Third Round Of Guest

                                           Wednesday 9/2/15

On the second day that my mom and older sister arrived we drove to the town of Charlevoix. We walked over to the canal that goes from Lake Charlevoix to Lake Michigan.

My sister Karen had walked down a bit to get some pictures.

In down town Charlevoix , this is a mural of the draw bridge that opens on the hour for big boats to go back and forth from both lakes. We didn't want to wait for 40 minutes for the bridge to open for the picture, so you got this instead.

My mom told me before she came, she was really going to enjoy our porch. I guess she really meant it!

Captain Joe is ready to take out the next round of guests.

Mom enjoying the ride.

View of our place after our boat ride for the day.

That evening my younger sister Nancy and her husband Jim arrived in a down pour. They live in Wisconsin, so they drove up the west side of Lake Michigan, across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and back down the east side of Lake Michigan to our place.

Anyone who knows my mom, knows she hates pictures of herself being taken.

Here she is trying to hide her neck for the picture. (I understand as my neck is aging also. Yikes)

I took 26 pictures of mom and Nancy and it was a really good laugh. What mom goes through for a picture!

Straightening out her wrinkles.

If nothing else she tries to hide her face with one hand.

See what I mean!

Now you can see how I became so vain. It's always your parents fault right!

Of course Nancy and Jim wanted to go boating on Lake Charlevoix too.

It started out a bit cloudy, but turned out to be a beautiful day. One thing great about September boating is the water  is so smooth.  There is hardly any boats out on the lake except for Labor Day weekend.

There were 2 big race boats out that day though.

And they produce big waves of course.

Back on land Jim thought we needed a picture and then a video. Below is a snippet of my family. It's so nice to be amongst your own. A dork with the rest of her dorky family! I Love them all so much. (To be continued)

Between Guest Again

                                              Thursday 8/27/15

Peace and quiet once again at our lake cottage after the second round of guests left. Ahh! Time to get ready for the last group of visitors now.

We traveled all over the USA and never was told in any Wal-Mart that dogs were not allowed until we moved to Northern Michigan. Because Mallery isn't allowed in our new Wal-Mart I had to buy a incognito dogie carrying bag. Mallery is such a good dog that she never makes a peep, but once in a while she sticks her nose out for a sniff and I have to tell her to hide.

She's the cutest and best little dog ever!

"OK Baby it's time to hide again before that mean lady tells me you can't be here again"!

Our contractor told us we had a leak in our pipe to our well before we got here this spring. He had fixed the pipe from the house out to the outside of the house, but he had wanted the pipe going farther down to be checked too. We waited all summer for someone to check out the other deeper pipe.

They needed a backhoe to dig down deep enough.

Good news, deeper than 6 foot, everything looks good. But a new pressure tank for our well was replaced in our crawl space. Our house inspector told us before we bought our home, this needed to be replaced. Total cost for the day $1500. Joe is having so much fun spending our money lately! "Not"!

We did have some day visitors, between our last visitors and our up coming visitors. We meet them 7 years ago. They live in Southern Michigan and were visiting Northern Michigan. Mark sits back with Joe,

and Brenda up front with me!

 We met Brenda and Mark in New Orleans at a campground. Here they were in our old South Wind Motor Home.

We had a great time drinking the Hurricane drinks and see the sights uptown New Orleans.

We have been so busy with guests, that I have not had time to show you our new cottage cabin with furniture and updates. After we moved our bed out of the living room into the bedroom, and got a wall painted, our furniture came a day before our first set of guests. The TV was mounted a day before our guests arrival. It has been a crazy summer to say the least!

In the smallest bedroom we put one twin bed for Joe's mom. Next summer believe it or not, 2 bunk beds will be in here for kids.

This is our new guest bathroom. We were originally going to have a wall pushed into the laundry room. Unfortunately we measured wrong, so it didn't happen! The tub was going to go in this bathroom in our  wrong measured plans. Dang!

The towel wall with blackboard plaques to write the guest's name above each towel.

The shower was enlarge quite a bit compared to the very small previous shower. Both of our motor homes had larger showers than the old shower was.

Here is a picture of the old bathroom. The wall that has the green towel was knocked out (which was a bedroom closet) to widen the bathroom. The ceiling was raised from less than 7 feet to 8 feet tall which made a huge difference in the feel of the room. ( It use to feel like a cave).

The sink and toilet were behind the old shower. Now the toilet is still behind the shower but turned facing the shower on the back wall. The sink is now visible from the bathroom door, also on the back wall.

Old picture of Joe showing how tight the old shower was.

 

           Note how low the ceiling was.  I have not taken pictures of our master bath yet, so I will do that soon.

Round 2 Of Company

                                              Thursday 8/13/2015

After having two week off after Tiff, Blake and Lennox went home. It was time to entertain my family. (if you haven't figured it out, this in Joe writing the blog.) My mother arrived 1st,  a day later, my brother Dave and his wife Marsha arrived. Two days later, my sister Renee and her husband Dave arrived along with my brother John and his wife Diane (yes another Diane) and my Niece, Selina and her husband Jody. Quite the crowd. (John and Diane; and Selina and Jody stayed at nearby accommodations. ) Everyone was excited to see our new home and its location.  Of course a lake visit wouldn't be complete with a boat ride. Here Marsha and my Mom took to the sun in the open bow of the boat.

Here I am at the helm with my oldest brother Dave (sun in his face).

Dave decided to try water skiing, something he hasn't done for probably 40 years! Good luck!

Dave is saying, "man is this water cold" (the water up North is cold, ever in August.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to get up, the rest of us started to either get too hot from the 88 degree temp or a need to relieve ourselves. Either way we took the chilly plunge.But it felt great after the first few seconds.

Later it was cocktail time on the deck. Seen here are Dave Cooper (my sister's husband at the top; then to the right is Jody my neice's husband then Renee my sister, then Dave my bother. (who by the way, did get up skiing even if only for a minute a couple of days later.)

Time to go boating again with a few other family members.

Now its Marsha's turn. She elects to skip the skis on this choppy water and climbs aboard the torpedo. She did great!

One day we went site seeing around the area. I told my sister's husband Dave (yes there are two Dave's in this blog) who makes his own Beer and loves to visit brewery, that there was a brewery in the town of Petoskey, just north of Boyne City. We stopped in for lunch and some beer tasting.

This brewery has been here a long time and has an interesting background.

Diane documenting the hours they are open.

Here we are checking out the menu. (Myself front left, then my mom, then bother John and his wife Diane, Then brother Dave and his wife Marsha. Then Dave and my sister Renee.The Mugs on the wall are for regular customers who buy their mugs.

Finishing out the table are my Niece Selina and her husband Jody.  We enjoyed our lunch and beer. They have good food there. Now on to the next site seeing town of Harbor Springs.

I forgot to mention that my Diane, who doesn't normally drink beer, ordered the Root Beer Beer. Yes beer that tastes like Root Beer. We all agreed, that it was very good.

Here we are at Harbor Spring, This is a cute little town that has some fabulous old homes that date way back. The rich of the rich have come here for year. Here we are walking the docks in the harbor

Check out the color of the water in this Harbor! You can see at least 15 feet down to the bottom. Beautiful waters here in a harbor of Little Traverse bay of  Lake Michigan.

This is an example of a true racing sailboat.

The big and the little speed boat! Did I say rich people live here.

Looking back from the end of the dock toward the town.

Small park by the harbor; great view of the harbor looking out at Little Traverse Bay.

Time for a cookout. I don't know much about BBQ, as you can see. At least I didn't burn anything.

                           My guests tried to make the best of it. (Selina and Diane; maybe we should move further away)

The men tried their best to advise me as to what I was doing wrong.  (Myself at the grill, Dave Cooper to my right, then Jody and finally bother Dave.)

After a week, everyone left to either go home or do some site seeing up north in the UP. My Mom offered to take Diane and I to a restaurant down the street at Sommerset Point called the Fish House.

Inside the restrurant.

Flags on the ceiling. We guested at the counties, while waiting for dinner.

Perch with capers and zuccinnii.

Mom studying the menu. All and all it was nice to get the family together.