Visiting the Muskegon Farmers Market, Dinner with Jackson

Slow day today. We got up a bit early, and several of us headed out to Musekgon to visit the Muskegon Farmers Market.
Slow day today. We got up a bit early, and several of us headed out to Musekgon to visit the Muskegon Farmers Market.
We’re heading out of town soon, and we didn’t want to be a blocker for Bob’s work on the HVAC up here. The space is super tight (by design), and Bob can’t finalize the placement of the furnace until we mud, tape, and paintthe walls. Because once he puts in the furnace and ductwork, there’s no way we’re going to be able to reach the walls.
It’s been a long time coming – but today, Liz and I put some time in the backyard to trim down a lot of overgrown foliage.
On our side, Tippi has gotten out of hand. And honestly, has been out of hand for several months now. While Liz was working on Tippi, I was working on trimming a lot of the tree branches that were bleeding into our area from the neighbor’s yard… and over-shading our garden boxes.
Liz and I had an early date night planned today. Earlier in the week, we got an email notification, a kind of last minute invite to a Drammers event at Warehouse Liquors: a tasting event featuring Teeling whiskey. And a chance to sample tastes from two 30+ year old bottles!
We gathered at a place called The James, in Geneva. We learned that this was formerly a restaurant known as Fiora’s, a place that had been open for 13 years until it shut down recently.
I was filling up some watering cans, to water the plants on our front porch… and looked up to see these guys, in the distance. One of them eventually came over and started down the driveway towards me. I was actually shocked to see just how close he came to me. And got a bit of it on video.
Unfortunately, our house isn’t quite suitable for hosting just yet. And on top of that, Paige is pretty allergic to the bunnies. So what we decided on was to get her a room at the nearby Sophy hotel. And we also got ourselves a room, alongside hers. And we decided to make a night of hanging out in Hyde Park together, before her flight tomorrow morning.
Liz and I had a second day today, with the Ford kids. Our plan was another “Day in Chicago,” but this time a bit more reserved. A bit lower key.
We blew most of our energy last week on a pretty event-filled day. So today had fewer events, fewer things to do. But we still ended up filling the day, and then some.
For tonight, three bottles were opened: a Rose (from Risa), a Federation Zinfandel, and some Romulan Ale Vodka.
The big day is here! We’ve got the Ford kids for another Day in Chicago, with a lot of big plans this time around.
We had a blast last year (and in all honesty probably tried to pack too much in). This year, we didn’t quite learn our lesson, as we also had a pretty busy day in mind.
The clues were mostly like this. I had a super hard time writing them, because I haven’t written much lately. And for whatever reason most of the clues felt like they needed to rhyme. And I was putting a tremendous amount of pressure on these couplets being well written, instead of… you know… clues for a silly game.
While I’ve gotten to see the fireworks from land before, tonight was the first time I got to be on the boat.
Shortly after breakfast, the kids decided to break out Monopoly (rainy day today). They asked if I wanted to join, and I have to tell you… I debated, but decided to decline. Boy did I dodge a bullet there.
I really like this shot. It has the look of a Renaissance painting to me.
The skies were getting darker and darker as we got towards the Indiana/Michigan border. And right as we got near, just about 6 minutes away… the rain really started coming down. I’m talking windshield wipers on full, every car slowing down to 15 miles an hour, and everyone throwing on their blinkers.