Father's Day

Today is Father's Day and Bob wanted to celebrate by visiting the Detroit Institute of Art and then checking out a highly recommended Thai restaurant. Since it was 'his' day, we happily complied, although it was not hard to agree to his fun plans.

After church, Bob got a short nap, and we then did an hour of yard work and car cleaning in preparation for our trip to North Carolina this week.

In the late afternoon, we headed downtown to DIA for a quick view of some of the art. The DIA has a wide variety of art.  Noah, who had to complete a requirement for a merit badge, chose for us to do the Grand Tour of Italy - wealthy young European men who traveled around in Italy gathering art and other souvenirs to ship back to their palaces and castles. We perused the Venice room, the Naples room, the Florence room and the Rome room.  After completing our whirlwind tour of Italy, we walked through the American art collection and Noah pulled out his sketch pad and began to draw.

The restaurant was not far from the DIA and the recommendations were right on, terrific food and a fun celebration. Noah announced that he could eat Thai food every day - his is after all his father's son.

Back home we showered Bob with a few utilitarian gifts and the boys' home made cards along with a large box from Barb. Quite the fitting end to a day dedicated to the very best Da.  Lukas and Noah are blessed to be raised by Bob.

Recital

Lukas and Noah are thoroughly enjoying their music lessons with Mrs Wicklund. On Friday evening, they had a chance to demonstrate some of what they have learned. A very enjoyable evening for all.

Unusual clouds

Michigan offers some gorgeous sunsets and unusual cloud formations. We are always marveling at God's canvas - the vast expanse above us called the sky - there is a new painting every night.

Petoskey

We packed up all our gear and headed back over the bridge. Although we were heading home, we wanted to stop in Petoskey to do some more bike riding and explore this little town.

Petoskey is known for a rock that can be found mainly on the shores of Lake Michigan and primarily in this area.

We also had a chance to see the local Emergency Services duke it out in water fights, perfect as the thermometer had climbed and it was now beginning to feel like summer.

Our last stop was the bread store, picking up cherry walnut bread and French crusty bread for our lunch on the go in the car.

Multi million dollar view

Our camp site view

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16 Years!

While on vacation, we celebrated 16 years of marriage. After a fun day on the island, we headed back to the camp site where Bob surprised me with a bottle of champagne, the perfect final to a fantastic day.  We all hung around the camp site, sipping champagne, enjoying the warmth of fire and the love of family.

This is how Bob brought us the fire wood :-) a remnant from his Honduras days maybe?

Mackinac Island Here We Come!

The next morning, we jumped on our bikes and headed down to the harbor to catch the ferry over to Mackinac Island. The rain had stopped and there seemed to be a clearing of the sky, ie perfect biking weather.
Our first stop was the rock and we had a beautiful view of the lakes and the bridge from one of the highest points on the island. It was good we started our biking by heading uphill because then it was downhill for the rest of the day.
Since it was our anniversary, we decided to celebrate with a large ice cream extravaganza before lunch. This energized us for a bit more exploring and we biked around the entire island, all 8 miles of it. One on shore we stopped and built a cairn, a set of rocks as a memory of being there. Another stop was seeing the hole in the rock from below, that we had previously seen from above.
Once back in the little center, we explored the stores and found tasty take-out lunches that were consumed in the park, surrounded by visitors, artists, and locals alike.
We boarded the ferry back, a bit tired but satisfied with a fantastic day on this beautiful island.