July 4th in the South

The opportunity to proudly show off Ella to friends and family proved much stronger than our personal commitment to finally reduce our summer travel schedule. Kentucky bound at 3pm on a Thursday proved to be an unexpected pleasurable ride, I was prepared for the worst holiday traffic, but thankfully never found it. Once again as our car cleared the Kentucky border my wife began to squirm in her seat and begin to use the words from her childhood - "ya'all com'en over tonight?" she says into her tiny new phone. Ella remained unphased, only waking to tell us when she is hungry.

Kentucky is not technically my home, but it is as home as any place I have ever lived. Every time we pack the car up to head North it gets a little harder. Spirits remained high this time though becasue we where only heading an hour North to Cincy, where we would join Kate's Grandparents, Aunt Sherri and Dad for the Reds baseball game. First up..... gearing up Ella in here Cincinnati Reds gear and heading off to her first baseball game. She was so impressed with the 10 - 1 loss to the Cardinals that she slept through the ENTIRE game!

I spent the next couple of days watching one person walk into a room with my daughter and another walking out of the room with her. The perfect example: Sherri had walked into the kitchen holding Ella, but what she didn't know was that her brother Tom was silently following her. Following her as if he where a lion quietly stalking prey through the plains of Africa. The second Sherri needed two hands he swooped in to politely offer his assistance with Ella, he now had the prize in his possession.....it would be brief. In this family packed their is one wiser than all the rest..... Great Grandma Ruth, GG Ruth as she would rather be called. She moved into the kitchen from the laundry room to ask Tom about a load of laundry that needed to be done. Tom innocently entered the room, oblivious to the switch that was about to happen. You could see this set up a mile away ...... you know when you are at the movies watching a scary movie and the half dressed, dumb blonde ventures off into the dark to see what that noise was? Today that half dressed dumb blonde was Tom! See, he would need two hands to complete the innocent task that had been asked of him by GG Ruth........ poor guy, he never saw it coming!

I sat in the kitchen this entire time drinking my coffee and watching with curious eyes as it all unfolded. Seconds later GG Ruth turned the corner with Ella in arms and a satisfied smile. I was left thinking....... damn, she is GOOD!

Cherry Capital

We have resided in Southeast Michigan now for over two years. In that two years most of our free time has been spent with our car pointed south, as we attended the many events our friends and family created to entice our attendance. Though we would not change that for the world, Michiganders are amazed to find that we have never been North of Ann Arbor!

We consistently hear about the weekend retreats to Northern Michigan and how they are the only reason why any of us would consider living in Michigan. Pushing our chores off to the side we headed North. After about 4.5 hours no more land existed to support the roads we drove in on, we had arrived in Traverse City.

Traverse City is the Cherry Capital of the world and they prepared for a large cherry festival the week after we made our visit.
As my wife unpacked her sandals and short sleeve shirts it had become clear that she had merely nodded her head "yes" without fully comprehending my weather announcement a day earlier. Traverse City had a very unusual cold spell while we where visiting, 60 degrees was the high with clouds and good percentage of rain. Seems after we left the sun came out and temps where back in the mid 70's.

It really was a great little town and we look forward to finding another reason to head back up there with better weather on our side.