August 9, 2012

greetings from michigan.


On our way to New York, Jason and I had a fun road trip through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. It took us only 2 days and nearly 2,000 miles to reach White, Lake Michigan to visit my friends and family and pack up the rest of our belongings in a moving truck and head out for New York. We stayed in Michigan for a total of nine days, but each day Jason and I kept busy by exploring Michigan or clearing out my room.
Our first activity in Michigan involved leaving it. We drove with Mom and Dad to Marine City, Michigan and took a short ferry ride to Sombra, Ontario. It was a perfect way to spend a beautiful, sunny day crossing over the St. Claire River to Canada. I admit there wasn’t a lot to do in such a small city except browse in the small stores for postcards and watch several fishermen by the pier pull out gigantic fish. To finish our short trip, we ate lunch at The Aft Cabin and hopped back on the ferry and headed home. Even though we didn’t do a lot, it was fun to use our passports and spend time with my family.
I also had such a great time in Michigan catching up with friends. We went to Fenton Lake where Jamie’s boyfriend has a lake house. Jason and Buddy rode around the lake on a Jet Ski, while Jamie and I chatted on the pontoon. Later we anchored the boat and swam around in the lake and I was made fun of because I floated around in my life jacket. Before going back to the shore, Jason went knee boarding. The four of us then went to Uncle Ray’s Dairyland for ice cream and played Euchre.
Tuesday night, I went to dinner with Jamie and Nicole at Bravo! It was so fun to be together again. After dinner, and yes, more ice cream, the three of us watched women’s gymnastics at the Olympics – you have to expect that from three former cheerleaders! I absolutely loved seeing my besties again.
Our last event was driving to Holland, Michigan. Jason and I wanted to go somewhere new and close to White Lake, but we ended up driving two and a half hour drive, which is considered close for us. We went to Windmill Island where we went inside a 6-story windmill that was originally from the Netherlands. I’m not going to lie, but I don’t think I ever realized that windmills had a purpose other than for decoration. This one in particular was (and still is) for grinding grain into flour. We received a very informative tour of the windmill and the deck had a gorgeous view of the Macatawa River. There weren’t any tulips like I expected because apparently they bloomed and died early this year.
We then drove to Holland State Park where we walked on the beach of Lake Michigan. Jason was surprised at how much it looked like a beach in California except that there were no waves – or sharks for that matter. We walked up the jetty and marveled at a big red light house and the sailboats coming and going. It was a really beautiful moment to share with Jason.
A couple days later on the 3rd of August, we packed up our furniture and belongings in a moving truck and said goodbye to my mother and caravanned to Tuckahoe, New York. My dad came with us to drive the moving truck and help us move into our new home. (There will be a post later about our road trip)

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