STL DPB ON THE ROAD - COPS & DOUGHNUTS

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner in Clare, Michigan, with our daughter-in-law’s family. Clare is right in the middle of Michigan’s lower peninsula, a town of about 3,300 named for County Clare, Ireland, where my father’s family is from. Its best-known business is Cops & Doughnuts. All of the small town police department took over the failing town bakery some years ago and created a business famous in the region. It is a meme in American culture that the police love doughnuts and coffee, especially if not at their own expense.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - SHOP CLARE

Clare, Michigan, has something over 3,000 people. There are a surprising number of good restaurants (and an unsurprising number of bad ones), an old hotel with an air of elegance, a 125 year old city bakery (now incarnated as Cops & Doughnuts, https://copsdoughnuts.com/) and a few interesting shops. We didn't go into this one so I don't know what mysteries were held within. Its main stock seemed to be minerals, geodes, etc., but I wonder if it glows on the darkest night.           

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - HANGING OUT WITH THE FAMILY

Not a great photo but there isn't much going on. We were thinking of making a long day trip to sand dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan but got scared off by snow in the forecast. So we hung out and entertained kids. 

In the air again later today. Thanks to a big schedule change by the *&$@# airline we would have had a forty minute connection in Chicago, the most direct way, and I ain't taking that chance. So we are going home through Washington, DC, the very long way around, but it works.                

 

STL DPB - THE BEAUTIFUL MIDDLE GRANDCHILD

Audrey Christmas Crowe, 6, and, no, I don't know where the middle name came from other than that there is a town called Christmas in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that my son and daughter-in-law visited. She is in rapt attention, watching the movie version of Hamilton. She knows all the lyrics by heart.

It is appropriate that she has a shamrock on her knee. She lives in the town of Clare in Clare County, Michigan, which is twinned with County Clare in Ireland, where my father's family comes from.             

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THANKSGIVING IN MICHIGAN

 

This is my one and only grandson, Atlas Henry Crowe. He will be three in February and, like all the small members of this family, loves to get in front of my lens. I don't get to see him and his sister, Audrey, 6, often enough. In this picture we are at the side of the pool in our hotel but those eyes could just melt me.                

STL DPD ON THE ROAD - CATCH SOME AIR

My son and daughter-in-law have a mini back yard trampoline for the kids. It's perfect size and safe. Both Audrey and Ellie can get pretty high for their sizes. More energy than me.

Late post today. I usually write these posts in the evening but last night we went out searching for the comet. We couldn't find a place with a clear view of the northwest horizon and little light pollution. The expedition was a bust. Maybe again tonight.        

AUDREY CHRISTMAS CROWE

Yep, that's her name. The other Michigan grandchild, just shy of five years old. She is remarkably sweet and smart, just a little reserved (in contrast to our Ellie, who will walk up to anyone and try to start a conversation). The two little girls are great friends, taking turns playing mommy and child in the play house where Audrey is sitting at our rental cottage. Her shirt, appropriately, says Oh Happy Day.     

ATLAS HENRY CROWE

Of Clare, Michigan, my only grandson, 17 months old, who has been into the chocolate cream puffs.          

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - OFFICIAL BUSINESS

Wandering down the same art walk alley in Clare, a visitor will see some puzzling signs. (I could say arresting signs but I will not, for reasons that will become clear quickly.)  The city morgue? It looks like a small refrigerated building jutting into the alley containing . . . what? Not the bodies of unfortunates who could not survive a central Michigan winter, but rather everything you need to make sweet, fried pastries.

This is at the back of Clare's renowned Cops & Doughnuts. It was the town bakery, dating back to the late 19th Century. When it was about to go under in the 1980s, all the members of the small police force pooled their money, bought it and rebranded the business. This blog has visited there before - see https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=88921809%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&text=Cops%20%26%20Doughnuts&view_all=1 The place serves many kinds of yummies and is full of small-town police jokes.

I bought a dozen for the family. Nothing went to waste.       

CITY DAILY PHOTO THEME DAY - YELLOW

Well, pretty close. It's what I got. From the art walk alley in Clare, Michigan.

The clock doesn't work, which feels right. Time doesn't stand still in small Midwestern towns but it sure can creep in its petty pace from day to day.         

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - ART ALLEY

Clare, Michigan, isn't a very big town, about 3,000. It has some nice features, though (except there is nowhere to buy a decent bottle of wine). One cool thing is found in a alley off the main drag where there is a little art walk. I love this whimsical mural. Hard to tell from this photo but the figure on the left is holding an umbrella, half of which sticks out from the wall.

The water tower is iconic, drawing on Clare's Irish connection mentioned yesterday. It rises with these metal birds found along the walk.          

STL DPB On The Road - The Giant Chicken Of Clare

We're in Clare, Michigan, right about the center of the state (not counting the vast, proto-tundra Upper Peninsula). My son, Andy, and his family have lived here about three years since leaving the mean streets of Chicago when their first child was born. His wife, Claire (note the spelling) grew up here. Her parents are still in town and in good health. If I remember correctly, the town got its name from someone who passed through from County Clare, Ireland. That's where my father's family came from.

Many small towns have their interesting quirks and Clare is certainly one. This giant chicken stands outside of a bar and grill - been here as long as I've been visiting. Looks like it has a new paint job. I don't know anything about its origins. I should go into the bar and ask.

Off to the side is an alley called the Clare Art Walk, which we will explore in more detail. The first thing you see might make you want to go down to Detroit in a hurry.         

STL DPB On the Road - Mighty Atlas

The reason for the trip to Michigan - new grandson Atlas Henry Crowe, five weeks old.  At his first checkup yesterdayday he weighed 12 pounds, 12 ounces (5.8 kg), about 98th percentile. He's pretty calm most of the time, needing the rest so he can get bigger..      

Censorship

Our hotel room in Clare had a hot tub. Read the first and third lines of the directions carefully.

I'm no expert on education but literacy in this country gets worse and worse. Mrs. C and I are deputies of the Language Police and this sort of thing make us crazy. The worst and most common problem is using an apostrophe to form a plural, like "two apple's for a dollar."  You see it everywhere and it's not just the US. It is as common in the UK and Canada.     

You Say It's Your Birthday

Today's theme song.

Ellie turns four on August 20. Audrey turns two on August 30. We had an early joint party for both of them. The cake was simple but the girls didn't care. Nothing better than kids and birthday cake.  

Home tonight. Our flight out of Lansing, Michigan, isn't until mid afternoon. We hear that there is a small but pleasant zoo in the state's capital city. More little person entertainment.

Water Sports

It was a bit of a surprise but Ellie turned out to be the more contemplative of the girls this weekend, while her younger cousin Audrey was the crazy-happy kid. After a dip in our hotel pool this morning and nap time, we went to Sanford Lake Park near Midland, MI. Son Andy, Audrey's father, brought along his paddle board. The stunt below was deliberate, not accidental.           

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Let's Eat

Hedonism simplified. Get your life in order. I suppose it's a matter of taste and priorities, but some people might ask for seconds and never make it any further. My father, who was in commercial sugar business, would have approved.

The location is Clare, Michigan's famous Cops & Doughnuts. It's heaven for those with a sweet tooth and a nightmare for endocrinologists and dentists.   

Happy Trails

There is a wonderful trail system around Clare, just the thing for walking off the effects of the slab of meat seen yesterday. I assume Andy's tee shirt is from some bar and restaurant and is meant to be ironic, if a little obscure.

I really need new local material but it's supposed to start pouring later today and continue for days. There must be something to shoot in that.     

Chef Andy

As you may have guessed from yesterday's post, I am rather hard up for material. Missed some local events last weekend like Earth Day and the March For Science. The forecast is for storms all this weekend so I'm scraping.

My son, Andy, is getting into the small town lifestyle. He has this big electric meat smoker gizmo. There was a visit to the local meat market which resulted in the purchase of an 11 pound  / 5 kg pork shoulder. He brined it for five days, then slow cooked it in the smoker for nine hours, keeping an eye on both the air and meat temperature.

Finally it was done. An artist must carefully check the quality of his work.        

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

So I'm walking down the driveway at Andy's house in Michigan and see this written in chalk. Something like the following conversation takes place:

Me: What's that?

Andy: Oh, c'mon. You know.

Me: Sorry, never laid eyes on it.

Andy: It's Euler's equation, the most beautiful equation in math.

Me: ????   

So I looked it up, which didn't help very much. See here and here.  

One mathematician said it is "like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's equation reaches down into the very depths of existence".

And another stated that the identity "is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

I totally don't get it. Nice to know that in some ways my kid is smarter than the old man.