Today Susan and I actually spent time apart for the first time in 3 weeks. With a sad heart I drove Susan (in Dad’s Blue Corvette) to Great America for fun with her sister’s family. I heard a good time was had by all. As for me I stayed home with Stu and worked.
In the evening Susan’s other sister and partner came over for dinner. We had a great BBQ cooked up by Wally and enjoyed a host of different wines.
We woke up slowly at the Mast residence to yet another home cooked meal (we might move in permanently). After our slow start, we loaded up the truck and headed to Illinois.
We arrived in Ill and met with our Niece and Nephew. Stu was of course a big hit and Jacob/Kelly got to throw him the ball.
After our first quick stop we went to Susan’s favorite resteraunt for steak and lobster with her parents.
A final stop at the Harry Potter movie ended our very full day. Least favorite book leads to least favorite movie btw….
Today we got to spend the day with Mike Mast. Kathie and Mike started our day with a home cooked breakfast. We were moving a little slowly from the drinking the night before, but we eventually made it out of the house and headed to the Ann Arbor Art Festival. Stu got to go with us as we walked around the tents and we all watched Susan shop.
After a quick nap, it was back to eating. Mike and Kathie out did themselves with slow cooked ribs, corn, etc on the grill. Cisler and his
sister showed up along with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Rick. Much eating and drinking was done. We finished the evening by having mast show us his huge screen billion dollar movie studio basement, onto which I made him show a crappy quality youtube video of Eddie Murphy delirious which was probably copied to the computer off of VHS. Yes I know how to show off high end video equipment.
We spent another great day on the lake. More of the same enjoying of the water. We would really like to thank Pat and Diane Battaglia (have I mentioned that all spelling on this blog is bad) for the great stopping point on our trip. We really enjoyed the company and the fun on the lake. We said our goodbyes after a full day and left for Howell MI.
Xythos Howell was our next stop and the home of Mike Mast. Drunken Susan told Mast a few days before on the phone she wanted to go to an expensive restaurant so Mike took us to a fancy french/Japanese fusion place. Mast, Kathy, Susan and I enjoyed a mix of really good food from Sushi to some flaming
dish (see picture below). We returned to the Mast residence for a few games and some much needed sleep.
Everything you wanted to do on a lake. We went swimming, kayaking, tubing, skiing, jumped on the lake trampoline, laid in the sun, ate good food, laughed, and threw the ball to the dog (CONSTANTLY).
Besides getting a little sun burned the day was a complete success and everyone enjoyed a great lake day. We even trained the Vitale dog Libby to chase the ball into the lake like Stu. I am not sure if the Vitale’s will be thanking us for that in a few years when all Libby wants to do is play catch.
We awoke to another beautiful day, although it was once again a travel day. After organizing the RV we went to Big Boy with Barry, Ann, Anthony, Roger, Titus, and Brenna. It was one of Susan’s wishes for the trip (the Big Boy experience). While we really enjoyed the company and had fun making faces with the kids, the food was not quite as good as Susan remembered.
We left Baryland (thanks Mike Mast) to go meet up with Andy and Linnell at their parents lake house in Marcellus. Since we were a little ahead of time, we were able to stop at a Rest Stop and actually rest. The RV is perfect for afternoon naps on the side of the road.
We traveled down to the lake and met up with the Vitale’s. Warm welcomes were followed by a boat ride and home made pot roast. We all went to bed excited about playing on the lake the next day.
Wine Tasting Time — North West Michigan Style.
Today we checked out the competition by going wine tasting. Barry graciously offered to drive so we set out to see what fine wines MI had to offer. We had a great day bumping around vinyards (the weather was perfect as well). As a special treat at the last winery was one of the possible hires for the Lind vineyard. They are currently looking for a wine master and we met with one of the possible hires. We got to go on a special tour of his current employer plus drink from a barrel of his own special vintage. Along with being able to ask lots of my dumb questions, what a perfect way to end a wine tour.
Returning home we simply sat around and talked until all of us were ready for bed. Susan and I love this part of the country. We were also here at the perfect time weather wise, not sure we would enjoy it as much in Jan.
Today we got to get a tour of Lind Enterprises. Barry Lind started Xythos with me many many years ago, and has since left California (for Manistee) and is leaving Xythos at the end of July. Today, Susan and I got to see what he is going to do with all his new found time (or lack there of it).
First we find 4 kids. Barry and Ann have 4 great kids who we (including Stuart) hung out with in the morning laughing, running around, and throwing the ball.
We then went on the trolley tour of Manistee with Barry and his son Anthony. Here we learned that in the late 1800’s Manistee had the most millionaires per capita in the country (it was all lumber money, and the barons all lived here). We got to see a lot of the huge houses around town and get a lot of history.
From there we moved on to the Manistee Airport (or Lind Airport) where Barry now is Airport Manager and ownes the charter and tour flights out of town (with two airplanes).
After seeing the great airport and large office Barry has there, we moved to Douglass Valley where the Linds have their Vineyard. This Vineyard produces more than just grapes, in fact Ann has a full garden with co-op like trading of vegetables (except she seems to do all the work). We did some tasting of the Lind Wines followed by a great tour of the grounds. Very exciting to know someone in wine making.
For dinner we went out to Arcadia Gold Course for a great dinner outside on lake Michigan.
A great day indeed…
Waking up in Columbus did not have much to offer. We simply got some coffee for Susan and gas for the truck and headed out to Michigan.
Michigan is not as open as SF with its dog friendliness. We wanted to stop at two places on lake MI to swim, but instead we had to find specific beaches for Stuart. Not a large problem, but changed our plans a little. We visited a nice dog beach in Muskeegan MI before the nice drive up to Manistee.
We arrived at Lind Palace and were treated to wine upon arrival (makes it feel like vacation at the nicest places). It was great! We then hung out on the porch and drank wine before getting a tour of their great house.
It was a slow moving morning with Stuart taking a number of dips in the Samuel Pond. We enjoyed the one bedroom apartment we were staying in some more and did our laundry etc. After some sad goodbyes we headed North. We said goodbye to I-40 for the last time and headed through parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio.
Charleston WV was really nice (and the capital) as was the drive over the Ohio River. We didn’t get to do much as we had a long drive, but tomorrow we will hopefully be at our next stop, Lind City in northern Michigan.
The Wiggen's Travels 