Vacation to Michigan 2008...Continued!

On Monday, we decided to go to the lake for a swim. Here are Ben (further away) and Noah...





And here is the view from shore. We did get a little rain that day, but nothing to worry much about.




Here is the "beach area." See the wonderful picnic tables (not sprayed with gang graffiti!) and some of the playground areas they have for the kids.





Here are Julie and Megan, playing and posing for pictures...




And here are Julie and Megan putting sand on their arms. I don't know why, but it seemed to work for them...



And more fun in/with the sand...






On Tuesday, we decided to head to northern Michigan, to go to Mackinac Island!! Yay!! On the way, we stopped in a little town called Millington, MI, and found this smiley water tower.



My nephew Jason took the picture of the water tower above. He went to these train tracks to take it. He loves trains, so I took a picture of him on the track. Happily, no trains were coming.




Can you believe this is a freeway? I love all the trees, and the green! We're on the road again up north!


This next smiley face water tower is part of my heritage. My sister swallowed lye when she was three, and we spent a year and a half driving from northern Michigan to Ann Arbor, Michigan, every other week. We would stay for a week at a time, so that Heidi could have her throat dilated (they had to replace her throat with part of her colon, and it kept wanting to close). When we would see this smiley face water tower, we would know we were in West Branch, MI and it was time to stop for lunch at Render's Restaurant, which I don't think is there any more.



Since we were in West Branch, we did stop for lunch on this trip, too, but we went to Burger King. Here are Heidi and I (she's the cool-looking one in the sunglasses).



After our long-ish drive, we stopped at Alden, MI, the town where I grew up. It is much more touristy now than it was back then, but it is still home. This is a railroad museum we stopped at so that Jason could see the museum and the partial train that is there. From left to right, we have Jason, Julie, Caitlin, Megan and Noah. Ben is standing, leaning his head on his arms.




Here are the kids on the back of the caboose: (left to right again) Jason,
Caitlin, Julie Noah, Ben, and Megan.


This is the lake I grew up swimming in, Torch Lake. It is beautiful! Can you see the different shades of blue in the water? It's like that all the time. Some days it is perfectly still and mirror-like. Other days it is frozen over and covered with fishing shanties.





Alas, my arms are tired and my chest hurts again, so more tomorrow. I'll bet you didn't think this would be the longest story in the history of the world, did you? :)