fifteen minutes after I put in my order our waitress told me that they were out of whitefish! 😦 I ordered chopped salad with quinoa which turned out to me pretty uninteresting. Everyone else’s sandwich was good. The place itself is nice, too bad no one can remember the name.

Table at the Foot

Kris & Holly un-named restaurant

Kris suggested we go for a boat ride. I was dubious because we already had the battery charger employed. Dad’s battery was dead when we went to drive to town. This is a family where we seem to need a lot of battery chargers and miles of utility cord. Amazingly I got the boat started the third try. The problem came when we tried to move it out of the lift. The lake is so shallow that all of us couldn’t push the boat off the lift even though it was fully down. Dad finally jumped in the water and pushed from the back and that along with the large waves from other luckier boats rushing past was enough to set us free.

The Boat that Loves the Lift Too Much

Once we got out in the lake we noticed we only had a quarter tank of gas. Since it was after 6pm we didn’t think we would be able to find a marina open to fill-up so we took a short cruise down the lake towards the North Arm. On the way back Kris took a picture of the Fenstermaker cottage from the lake view. We think they will want to consider a forestry management plan after the house is completed.