School's coming up, so I'm back. Actually, I'm not. I'm in Marietta, Ohio.
Senior year starts Tuesday. I keep thinking I'm a sophomore this year. Strange.
I've been on vacation for three weeks. It's nice.
When we left, we went to Indianapolis. We saw Joe and Hollie (his fiance) one day, and Tom the next. I met my neice. She's chubby and sweet. She's a total daddy's girl, though. I was the only one who got to hold her for any amount of time and that was because I was cooking hot dogs with Tommy.
Joe and Tom are about the same. Goofy as always. Still look the same, atleast.
Then we went to my grandfather's house in south-central Michigan. That was an interesting event. On average I talk to my grandfather twice a year. Maybe see him for a couple hours when they're passing through from Flordia. But this was new. I stayed at his house for three days. I've never experienced anything like it. It was a family thing. So strange, and yet, I kind of enjoyed it.
I learned a lot from him. About nature, how to observe and stuff.
But the highlight was not the family reunion, which I enjoyed. But I particularly found delight in the fact that the MORNING OF the reunion, I had a massive allergy/asthma attack and my left (your right) eye swelled shut and the other one left only a peep hole. Nice, right? So I wore shade and periodically pryed my lid open to see the whole scene. I kept running into people and everything.
We stayed in Traverse City for the next week. The bay is beautiful. The nice part was that we never had a cloudy day. The first day we went downtown. The think about Traverse City is that they cater to the wealthy vacationer. We're not that. I found a good will and had a hay-day.
We took day trips and went to Northport/Leeland. Northport is a cute little marina town. I bought some great books at a used bookstore and a petosky necklace at a petosky store.
At Leeland, I bought some mochasins. (Spelled it right?) Then we went into Fishtown, little shops on the pier. I was there once when I was eight or nine and I remember is being much larger. There were only four or five shops there that didn't sell smoked fish.
While we were in Leeland we stopped at the lighthouse. I went into the top with my mother. The stairs to the top of the light tower were really steep and were hard to climb. Unfortunately, when I was going up and coming down, there was a group at the bottom of the stairs and I was wearing a skirt that kept blowing up. I didn't care at the time because I was trying not to fall to my death.
Unlikely.
We went to Mackinaw, where the Mackinaw Bridge is. I took a picture and it was beautiful.
We went to the downtown and I found a cute little shop called Twisted Crystal. It wasn't touristy at all! I bought a Jim Morrison poster and these awesome, handmade, coral earrings.
<3
What more?
Basically when we weren't on a little jaunt I lived at the beach. And yes, my friends, I have a tan. I nursed it along so it wouldn't fade before I came home, but it has.
We went to Stevensville/St.Joseph/Benton Harbor after that. They're three seperate cities, but they've grown together. That area is one of my favorites.
The actual lake michigan has a very different temperament than the bay. The bay is very calm with small, body adjusting waves. The lake is ice cold, angry, with larger-hold-your-ground waves.
We went to Ashland after that for two days. The first day I drove myself around for the first time and got lost. I've only walked around the place, which means, I stay on main roads. I had no idea.
I got lost and stopped at this Lemonade Stand to ask little girls for directions back to the Ashland High School. I bough four huge cups of lemonade and drank them all. Shelly will appreciate this, "So I didn't look like a whimp." Then I gave them another dollar for directions. There's nothing like kids from Ashland.
Dad and I went to play putt-putt. It was amazing. Dad hit a small child with the golf ball. Then he bought ice cream.
We sat by the pond. The same pond that my brothers and I fished at when we were little. The same pond that our family ate picnics at after church.
The old house is falling apart... which is to be expected. Lincoln is still there, thank god.
Hopefully my children will live in Ashland and have a chance to grow up there.
Now we're in Marietta, Ohio. Right across the Ohio border. We'll be home tomorrow.
Sigh. Love Ohio.
Divinely yours,
BETH
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