The Fourth in TC

The Great Lakes in the summer rock.  Seriously, they are crisp, cool, and are beautifully clear.  You can glide across them seeing down the depths into a magical world.  Fish dart in and out of drift wood sanctuaries, ship wrecks decorate the bottom and jump out as you motor by.  A dip in them is remarkably refreshing as the midday sun light beats down on you while dancing on the water.  Spending the day on the Lake (growing up it was Lake Huron and now it is Lake Michigan) is pure luxury and we soaked ourselves in this luxury over the Holiday week.

My need for my four to coordinate just a little lead me to the idea of tie dying patriotic t-shirts.  Completed a few days before the 4th, the kids excitedly dressed for the occasion as we packed up and headed out. 

                    

We made little miss Maizey a celebration t-shirt too.  I tried to get a picture of all the grandchildren, but Zane was not cooperating.  This was the best I got.

The drive was smooth with little traffic and children that behaved pretty well.  A new DVD player with larger screens helped to ease the long drive.  The anticipation of our stay in Traverse City was palpable in the confines of our vehicle.  We giggled and laughed, cried and whined.  The drive was exactly what we expected.  

The children survived the traveling in one piece, went out to the beach, and then we all headed to a baseball game.  The Traverse City Beach Bums have a beautiful park and with lawn seating the kids ran around and enjoyed the freedom, caring very little for the game of baseball.  Their energy kept going and the made it through the fireworks at the end.  We were impressed! 

Thursday and Friday were days filled with gorgeous sun.  The days beckoned for us to spend them on the boat.  The children loved it.  Speeding around in the water, falling asleep to the rhythmic sounds of the engine, anchoring at a beach, collecting drift wood on shore, and much swimming were how we spent the days.  Not bad at all for our vacation!  The following pictures tell the stories of our days:

The above wood was hauled all by Strong Man Max.  He was on a mission to collect and haul to his own pile, as much wood as possible.  We were impressed by the sheer size of the pile and his determination to keep going!

I asked my Dad to stop by the near shipwreck so I could jump off and snokel for a bit.  It was beautiful and in the those few minutes just my Mom and I stared down at a beautiful piece of history. 

On last stop at the Horse Shows By The Bay, as we headed out of town was a nice ending to a perfect July visit.  The horse show is one of the biggest, lasting a month.  The horses are gorgeous and we watched some jumping events.  Horses were everywhere, literally the grounds had four show arenas, plus practice arenas.  Left, right, behind, in front of us, it was truly an incredible sight.  Noelle and I could have spent the entire day there, but for a little over an hour we enjoyed it.  Next year we’ll plan our visit so we can spend the day there. 

As we drove South the comfortable 77 degrees of  TC surrendered to the heat of Southern Michigan and upon arriving in our driveway the vehicle thermometer read 102.  We quickly jumped out and trips unloading were done in record time.  It was nice to be home, but we all missed Traverse City and Grandpa, Grandma, and Uncle Alex.  We’ll be back, soon!