The grandchildren we don’t get to see often enough, Josie, above, and Audrey, below. We were out Christmas tree shopping.
We may or may not get home today. Chicago, where we change planes, is having a snowstorm. The airline canceled one of our flights already but booked us on another. Report to follow, possibly with photos of O’Hare chaos.
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.
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.
…stick of butter. We’re up here in Michigan with our son, Andy, his wife, Claire, and all three of our grandchildren. St. Louisan Ellie and Michigander Audrey contribute what they can by cutting a stick of butter into pats. I didn’t shoot anything yesterday so this phone shot by Andy will suffice.
There is a chain of stores in Michigan and the surrounding region based in Grand Rapids called Meijer. It's like a Walmart with a gigantic grocery store. My son tells me that every single one has a mechanical horse named Sandy near the checkout. For a penny, kids like my granddaughter Audrey can get a little bounce and fantasy.
This is located in another part of the city's Public Museum. The room contains arcade games and other children's amusements.
I didn't know much about Grand Rapids, Michigan, until last weekend. My son decided that we should meet there because it's a lot bigger than the city he lives in, Midland, and isn't Detroit. The city proper has about 200,000 people but the metro area has four times that. One interesting feature is the Public Museum. It has exhibits about history, architecture, technology and culture, all interesting to us visitors. This is the clock from the old city hall, parts of which were preserved when it was demolished.
My son, Andy, with his daughter, Audrey, at the controls of the pontoon boat we (perhaps better to say I) rented. I love the way she is looking at her father. Andy and his wife, Claire, seem to be nearly perfect parents with nearly perfect children. I hope I don't jinx them.
All the grandkids: the redoubtable Ellie, almost 10, with Michigan cousin Audrey, almost 8. Below, grandson Atlas, 4, in my son's hands and about to be thrown in the water, to his obvious delight. All in the pool at our hotel in Grand Rapids.
Muskegon Lake is about 40 minutes northwest of Grand Rapids, just in from Lake Michigan and connected by a channel. It's pretty good size, about 2.5 miles / 4 km wide and 5.5 miles / 8.9 km long. My son, um, suggested that I rent a pontoon boat for the day big enough for the five adults and three grandchildren. My son knows how to run a boat; I do not. We could go no farther than the second red tower, the end of the jetty into Lake Michigan proper. Then we went to a beach with shallow water and the kids had a very good time.
Seen in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, across the Grand River. I had no idea what this is about so I had to look it up. It's the local branch of a large international accounting firm. Never heard of it and I don't get any royalties.
Boating today near and possibly on Lake Michigan.
We arrived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, yesterday afternoon following a day of airplanes and airports. After checking into our hotel we found a very pleasant restaurant called River North, https://www.rivernorthgr.com/home, (the river being the Grand River, hence Grand Rapids, although we haven't found the rapids yet). The owner, Rachel Lee, has decorated the place with a delightful collection of bric-a-brac, much of it on Asian themes. This caught my eye. A frog may be able to do that with its legs but I can't.
The caption is a lovely Italian phrase that, poetically translated, means sweet idleness. My Italian is very limited (opera lyrics, basic tourist phrases. Dove sono i gabinetti?) If I understand correctly, far niente more literally means doing nothing. I am a person who does not do nothing well but I admire those who can. These gentlemen in their fishing boat on Budd Lake in Harrison, Michigan, are practiced in the art.
Another bird photo from the Chippewa Nature Center in Michigan. Woodpeckers usually have to work hard to dig bugs out of tree bark, This little suet cage passes out snacks for free.
It may take awhile to get some new local material. Like everywhere, it's bloody hot and humid in St. Louis and it's miserable to be on the street. Maybe there is a way to make images of that.
And by the way, why don't woodpeckers get concussions?
Another picture from the Chippewa Nature Center near Midland, Michigan. A couple of online photographer colleagues tell me this is an indigo bunting. (I wouldn't know. Where I grew up the only birds we had were pigeons and starlings.) It was passing the time along one of the trails and had no fear of a tall person pointing a long cylindrical object at it.
We're home. O'Hare was a madhouse yesterday afternoon and evening with many severely delayed flights. Our connection to St. Louis was showing more than three hours behind schedule, which would have put us in well after midnight. A kindly airline agent got us on an earlier flight to STL that was running five hours late but was departing soon. So we are back but our bags are in Chicago. They should be delivered sometime today.
Granddaughters Audrey and Ellie at the home of our son and his family, Midland, Michigan. Apologies to Cyndi Lauper.
Home late tonight if the gods of the air are willing.
Just outside of Midland, Michigan, there is a wonderful place called the Chippewa Nature Center. It has an architecturally stunning visitors center with a bird watching window and an observation deck cantilevered over a small river. There are trails through the woods, along the river and past marshes and meadows. Wildlife seems to really enjoy hanging out there, including this croaker who had little interest in my lens.
My lawyer friends from Detroit all seem to have a place "up north," a getaway amid the forests and lakes. We have a rental cottage by a lake in north central Michigan. It was no farther than 15 minutes from where my son, his wife and kids lived. With their recent move, it's three times that. Oh, well. Gas is cheaper here than in St. Louis.
So the family did some stuff in Midland, the bigger town where they live now, then came back to the cottage for dinner. In the top photo, grandson Atlas waits patiently, depending on which frame in the sequence you select. Michigan granddaughter Audrey, almost 7, hangs out with her St. Louis cousin Ellie in a deli in Midland. It had started to rain by the time we got back to the cottage but son Andy, the grill master, doesn't care. And he's sure in better shape than I was when I was 42.
Grandson Atlas, 3 1/2, at Budd Lake in north central Michigan. He and I were attempting to play frisbee while son Andy got off some snaps. He's better than I am. Atlas mostly does a forehand toss but he gets some zip into it.
