Oven Update and Michigan Trip

I wimped out on the oven deal. I called and scheduled a repairman to come put in the parts. It was a different guy than the first time. He replaced that parts and I ended up giving him the "coupon" back and the business cards back. I told him (nicely) that I didn't intend to recommend his company to anyone and I wouldn't be calling them again, and I explained why. He seemed surprised about the parts prices and seemed to understand. I told him I would be a happy customer and use them again if I could get $80 back (like that would happen). It wasn't his fault, so I let it go at that. I will say that my oven must have been having problems for a long time. He set it for 350 and turned it on, and it only took about 3 minutes to heat up - as opposed to 15 minutes before - so I'm happy with the result, if not the price. The first thing I did was bake some lemon-blueberry muffins, with fresh blueberries we picked ourselves. They were scrumptious!
Michigan Trip-We left Friday afternoon around 2:15 and drove to Mt. Vernon, IL to spend the night. We should've kept going to Effingham, because there's not much to do in Mt. Vernon. Saturday we made our customary stop in Tuscola, IL at the outlet mall. I bought a sweater on sale and got Emily a cute pair of sandals at Bass. We turned east at Gilman and drove through rural IL and IN to miss Chicago. It took a little longer, but was a nicer drive. We saw a wind farm and lots of Amish carriages in Indiana. After church Sunday morning at Plainwell, MI, John and I left the kids with my very sweet in-laws and drove up to Traverse City for a couple days to ourselves. We hardly even listened to the radio-just enjoyed the silence. :-) We stayed in a little cabin across from the bay that I would describe as rustic, but it was comfortable and reasonably priced. It was small, so I thought it good practice for maybe looking at campers next year (John-this is a hint!). We ate supper at the Apache Trout Grill, which is a great place to eat. I had trout. Here's the first picture I took with my new camera, the old one taking a little "swim" thanks to Ethan.

This Lotus was in the parking lot. I know I'm getting old because the first thought I had about it was how hard it must be to get down into it!
All day Monday we spent hiking and walking around Glen Arbor. Monday evening I talked John into a picnic cruise on the Tall Ship Manitou. He got to help hoist the sail and said it was pretty hard. After that we went to Moomer's for ice cream. They were featured on Good Morning America recently for the best ice cream. It WAS really good. I had Cherries Moobilee. Here are a few pictures from Monday.
This picture is from the Shauger Hill trail at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakshore. John said these woods smell the same as the woods around his childhood home in K-zoo.













This picture is from the Dunes Trail near Glen Haven.














This picture was taken on Pyramid Point Trail after what seemed like a very long and steep climb up a trail of sand. The view was worth the climb, though!
Tuesday morning we checked out of the cabin and went up the Leelanau Peninsula to the very tip, where there's a lighthouse. We bought some fresh Bing and tart cherries on the way up and stopped at the lighthouse to hike a trail. On the way back to Kalamazoo, we stopped at Grand Haven to eat at the original Fricano's. John worked at the one in K-zoo when he was in high school. This one only served pizza-one size only with your choice of six or seven toppings. It was pretty good pizza, too, and we got the pizza with two toppings and two Cokes for $10.34. Not bad! They really ought to invest in some a/c, though.
Wednesday I think John golfed with his dad (and lost by one stroke). We ate supper at a little Mexican place that was good.




Thursday we went to LeDuc farms (where John worked as a kid) and picked 25 pounds of blueberries. They were the Blue Crop variety, big and sweet. Friday we went to Ft. Wayne, IN to visit with John's sister, Monica, and her family. Cousin Melody babysat, and the adults went out to eat. We also took a quick 20-minute trip to a mall with a Vera Bradley store, where I bought a little handbag. We had to be back early to take Melody to a church lock-in. Saturday we drove home.
I tried not to go on too long, but I'll say one thing about northern Michigan. I love it up there. It's so pretty! I told John that's the only other place besides east Tennessee where I thought I'd like to live someday. Of course I'm sure it's not that great in the winter. I was telling Monica about the flowers everywhere, and she told me they do that because they only get to enjoy them 3 months out of the year. We've already discussed renting a condo or house with all of them next year.
Ideas for this blog are still brewing in the back of my mind for now. I'll have a little more time to think about it when school starts!