Birthday Lunch

Grandpa and I took Mary out for lunch to celebrate her 6th birthday. Outside the restaurant was one of the cakes celebrating St Louis 250th birthday.

 After lunch we had ice cream cones.  You can't celebrate a birthday without ice cream!

And we found another cake on the way back home!

Happy 6th Birthday, Mary!

Cape Cod 2014

I have lots of photos from Cape Cod.  They are not in order.  So you must enjoy them as they are!  Steve and I drove from Michigan to Buffalo, NY.  We stopped at Niagra Falls for a quick peek.

Gussie trying out a new hairdo.

Hanging out waiting for our lunch.

It was an exciting game of putt putt.  I don't think any of us are ready for the pro's yet!

 We ate lunch at the Lobster Pot.  The kids loved looking at the live lobsters.

We went to the Dennisport Park and listened to Monica's new band.

The boys spent most of their time digging in the sand.

Mary's birthday party was at the beach.  The smile on her face never left that day.  She was so excited.

The wind kept blowing her candles out so we had her pretend to blow them out!

One of several beautiful sunsets.

Gussie finally getting up the courage to play in the water.

Michael kept his distance from the water most of the morning.  When no one was looking he went over and got on the paddle board by himself and took off!

On the other hand, Catherine loved it!  You couldn't keep her off of it.

Amber went out several times with the girls in the kayak.

The best part of celery?  The peanut butter!

Leaving Michigan

On our way out of Michigan we saw this.  Not sure what what happened.  What a terrible tragedy!

Steve wanted to use this to eat his lunch with at the all you can eat buffet!

We stopped in Frankenmuth. The downtown area was small, but beautiful.  I don't think I've seen so many beautiful flowers.  We ate lunch at the Bavarian Inn.  This guy serenaded us.

And then we stopped here! Wow!  Bronners is a Christmas store that is huge!  We didn't have time to walk through the whole thing.

Petoskey

We spent the day shopping and touring Petoskey, MI.  What a beautiful town.  It had the best downtown area.  Lots of shopping, restaurants & beautiful big houses.  Here's the Petoskey lighthouse.

Little Traverse Bay in Petoskey

This little guy was very entertaining.

Steve enjoying wine at Mackinaw Winery.

My first pasty.  It tasted about like it looks.  Kind of like a potpie wrapped like a burrito.

 A  view of Harbor Springs.

We went on a chocolate tour at Kilwins.

Steve enjoying the best of Kilwins.

We also spent some time at the State Park searching through rocks and sand looking for Petoskey stones.  We didn't find any but I'm hoping to get another crack at it before we leave.

Mackinaw Island

Yesterday we took the ferry to Mackinaw Island, MI.  What a wonderful trip.  We had such a good time! The ferry over to the island is @ 15minutes and the views were great.  This is the bridge to the upper peninsula.

This was the scene when we got off the ferry.  There are no vehicles allowed on the island.  Only bicycles and horses.  Or you walk.

We took a 2 hr carriage ride around part of the island.  This is the famous Grand Hotel.  They have had such a problem with tourists walking through it that they now charge $10 to come on property.  

These guys pulled our trolley. 

Tried to see how much I could get in this shot -  2 lighthouses, kites, Lake Michigan and a beautiful house!

Blogger started causing problems so I can't caption the following pics. Steve found a couple of geocaches on the island.  We rented bikes and road around the island.  About 8 1/2 miles.  (Take that Tommy!)

We would go back tomorrow if someone wanted to take us!  Loved it!

North Bound

Steve and I made our 2nd trip to Michigan.  We stopped at the small town of South Haven when we arrived in Michigan to eat supper.  Bad idea.  It was Saturday.  It was 4th of July weekend.  And everyone that lives in Chicago apparently comes to Michigan to vacation.  The wait time at almost all restaurants was 90 minutes.  Bye Bye South Haven.  Hello, Quiznos!  The next day we drove to Traverse City.  Guess what?  They were having a Cherry Festival.  We put on our good attitudes and decided we would enjoy the chaos.  After we found a spot to park, we walked along a trail next to the river.  Beautiful.  When we came up on the street  we found this restaurant to eat lunch.  It was delicious.  The weather was wonderful.  What more could we ask for?

Maybe some cherry pie at the Grand Traverse Pie Company.

And how about adding in an air show?

After we had our fill of the festival we drove to Charlevoix.

Charlevoix is between Lake Michigan

and Round Lake which then flows into Charlevoix Lake.

Steve thought he would stick his toes in Lake Michigan.  It apparently was a little cold.

The town has these houses that they call Mushroom houses.  I would love to  live in a house like this.  Very unusual.

After a fun filled day it poured down rain with amazingly loud thunder.