Saturday 2008-08-16
This was definitely a recuperation day. We took it easy in the morning and then Beth and Andy headed for points south before lunch. Rachel and I headed out for our first bike ride and quickly discovered that a ski-out chalet is not the obvious choice for biking. Rather, you can bike out but coming home again is work! I wound up biking ahead and then walking Rachel's bike back up to the condo.
After naps we went looking for a beach. We (okay, I) quickly rejected the two small beaches in downtown Harbor Springs and we wound our way along the shore to the Petoskey State Park where we realized we'd left nearly all of our money back at the room. We scrounged up the annual state park fee ($29) almost entirely in change which says something about the state of our van... We only had about an hour since we wanted to get back to the lodge for the evening's events but the kids loved the sandy dunes, shore, and big waves.
We grabbed a quick dinner at the condo and were first in our seats for the raptor presentation put on by a local rescue/rehab organization. They had three owls (barred, screech, and barn) and Rinnah, of course, was wowed. They also had a bonfire with s'mores so the kids were all good.
Sunday 2008-08-17
Sunday morning we had home church. Often we find a local church when we're traveling but this time we took the easier path of gathering the family, reading from the Bible, praying, and singing a few songs.
The resort runs a single chair lift up to the top of the mountain from Thursday to Sunday, mostly for mountain-bikers up to the bike park they have setup along the ski trails, but you can also ride up and down if you're staying on site. It made us a bit nervous with Toby since he's really not large enough to ride but we made it without mishap. After lunch I jumped back on the lift to tackle the trails myself and quickly concluded I'm better off staying on the ski trails. I tried one of the bike park trails through the woods and had to bail when it went airborne on a 12 inch wide path 4-6 feet above the ground. Umm, 'nuff said...
Once everyone was awake again we took our second trip to the beach. Very breezy but we still had to drag the kids away...
Monday 2008-08-18
Monday we actually started the day at the beach and went to town making sand castles. We made our largest (admittedly not terribly creative) tower which, measured against Rachel, was just shy of 4'1". As we were leaving we heard a family comment as they were walking by. Kid: "Mommy, look at that sand castle!" Mom: "Yep, it's a big one!"
The girls and I went down to the lodge during naps today to try out the kayaks and paddle-boats on the pond by the lodge. Fun but damp. I didn't count on the foot wells in the 2-person kayak draining into the back seat and wound up drenching most of my person including my wallet but at least missed my cell phone which was in my front pocket. Can't win 'em all.
We took an outing down to Petoskey proper for dinner and tackled a Japanese restaurant, Tokyo Japan. The girls already love hibachi-style but were nervous about a sushi place. In the end they loved it and devoured everything but the actual sushi rolls - even the tame ones we selected were too much. Even so, miso soup, edamame, vegetable and shrimp tempura, teriyaki chicken, and rice is a pretty good start. Toby had a good meal of teriyaki chicken and rice which is huge progress over just a couple of months ago. He even tried the edamame/soy beans without much prompting.
After dinner we walked down to the pier and watched goby's being caught and fed to the sea gulls. Rinnah tried her hand as well but her first catch was a small sunfish which had swallowed the hook pretty deeply. It wasn't pretty after that.
Finally, we made our way for dessert at the American Spoon, a sorbetto and gelatto place, of course. Deadly stuff...
Tuesday 2008-08-19
This was our coolest day of the week, at least according to the forecast. Really, it was one more day of clear blue skies (I can't count how many times I looked up this week and realized I couldn't find a cloud in the sky) but a high of only 70 degrees. We decided this would be a good day to check out Harbor Springs so we started at the Boyer Glassworks. We stopped there a few years ago and were fascinated watching the glasswork being done by hand. It's a little different with 3 kids in tow - at one point Rinnah pointed out a really cool life-size pelican eating a fish. Only $1900 so it wasn't long before I wound up outside with Toby...
We wound up doing a bit more fudge tasting next and then decided looking at dessert before lunch was foolish so ducked into a 50's-style diner, Mary Ellen's Place, for lunch. We then took a walk along the marina and then back for ice cream at Kilwin's Fudge. As we were headed home we got a call from the raptor rescue place and quickly ran up to their barn to see their operation. Several other hawks and a golden eagle (plus the 3 owls we already saw) were worth the visit but Toby was falling down by the time we made it home for naps.
After an early dinner we opted for another stab at a bike ride from the condo with the whole family. Positive spin - I didn't have a heart attack working back up hill (with Toby in the trailer) on my way to fetch the van to rescue Rachel. Once again, 'nuff said.
Wednesday 2008-08-20
The forecast for Wednesday had a high of over 80 so we figured on another beach morning. It was only 62 degrees when we got there but the wind had finally calmed down after Tuesday's cold front moved through. Rinnah was disappointed not to have the big waves any more but it made it much more comfortable to be there. Today we found a ball in our beach basket and Toby discovered the joys of building sand ball ramps. He spent most of the morning directing traffic and our excavations were, humility aside, impressive.
We had an early dinner tonight (Toby had pan-fried fish, watermelon, and a toasted hamburger bun!) and then went down to checkout the pool and paddle-boats at the lodge at bit more. The pool was definitely not designed for kids, 3 to 5 feet, but Toby's pretty happy in his Cookie Monster pool ring. And the girls are fish at this point so as long as they have goggles, we're all good.
Our musical theme for the week has been a song from Phineas and Ferb, the verse includes something like "chick-a,chick-a, boom, baby, I love you". The funny part is Toby knows the whole thing and we finally caught it on video. :)
Thursday 2008-08-21
One more beach day today. We made it to the beach by about 10:30am, made something like 7 ball ramps (all captured on video, of course), and just had a great time. I was pretty sun-burned after yesterday so I wasn't unhappy to get out of the sun by about 1.
We tackled the mountain again after naps, the family took the chair lift up and down and I made two runs down the bike trails. Some of these trails are nuts (apparently there's a 17 foot cliff/jump in one spot but I didn't find it) and I'm only able to do about half of them, even excluding the jumps. I finally found one I liked that was just my speed (pretty steep, lots of moguls, through the trees) but managed to blow my front brake and screw up my rear brake trying to get around the last jump. Just as well it was my last run of the week...
We had a quick dinner polishing off leftovers and then finished up in the pool before bed time. We've had a great week here and tomorrow we head for points south..
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