A Christmas tree farm outside of Midland, Michigan. The whole family went to pick out something for the kids to decorate. The outside displays were a bit over the top. Mrs. C and I don’t get worked up over the holidays. We’re not sentimental.
Parts of the Dow Chemical complex in Midland, Michigan. It may be a bit odd, but the city has a parkway running by here and built an overlook. Dow has a complex and sometimes controversial history (you could look at the Wikipedia article). It was a principal manufacturer of napalm and Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. It is a huge, worldwide business but keeps its corporate headquarters in Midland. Hard to imagine what rich people find to do there.
Midland, Michigan, where my son and his family live. It has lots of amenities, much of it funded, one way or the other, by its economic anchor, Dow Chemical Company. One unusual feature is the Tridge - not bridge - connecting three points in city parks near downtown. The center spans the confluence of the Chippewa and Tittawabasee Rivers, which eventually empty into Saginaw Bay and Lake Huron. Mrs. C and son Andy check the view in the cold.
No new local material so I’m going with my best available. Who doesn’t want more pictures of their grandkids? Audrey, Josie and Ellie pile on and I couldn’t have gotten a better arrangement if I knew how to direct posing (which I don’t). Josie, on top, is the instigator. Irrepressible, and perhaps a prodigy. Not through the first semester of kindergarten, she sat by me watching Weird Al videos on TV and read me the captions.
Another marginal phone pic, but that what’s we got. All three grandchildren in our hotel room with wet hair after the pool. Ellie, 11, the one from St. Louis, with her cousins Josie, 5, below center, and Ellie’s bestie, Audrey, 9, upper right. These kids have so much fun together that Ellie doesn’t want to leave but we have to go home today.
