St. Germaine

 Monday, September 17, 2018

We were on the road at 9:15 a.m. on a cloudless sunny sky and very warm.  We drove for two hours before stopping at Perkins' for breakfast.  Roads are very good and traffic is light.

On the way, Peter mentioned a Facebook friend that he just heard from this morning. He talked about him and his daughters and thought he lived in a town near where we were driving that began with an H.  As we were driving along he spotted a not too prominent sign with Harshaw. That's the town! We drove a little farther then decided to see if we could could find his friend, Mike Hempe.  We kept following the resort signs for a very long time, almost giving up.  At last we came to a private road, right up to the property. We exchanged warm greetings and related the details of how we arrived here.  Mike was amazed, because we came without an address and people with a GPS can't find it.  What a gorgeous view and beautiful home that he bought completely furnished. We stayed just long enough to have a short visit and were on our way.

 At 3:10 p.m. We were driving into to our cabin.  We unpacked and had cheese, crackers, and beverages on the picnic table.  We took a walk along the lake, read on our porch with light jackets, as the sun is going down and there is a chill in the air.

We finished the day at Fiddler's Restaurant, a very short drive away.  We had dark ale beers with our dinners, a half rack of very meaty ribs for me, perch for Peter.  He had enough to take home in a box along with the rest of a loaf of homemade bread.  It will be delicious in the morning toasted with the hard cooked eggs I brought.

Tuesday,  September 18, 2018

We had hard cooked eggs and toasted bread from the restaurant last night; however, the slices were too thick to fit in the toaster and burned.  So we had plain bread and some cheese.  We had coffee on the porch on an overcast 55 degree morning.  Jackets felt comfortable.  I tried casting from the pier, but the water is very shallow so all I picked up were some weeds.  

We packed our picnic gear and headed for Bond Falls in Michigan; it was a little over an hour drive.  The falls were beautiful, with wild rushing water.

We walked some paths for different views.  There was a convenient picnic table close to where we parked the car, so we set up our lunch. 

We usually get comments from passers by, and today was no exception.

We like taking a different route on our return and headed for Presque Isle.  Peter would try to look up a B&S friend there.  We parked next to the Chamber of Commerce and I waited in the car while Peter went for information, with no luck.  I recalled from Facebook that Carol and Jim lived in Presque Isle.  I called Janice for Carol's number and she welcomed us over.  Mary and Rodney were also expected for dinner.  I assured her that we were coming to just say hello and goodbye, and would not stay longer.  We got a grand tour of their indescribable house, and that's all that I can say: the view of expansive Oxbow Lake which they have full bay frontage, spaciousness, design, living space were out of this world. 

We had some wine, and since Mary and Rodney were coming shortly, it would really be rude to leave before saying hello.  Well, it didn't end there, and next we were invited for dinner: spinach salad, German potato salad, special corn from Mary and salmon, all delicious, with cheese cake for dessert.  Our conversation touched on politics, and I seemed to be the only one against Trump.  Jim was in favor some of his business policies.  We talked about books and other general subjects, some related to family.  It was a very pleasant evening.

The day remained pleasant, with the sun making feeble attempts to appear, but it didn't rain and we got up to 60 degrees.

Our trip home in the dark took us over lake roads that were not paved, and our gas was getting low; AAA would have a dickens of a time finding us.  Fortunately,  we got back on paved roads and a gas station, and it didn't take much longer to get to our cabin. 

Wednesday,  September 19, 2018

We had coffee on the porch with light jackets.  It started to mist when we took off for breakfast at the Wolf Pack Restaurant in St. Germain.  We had a very short wait before being seated.  We passed on coffee because we had plenty in our cabin.  I ordered a pancake that was thin and was as large as the dinner plate with sausage.  Peter was expecting the kind of vegetable omelet he got at Meyer's, but was very pleased with how many vegetables were in his omelet.  Very satisfying.

We drove to Eagle River and went to the shops on each side of Wall Street in light mist.  I bought a Birthday card for Brad, beer bottle puzzle for Claude and a nice fall top for myself.  Before driving off I bought some caramel corn.

We headed for the Twilight Bar and Grill that changed its name to Bull Pen.  We sat next to a man born in Munich and exchanged stories, and whose favorite German beer was Augustina.  We had beer and burgers.  I'm afraid to get on the scale when I get home after I was doing so well. We ended the day playing dominoes; I won 7-6 in close games.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

We had hard cooked eggs, rye toast (I really liked that Sendik's plain rye with a salted top), bananas and coffee.  We had our first cups on the porch.  We cleaned up the cabin, took out the garbage and are on the road at 10:00 a.m. in light rain, 57 degrees.

We had a very satisfying dinner at Schreiner's starting with loaded bloody Marys: pork chop for Peter that included navy bean soup, roll and butter, mashed potatoes, corn and coffee.  I had a salad, rice, corn and six panko breaded shrimp and coffee.  It was a perfect stop and will be our main meal for the day.  We were back on the road at 2:50 with mostly light rain on the way, turning to overcast and 75 degrees.

I was home to a warm kitty greeting from Hello Dolly at 3:30 p.m.