Back to Everyday Life

Well, we’re back. Actually we’ve been back since Thursday evening, but I was still in vacation mode, so the only thing I did was upload all our pictures (or at least all of them but the unflattering ones of me) to Flickr. (I tried to post some pictures here today, but that's not working for some reason, so you'll have to go there or follow the links to them I have pasted throughout. Sorry!) I am pretty sad that I had to get out of vacation mode to come to work today. It was definitely the last thing I wanted to do, but oh, well. I’ve got to make the money to go on vacation somehow, right?

We went up to the Traverse City area for Tuesday through Thursday, and did much less than we thought we would. We actually stayed in Suttons Bay, a little town about 11 miles north of Traverse City. We passed the time walking on the beach, cuddling in the hammock at the bed and breakfast where we stayed, and doing a little shopping and wine tasting on the side. We didn’t even get to the National Cherry Festival, which was one of the reasons we had headed up that way, but it was crowded and decidedly non-relaxing, so we avoided it like the plague. Except the cherries part. They were everywhere and so incredibly beautiful on the trees. We, of course, bought a few quarts of them and have a delicious pie at home right now.

The bed and breakfast where we stayed was lovely. The people were lovely, the breakfasts were delicious, and the bed was so comfortable I could have stayed there the entire time. Unfortunately the weather was too beautiful to stay inside, so we spent most of our time outside enjoying it. 73 and sunny the entire time. It was just wonderful.

On Thursday we meandered back by way of the west side of the state. We spent a good portion of time on the Sleeping Bear Dunes, climbing them and consequently wearing ourselves out. From where we started climbing it takes two hours to get to Lake Michigan. We only went in a little less than halfway before deciding that it was time to head back (especially before I got a sunburn because guess who forgot to bring sunscreen with them. Oh, yeah, that would be us), but the view from where we stopped was amazing. In fact the views all around the dunes were amazing. And of course we still have sand everywhere.

We didn’t do much the rest of the week, but that’s the way we wanted it. We did help Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with its record first-day gross. But that’s about it.

Now back to the grind, and tomorrow: What’s wrong with my beautiful tomato plants and why won’t they bloom?