Holiday in Saugatuck, Michigan

There have been no posts for a while, last week we were on holidays. We had a wonderfully relaxing stay on the west coast of Michigan, the quaint little town of Saugatuck.  It lies on the coast of Lake Michigan, a lake so large it almost feels like an ocean. The coast is dotted with sand dunes and beautiful sandy beaches. It is quite uncommon to have such beautiful fresh water beaches. We stayed in a log cabin about 2 miles from the town called Kingfisher Cove. We can certainly recommend them.

We did a little of everything, beaches, sand dunes, we had lunches out, took a boat ride on Lake Michigan, bike riding, nice food (we ate tons of fresh blueberries, even picked a few), touring the town but most of all we spent a lot of time in the pool, a one minute walk. The kids loved it we were there at least twice a day and it was still hard to prize the kids away.

We had a rather large cabin so Randy and Lorraine joined us for the entire trip. They travelled up with us helped us all relax and kick into vacation mode. We certainly had an even better time since they joined us. They provided more adult company; Randy and I certainly played lots of chess. Having them with us certainly allowed us to do more with the kids too. Connor still takes frequent naps and having several extra hands helped a lot with child entertainment, cooking and general cajoling of tired kids (after hours in a pool).

Randy and Loraine – we had a wonderful time, truly a relaxing vacation, many thanks again for your company, friendship, humor and help on the trip!

As always, I took way to many photos. A selection are provided below but more can be viewed at our Gallery Here.

Loeb Fountain at Purdue

These last two days, the girls and myself have taken a little saunter down to Loeb Fountain at Purdue University. This fountain is a very popular destination with all kids in the area, particularly the student kids. Think of the fun this park may present on hot summer evenings!!

Anyhow, our girls had a wonderful time. It took them a little while to get really into it since the water is pretty cold and the water forces pretty extreme. On one occasion poor Isabel had her eyes closed and ran straight into one of the jet streams, I thought it was going to bowl her over She survived, albeit was a little shocked. 

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day, that is for all of you in the US.  Not sure those of you who are not US Citizens and live elsewhere will find much to celebrate.  The other day I actually read the US Declaration of Independence for the first time; it’s quite the read indeed if you have never had a chance to read it. One can also listen to it being read by NPR newscasters.

Of course Brooke, as normal, was very active during the week in preparation for this holiday. Together with the girls, she baked a US Flag Cake and helped them make US Flags.  

Old Photo - Australia

It’s been a while since I posted something about an old photo. My selected one this time is this rose bush at the end of a grape vine. In former times, many vineyards planted roses at the end of the grape vine as an indicator of disease; nowadays of course they check the vines themselves and soil conditions etc. As we toured the valley many vineyards had these beautiful roses and we were quite taken with them.

The picture was taken during our trip to the Barossa Valley in Australia where many of the famous Australian wine brands originate (Jacobs Creek, Penfolds etc).

I also show some of our other Australian shots below!!

Wineglass Bay

Port Arthur - Tasmania 

Håkan, Eva-Lotta and Tindra Leave

Håkan, Eva-Lotta and little Tindra left today to continue their travels of the midwest. It was so good to be able to hang out with them, catch up with all the happenings in Sweden and to hear how they are doing now that their life has changed with Tindra. Although Lynne met them once in Denmark, I had never had a chance to see Tindra.

On Sunday we actually celebrated Eva-Lotta’s birthday (29 again) and had brunch with Randy and Lorraine. The girls played most days with our assorted items; the evenings were spent in our paddling pool and the nights in the bath and reading. Overall we had a great week with them, thanks for staying guys!!