6/14/16
Catawba Island, Lake Erie, Ohio
Posted by Bill

Last Thursday we rented a car and headed back in to the “real world”, something I was regretting, except for seeing the family. If you follow the blog, you know how we have come to hate going back into the regular dirt based lifestyle that we came from…traffic, out of touch with nature (for the most part), and back to land locked Ohio to boot (except for Lake Erie I guess). This time we were going to Canton Michigan, on the west side of Detroit, to see our niece Elise graduate from high school. We were going to go straight to our house at Lake Erie, and then on to Canton on Saturday, but we made a last minute decision to stop for a day in Columbus to see Tricia’s sister and her husband, and take care of a couple of things we could only do in Columbus. It was a busy stop over, but we managed to check out the Park Street Festival down in the Arena District. Lots of great people watching. Tricia and her sister Diane snapped this one while we were there:

Then we hightailed it to Michigan, meeting up with our kids and grand kids, my 3 brothers and their families, all staying at the Hampton Inn in Canton, except Andy and Robin who live there. Eldest daughter Sarah had 3 of her 4 boys with her. Oskar, the youngest had come down with a fever and had to stay behind with Pete (bummer all for all). Youngest daughter Jessica was there with husband Eric, and her 3 kids. Rick and Bev had their 2 kids. Chip and Brenda came late with their oldest daughter and her boyfriend. First stop…the indoor pool at the Hampton. Thank god there was no one else in the pool, as we arrived like a viking herd, complete with beach balls and pool toys. It was like a scene from a National Lampoon movie…think – the caddie day at the Bushwood Country Club pool. It was a blast!

Andy and Robin were brave enough to have us all over to their house for dinner. The next day we descended on the Hampton breakfast area. You could see the looks on people’s faces, as if to say, OMG what is going on here! LOL! We then attended the graduation ceremony and afterwards, Andy and Robin hosted a dinner at a great German restaurant. It was a real treat to have everyone together, something we rarely do unfortunately. Great fun, and sorry to see it end. Congratulations to Elise, and good luck at The Ohio State University!!! Elise is on the left:

Then we headed to the lake house. It was in good shape again this year and weathered the winter just fine…thank goodness. Last night we went to Put In Bay for dinner with our friends/family Jen and John, with daughter Allie, taking their boat over. The place was almost deserted. We had a great time catching up with them and got a good boat ride. We have a few projects here at the house, including getting the jeep ready to take back to Southport. We have kept our 1994 Jeep Wrangler in the garage at the lake house for the 16 years we have owned this place. We decided that we will try to get it back to Southport. Fingers crossed. Then it is back south early next week. This was a short and busy trip. We intend to be back for the month of August.