Exhale: June 2014

Sunday, June 29, 2014

The air conditioning was working overtime yesterday and so was our hose. Jer returned home from a business trip late morning and the rest of the day was spent around the house enjoying each other's company and playing catch up. Note Viv's lack of tooth in the last few entries. Two weeks ago Saturday, she had to get her tooth pulled as an abscess developed (a common complication with kiddie root canals). Poor babe. The neighborhood kids have been oohing and ahhing enough over the fact that the tooth fairy visited a three year old that I think she's forgotten any trauma involved with the event.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Checked in at the Timberline Motel

It was January. In the midst of one of the coldest winters I can remember. Ella and I were sitting at her opthalmologist's office waiting room. Leafing through Martha Stewart's magazine (a July edition), I saw a spread on Leelanau County, Michigan. Photos of farm stands, quiet, sunny beaches and country roads seemed quite enchanting to this winter-weary reader. Days later I was on the phone with the National Park Service and we had a reservation made at Sleeping Bear Dunes, otherwise known as the heart of this Martha Stewart wonderland. It didn't disappoint. We snacked on local cheeses, perch sandwiches and smoked fish. We sampled hard ciders, climbed dunes and saw scenery reminiscent of the sunsets in Greece or the country roads in the south of France...minus the chainsaw wood carvings (distinctly rural America I think). The girls did great on the car ride. They listened to classics on CD, Frank Baum, Beverly Cleary and Roald Dahl. They slept long and hard at night, peacefully sleeping to the steady rains in the late evening. Vivian actually cried as we took down our tent this morning. We promised that soon we would allow for a backyard campout. Jerry and I will gladly leave the mosquitoes in Michigan. Room service and a pool certainly await during our next vacation.