Jabberwocky: VACATION!

My soul is refreshed by living water
While my heart flows with love each day.
~Tom Zart~

Forgive my absence, O Loyal Blog Readers (LOL!). I was on vacation for a week, and then spent the last week catching up with work and personal stuff.

We just returned from a perfect vacation. We rented a cottage on Lake Michigan in Union Pier, just north of the Indiana border. The cottage has been newly renovated and has every amenity possible. Unbeknownst to me, Union Pier is considered a posh vacation spot for wealthy Chicagoans, so rentals there are not your average sandy, delapidated cottage. This cottage was larger than my own house, has two full bathrooms (compared with our single bathroom), and has air conditioning. It also has a dishwasher, which I've never used. Teddy's friend Sean had to instruct me on its use. I decided after one load that dishwashers are highly overrated. I can get my dishes washed a LOT faster myself! Seriously, I had to wait hours before the dishes in the dishwasher were back in circulation! And as far as AC, we don't have AC, either -- and I had no clue how to turn it off. I was freezing most of the time inside when it was 95 outside! The photo below is of the cottage front door, and part of the wrap-around veranda with pergola.

Cottageporch

But the place was gorgeous, complete with real artwork throughout, and lovely furnishings. We hope to return next year if we can plan another family vacation. (It's so hard with Teddy's play schedule, plus next summer he hopes to go to Germany.)

One of the loveliest features was the beautiful landscaping -- flowers and ornamental grasses at every turn, and a lot of sculptures outside. And just beyond a little gate was the pathway to the beach. Sean and Teddy spent most of their days there, swimming, surfing, playing Frisbee, building sandcastles, and beachcombing. We are so thankful we brought a friend for Teddy -- Sean is a very nice boy, and they had a great time. The photo below is Teddy and Sean during one of the glorious sunsets.

More than once Teddy commented that the whole experience reminded him of our Julys on Marco Island in Florida, at my mom's house. The sunsets were so similar, and the sand in the beds was familiar! I was surprised at how different the sand on Lake Michigan beaches is, though -- not only in color and texture, but how different it is to walk in. I found myself winded walking just from the path to the water's edge -- it was like walking in quicksand to me. The photo below is the beach the day after a terrific thunderstorm. Yes, those colors are accurate!

I really enjoyed cooking with high quality appliances -- and eating homemade meals is so superior to eating out all the time! My sisters thought I was nuts when I was so excited planning our daily menus. We ate out exactly one time the whole week, and we ordered pizza the night before we came home. Otherwise I had fun making great meals which were scarfed down by my hungry men! The photo below is of the kitchen (you can't see the lovely GE Profile gas stove -- what a luxury!). That chopping block is ancient. I need to ask the owner where it came from. It must have seen hundreds of years of use, based on the condition of the surface.

Teddy celebrated his 17th birthday in Union Pier. For breakfast I made his favorite breakfast meal, southern biscuits and sawmill gravy. For dinner, I made his favorite dinner, shepherd's pie. We invited Ted's brother's family. Thomas and the girls, Ivy and Zoe, came, but Jule was working on a job in Chicago (they're both artists). Early in the week we had given Teddy a board game called Carcassone for his birthday -- it was a huge hit, and we played it several times while there (and several times since coming home!). We also gave him the 5th season of Monk, his favorite TV show.

Southwest Michigan is noted for its vineyards. We could have spent all day every day visiting various vintners, but we chose just one, Round Barn Vineyard in Baroda. Below is its namesake. The wines we purchased are simply wonderful -- Michigan excels at white wines.