Three years ago, I realized how much I had missed not visiting my family back East,not being able to watch my 2 beautiful nieces grow up and resolved to make it back at least once a year. Well, Laurie, my sis in law had sent me a photo album of family and I knew it was time. A tortuous visit to the net and airline, hotel and car rental were quickly put into place.
I got into Detroit at 7:30 P.M. and my brother/best friend whisked me to a mid-eastern restaurant for lentil soup and chicken shwarma - delicious and enough garlic to ward off any local vampires for the next week.
Thursday and Friday were spent on minor errands and me playing "Mister Handyman", have wrench, will travel. The best part was spending Friday with Maia 4 1/2 and Rylee, 7 months. What a joy. Maia has blossomed into this bright, inquisitive, verbal, loving young lady that has supplied me with my quota of smiles for the next 10 years. I spent some quality time with Rylee where I was amazed at her innate intelligence. She responds to music so I did a few Jackson Browne tunes to rave reviews - obviously she is not too selective regarding vocal quality. We played a bit of "This little piggy...", talked about the future, (she mainly listened to my ideas) and within the hour, my heart belonged to her forever.
Saturday, we were up by 7:30 and after a few false starts, made our way up to Bayfield, Ontario where my brother and sister own a cottage on the shores of Lake Huron. We are talking about a wonderful, warm spot where laughter rules, warm feelings reside and tension melts away like today's polar cap, yes, there is global warming but I digress.
My niece Carrie and husband Nate, my niece Megan, husband Rick, Maia and Rylee were already there and deep into Cottage mode. What is truly wonderful is that all of these people are very bright with varied interests which makes for interesting discussions over a wide variety of topics.
We headed to the beach, just 82 steps (straight down) and spent the afternoon kite flying, sand castle building, tossing sticks for the dogs, watching the waves and catching up on life. I could make a fortune if I could figure out a way to bottle the warmth and love I felt. At 4:30, we headed up to make our 5:00 reservation at the "Black Dog", a crowd favorite in downtown Bayfield.
Bayfield is a storybook village that feels and is mellow on the banks of Lake Huron. A beautiful harbor with multi-colored fishing boats bobbing on the tide, expansive green areas, century homes and small quaint storefronts without a Mc Donalds to be seen. Dinner was wonderful, not for the food which was excellent but for the company around the table - laughter in abundance.
We picked up ice cream and celebrated Rick's birthday in song and Laurie's homemade Hummingbird cake which was delicious and no birds were injured. Maia was strongly advocating for a s'more that she had been promised so Nate built a fire in the backyard and while Maia completed her sugar high mission, we just sat around watching the sunset regaling each other with stories from the past.
It's been a wonderful few days. What would have only made it better if Kathy could be here to share it.
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| Joey, Nichols, Rylee and Laurie enjoying a moment |
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| Maia, a bit pensive prior to swim class |
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| Our little mermaid |
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| Maia's favorite restaurant, The Lime Light |
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| Beach time, Nate, Maia, Nichols and Carrie |
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| Peace, easy to find around here |
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| Jeff, flying a kite, got it up to 350 feet |
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| Nate with Wren, a Blue Heeler |
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| No stick, no matter how big was safe from Wren |
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| Rick, picking at the coast |
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| Dropping in at the "Black Dog" |
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| The Crew |
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| Is that a look of contentment or what! |
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| The S'more has landed and all is well |
The pictures can only express only so much, the memories will last a lifetime!!
ha ha. that pic of me with smoke blowing in my eyes is quite classic. i think i like the last one a tad better. ;) what a wonderful weekend we had. thanks for immortalizing it with pictures and details in your blog. love you!!
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