Vacation - Day 2

We started our second day of vacation by touring the three little peninsulas by Port Clinton, Ohio:  Catawba Island, East Harbor, and Marblehead.  We visited the state parks at the tip of each peninsula, and admired the amazing views.  Who knew Lake Erie could be so pretty??  :)

Me at Marblehead, with Kelleys Island in the background

Me in front of the Marblehead Lighthouse

We could easily see Cedar Point from the lighthouse park!

We enjoyed lunch in Port Clinton, right on the river.  Here is a shot of one of the ferry boats we took yesterday.

Then we stopped by the Christensen reunion in Ottawa Lake for a few minutes.  The girls were happy to see us, yet wanted us to leave so they could continue their partying with Grandma and Grandpa!  We drove on to East Lansing that afternoon to go to the U2 concert at Spartan Stadium!!  Now I'm cool like Erica.

We had to hit the Dairy Store!  MooU is known for their ice cream, of course!

We had a delicious dinner of sushi at a great little restaurant on MAC

Cute couple at the concert.  We had good seats!

I HAD to get a Melting Moments ice cream sandwich.  I cannot go to Spartan Stadium and not get a cookie sandwich!  Never mind that I already had ice cream that evening...and twice the day before!! :)

Super cool 360 stage.  There is a walkway all the way around the main stage, with two bridges, and the band took advantage of every inch of it.  The 360 video screen was awesome, too.  (The tour is called U2 360)

Video screen dropping down, so cool!

The crowd was electric!!

The disco ball/light on top was soooo high, it was visible outside the stadium.

The concert was amazing...awesome music, great stage/special effects, and an electric crowd of nearly 70,000 people!  I can't believe we got such good tickets so close to the date.  The bummer was driving home at 11:30pm.  We didn't get home til 1am, which is really late for us old people.  Poor Chris had to go to work on Monday, too!  I got to sleep in - no kids!  :)

Monday I stayed home and toiled all day in the girls' rooms and closets.  The clothes situation was a disaster of sizes and seasons, and I finally sorted it all out.  Chris and I went out to dinner and a movie (Bridesmaids) last night.

Today, I hit the doctor in the morning -  did you notice the bandaid on my nose in these pics?  I've had a painful rash on my nose and cheek for a week, and the dermatologist thinks it's shingles.  Lovely.  I'm on antiviral horse pills.  He took a culture to see if it's impetigo, but he thinks it's shingles.

Mom C. brought the girls back at noon today.  They were so happy to be home and to tell me all about their adventures!  They played a lot in their "new" rooms and with their outside toys today...absence makes the heart grow fonder.

We have a fun week ahead of us.  Tomorrow is our city's fireworks, and this weekend we will camp in our friends' backyard (on a lake) and watch their fireworks from their boat.

Vacation!!!

This past weekend, we dropped off the girls at Mom & Dad Christensen's house, and Chris and I went on a mini vacation!  Just the two of us!  We had such a fun and busy time.  Here's Day 1:

We drove to Port Clinton, OH, and took the ferry to Put-In-Bay.  It was a rough ride...the wind made for some big waves.  Put-In-Bay is a lot like a party Mackinac Island, with cars.  We opted to rent a golf cart for an hour, to tour the island and get the lay of the land.  Then we walked around the park and giggled at all the pirates (there was a pirate festival going on).  We had lunch at The Boardwalk, per Dad's recommendation for the lobster bisque.  It was verrrry good, but we still laugh when we think of the ads all over town for "Ohio's Best Lobster Bisque"!!  Because you know Ohio is well-known for their lobster bisque, right??  As Dad said, it's probably Lake Erie crayfish, not lobster!

Lobster bisque in a sourdough bread bowl, on the right

This guy's job sucks.  Literally.  Sucking fishflies off the windows!

Mayflies (aka fishflies) coated every surface

We went to the Commodore Perry national park/museum on PIB, and watched a fascinating movie about Perry and the battle in the War of 1812.  (Remember Katie loves him b/c he has the same last name as Katy Perry)  Here's Chris in front of the Perry monument, closed for renovations.

Then we took the ferry to nearby Kelleys Island.  It is much more residential than PIB, but has a nice state park.  We rented a golf cart and putted around the island for an hour.  We saw the glacial grooves and the petroglyphs.

The best example of glacial grooves in the world!!  Amazing!

More glacial grooves

After taking the ferry back to PIB, we walked to Heineman's Winery and took the cave/winery tour.  The cave tour doesn't actually go to a cave, but into the world's largest geode!  The cavity was 35 feet across, with huge crystals.  So cool!

Then on to the winery.  It was neat to see the equipment & hear the stories.  Here's their wine selection.  We got a token for a free (tiny) glass of wine, and then of course stayed for a while, trying other kinds.  It was so cheap, only $2/glass, don't tell Mom C.!!

We had dinner at the Irish pub, and then walked around town.  We brought our bathing suits, and I was hoping to hop into one of the famous swim-up bars, but they were all deserted after dinner.  I guess we should have tried in the afternoon.

More fishflies.  Everything was coated with them!

Us in front of The Boardwalk

We got a blizzard before the ferry ride home.  It was our 2nd ice cream of the day :)

PIB was full of drunkenness, swearing, and vomiting after 5pm, so when we come back with the girls someday, we will be sure to catch an early ferry back to the mainland!!  Definitely a party island!!

Bug Camp

Last week, Katie & Megan went to Critter & Bug Camp at a nearby nature center.  It was so fun!  I wish I had my camera when I picked up the girls the first day...all of the kids had butterfly nets, sweeping them through the grasses and weeds around the nature center.  They were all so excited to show off what they had caught!  They went bug-collecting in grasses, trees, water, under rocks, etc.  Don't worry, it was all catch and release.  They also got to play with all of the critters in the nature center - snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, cockroaches, etc etc.

Katie with Sunny, the bearded dragon

Megan and Sunny

Jessi wouldn't hold Sunny, but she would pet her.

Katie and a little turtle

Megan and a bigger turtle

Later that afternoon, we had several heavy, but short, rain showers.  The girls thought it would be fun to play outside in the rain!  Fully dressed!

During another rain shower, Chris had to go out to the pond and fix a kink in the hose that goes from our rain barrel to the pond.  The girls went back out in the rain!  This time Katie & Jessica chose to put on bathing suits.  I washed a LOT of clothes that night!

Gardens and Dads

The day after school was out, I dragged the girls on the annual Rochester Hills Garden Walk.  It is always so fun - really!  We took lots of pictures of the ponds, and lots of closeups of pretty flowers.

Megan got a little too close to the lily she was smelling!

The day after the garden walk, I printed the closeup pictures of the flowers, because my little artists wanted to paint them!  There were plein air artists at each of the gardens, which really inspired the girls.

One day, Megan found a huge toad in our flowers!

On Father's Day, we went to church, and then went to Ottawa Lake to have a little get-together with Grandpa Christensen and the rest of the family.  We enjoyed yummy strawberry shortcakes, and we had a really nice time of sitting outside in the yard and chatting, while hummingbirds zoomed all around us.

All of the dads

We took Chris out for sushi dinner for Father's Day.  And Jessica discovered that she DOES like sushi!  Look out!

After dinner, we walked over to the library to check on "our" tadpoles.  They have legs now!  We had fun catching them (Chris included).

I took the girls strawberry-picking again the next day, and then we made our freezer jam.  Thirteen big jars' worth!

Last days of school

Katie had her field day on the last Monday of school.  I brought the little girls to watch all of the fun and festivities.  The PTG really puts on a fun day!

Katie running back after carefully walking a spoon full of water over to her team's bucket.

Katie and her friend Maddy with HUGE popsicles.  Everyone got to pick a yummy treat.

Girls modelling their tattoos

View of the valley, where all the traditional field day events took place.  (obstacle course, tug-of-war, spoon race, etc)

Third graders in the dance tent.  The DJ and dancers got everyone - even the boys - to dance for 30 minutes straight!

View of the blacktop, where the carnival games were held.

After the field day, we all went around to the side of the school and watched an amazing performance by stunt bike guys and girl.  They did crazy jumps and flips on the ramps!


Wednesday was the last day of school, it was only a half day, with a Rite of Passage at the church.  Katie was selected to carry the 3rd grade candle, and present it to a 2nd grader.  Big stuff!

Can you see Katie, in the white dress, under the blue balloon?

Katie and her teacher, Mrs. Benham.  Now Katie is a 4th grader!!

Once school was out, we decided to PARTY!!!  We went strawberry-picking:

And then we went to the beach!!  What a fun first (half)day of summer vacation!!