Away!! Not a long trip, but the first one since our really strange Indian Ocean Virus Cruise of 2020. States appear to be opening to travel visitors in mid-2021, so we'll go look.
The reasons for the trip are 1) visit O's deceased brother's family and friends in Michigan, and 2) O's cousin Cynthia's birthday in Wisconsin. Her family is getting together to celebrate it, and we're tagging along. People will be coming from Seattle, Florida, Texas, Colorado, and more. Also in Wisconsin we'll have a quick visit with D's brother Joe and family.
The trip will be Jacksonville FL to Chicago, drive to Holland MI, ferry across Lake Michigan to Madison and Stoughton, WI. Then down to Delavan WI and back home from there. We'll take a Hertz car Chicago to Chicago.
This trip precedes by a couple of weeks a trip to the west coast, where we'll see a few of the same people. We like to make things complicated.
From the house to the airport in the little Hertz Spark thing we picked up yesterday. Ran ok, but tiny.
Then we put on masks (yuk) to go in, checked the luggage, and went through TSA. A waiting period followed, at the very end of the C gates where AA parks their regional jets, but we finally boarded our E175 and settled in.
AA4310 JAX-ORD 0900-1045
We boarded a little late because they had to do a complete power reset on the plane to get the electronics to work. Hmm….
Sort of on time into O'Hare, where you walk for miles to the baggage claim. Our luggage arrived there before we did.
We rode a mad bus to the rental car center. Hertz vectored us to spot 961, which contained a BMW convertible. We discussed this with a rep and got the Chrysler 300 we requested. Then we proceeded to Holland via I-294, I-94, & I-196, about 175 miles mainly of construction and other assorted traffic hazards. Very frustrating, but that's the midwest in summer.
D was navigating with my iPhone and did some sort of fancy swipe on the screen that put it in very dim mode, where she couldn't see the buttons for the glare. Fixed that later.
We stopped at Nancy's house to explain what we were up to. Then we checked into the Courtyard by Marriott downtown on 8th Street East.
Back out to Nancy's, where we chatted and then she fed us. About the end of dinner, in came Erica and her four kids, Sophie, Phoebe, Sam & Danny, and their dog Bean. More chatting all around about who is doing what.
Dirk came in in the middle of this and joined, then the Erica mob departed to walk through the woods to their house.
Finally we begged off and returned to the hotel to get our feet up and our heads down.
Up at 8, down to the Marriott "bistro". Nothing much there so we drove to Holland's favorite breakfast place, the Windmill Restaurant. We only had to wait five minutes or so before being seated. We had a very good and filling breakfast. Then we took a short drive and would up in Saugatuck at the Sand Bar Saloon, owned my friend for 71 years, Bill Steininger. He was there, and along came Norma Miller Colvin another person I've known for that long.
Then more of us came in - Nancy, Erica and Phoebe. So we had a good long chat about who's where, and who isn't anywhere anymore. A good time, several cups of coffee. Then Nancy & group left to get lunch (we didn't need food after that breakfast) and we all broke up with plans to see each other at the Whanot Inn, Monday at five.
It got warm so we returned to the hotel to shift to shorts, then back to Nancy's house. We started attacking the stack of family things with the intent to get rid of the vast majority.. That took four hours or so, and gave us backaches from being bent over studying photos or papers.
O found a set of papers he had been searching, so that was good. D misplaced her iPad, which started a big search - finally found it in the bedroom.
Niel went off to get pizza and sandwiches and we ate while talking some more. An impromptu birthday party in honor of Miles was next. He blew out the candles and received little gifts.
The kids all left, plus Erica. The rest of us started up an indescribable game called Mexican Train Wreck using dominoes. Crazy.
Finally we learned it was after 2200, so we said our good-nights and returned to the hotel. Very tired but happy.
Link to Photos
We started this day with a massive do-nothing session in the hotel room. In-room coffee with muffins from the Bistro. Computer updates, cleaned up the e-mail, sent notes, etc.
After a while we wandered through town noting the new buildings. Then on to Nancy's. It started slowly with Ralph (friend of John's, gun person and raconteur, Niel, Dirk Mark & me going through John's guns.
John had six shotguns, about eight rifles, and a dozen mostly useless handguns. Ralph took a liking to a Winchester 1873 lever-action in 44-40. He took off the side-plates and lubricated the whole thing, cleaned the bore, and set it aside. Later he took it home with him to work on it.
The rifles included Dad's old .35 Remington deer rifle with 12 notches on the forestock for the dozen deer it shot. Ralph says the odd muzzle is that way because it was made to accommodate a noise suppressor - I don't know about that. An old .22 short cartridge pump action that I used as a kid on the farm in Wisconsin was there; Ralph cleaned it up some. Also present, a .222, a 30-06, and a M1-Carbine.
There was an 1898 Remington shotgun with exposed hammer I thought I recognized. Several others but I'm not into shotguns. One might have been that which John fired through the roof of Dad's Studebaker.
Nor was I into any of the handguns including a .380, a small 9mm semi-auto, a Iver-Johnson .32, an Italian 4-barrel .22 and other oddments.
Then we put all the ammo into containers from their hiding place on the closet shelf. The boys are going to itemize the guns and Ralph will put condition statements to each and look into selling them.
During the gun episode, D & Nancy surveyed the garden. Then visitors arrived. Niel & Lisa from their Vanagon in the yard and their kids, Erica with hers and Marks, Lisa's kids and grandkids, making up a really large group. Not as large as some Sunday nights I remember there, but respectable.
Lisa's grandkids ran around being cute, playing in the yard rolling a ball downhill and bringing it back to roll again.
Then several of us got busy preparing for Taco Night, the house tradition. O did tomato and onion dicing. A dozen hot sauces were laid out. Sides of black beans a la Lisa, and rice. Everyone cycled through the kitchen making their dish and going to table in the dining room on the deck or in the yard. There were leftovers, but not much.
Then people gradually departed but the six of us played a form of Balderdash where a person picks a word from the dictionary and everyone writes a phrase that might be the actual meaning. They are read, and each person votes on which it really is. Points are scored if you're correct or if someone thinks your phrase is correct. D won.
Then everyone wound down and we came back to the hotel to take it easy and to do this blurb. On the way down the driveway a small doe looked us over.
Started out slow again with in-room coffee. Finally we stepped outside and walked some of the town. We tried to lunch at New Holland Brewing, but they're closed on Mondays. So we ate at the Curraugh, an Irish place. Sat outside in the breeze, quite comfortable.
Then we walked 8th Street some more. I took some pictures and tried to remember what was in the various stores when I was a kid. It helped that Holland put memorial plaques on most of them. It was neat that Fabiano's has been there for 119 years.
D shopped around and found an outfit in Cotton Bay she liked, so we bought that. She thinks it will do on the cruise and even in the Caribbean should we cruise to that area next.
D's been having some small internal pains, so we returned to the hotel to sit for a while.
Later we returned to the house, arriving just as the kid party ended. We had the chance to say goodbye to Erica. O grabbed the .22 he used as a kid and took it to be shipped to Jax. On return he found Niel in the yard fixing hoses and resolving why Nancy couldn't fill the pool as fast as she wanted. He fixed those and headed for Grand Rapids.
We had made arrangements and table reservation at the Paisley Pig (the old Parkway) for dinner for five at 7pm. We had thought that Bill S would be one of us, but he dropped out. Dirk's evening in the shop disappeared, so he made the fifth to Norma Colvin, Nancy, D & O. We had a fun time telling stories and catching up on family details and reminiscing about old times. We probably stayed at that table longer than we should have, but other tables were empty so we weren't upsetting anyone. But the session came to an end, we said our goodbyes and adjourned. We returned to the hotel and packed for a rapid departure in the morning.