We have been busy playing in the cool weather and enjoying the great weather. Although I do object to the frost we had the other day! It's not quite time for that nonsense yet!
Samone and Felipe picked some apples behind Mom's temp house and it was a first for Felipe who had never seen an apple tree before. We've had a quick shopping trip to Birch Run where Felipe got a winter coat and some new tennis shoes. We even went to the famous Tony's to show Felipe the hugemongous portions. I think that burrito lasted him a few days. The next day we had a birthday party for Miss Samone. OMG - she is officially 13, a teenager! Does that officially make me an old auntie? Yikes!
Several weekends ago we had a wonderful visit from Mike's parents. What a great weekend! We did the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, which Momma K really enjoyed. We had a nice dinner with friends and family and then biked the Pierre-Marquette Trail on Sunday morning. We went from Midland to Clare for an exhilerating 30 mile bike ride. It really got me excited for the trip Samone and I are taking next year. I had no idea I liked biking quite so much!
Mike & I decided to take an impromptu overnight in the beginning of October and we ended up going to the Hoist Lakes Foot Travel Area. We have never been and it was a delightful weekend. A great getaway that we both sorely needed. We headed out semi-early Saturday morning and arrived at the west access around noon. We met a boisterous group of gentlemen in the parking lot and we would meet up with them on Sunday on our way out and have a nice chat.
We headed onto the trail and decided to head north around the big loop. We then realized after a couple of miles we should have done a figure 8 of the trail to get the full 20-ish miles. We figured oh well and trekked on. The trail was nice and wide in most places and well marked. The weather threatened rain but held off all weekend. It was an extremely comfortable temperature in the 50's. We stopped for a little lunch where the trail heads back south and visited with the many chipmunks running about. We were surprised how many other people we encountered on the trial. At least 15 to 20 people in total. We thought we may camp down around the Hoist Lakes, but seeing the 3 or 4 campsites already there we decided to move on. We ended up at Penoyer Lake all by ourselves, which is our preferred location. Found a nice site that had been used before and made a fantastic new recipe I found for dinner, bean & chicken burritos. I will bring along some shredded cheese to sprinkle on the top next time. It was down in the 30's in the morning and we packed up after a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and oatmeal. A nice hike through the
woods back out that was a little bit more challenging but not as challenging as we were led to believe by some accounts. We had a nice stop to chat with others at Byron Lake. What an amazingly gorgeous lake. The GPS had us at 16-ish miles. What a nicely maintained area. Good job National Forrest Service!
All in all a nice little getaway and we were back on the road by noon. We took a bunch of backroads home and had a great time buzzing through towns we've never seen before, including a late lunch in a mom & pop restaurant in Standish. A couple there was celebrating being married for 51 years, certainly something for Mike and I to aspire to.
Only 50 more years to go!
I hope the weather holds out for a bit longer and we can squeeze one more fall weekend in.
Clickie to biggie
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| Fall 2008 |
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