CrossRoads Blog

THE GANG (cept’ Todd)

As part of our recent Michigan trip we of course had a ‘Lohstroh Family get-together”.

It had been eight years since we all got together. Way too long. We had a great time sharing stories and enjoying the company of everyone. We did miss out on seeing Todd unfortunately, maybe we can Photoshop him into one of the pictures Renee offered up her home for our reunion and Mom/Grandma/Great Grandma helped Renee with the preparations. They did a great job, we all had plenty of good food, including a most excellent baklava cheesecake by Renee (Michael is still bragging on it). Best of all we had a wonderful day together with everyone. One thing for sure, it will not be another 8 years before we do it again!

PICTURES HERE

Wow, has it really been 25 years? It seems like yesterday in so many ways. I had not attended a high school reunion for two decades so it was especially nice to be able to see so many of my old school mates. There were a couple of friends that I wished had been able to make the reunion but there were plenty of others that were there and I enjoyed catching up on 20 plus years worth of changes.

The reunion was held at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel which was a very nice venue for the event. The food was good and the event room gave us plenty of space to roam around and catch up with each other.

I had so much fun that I am hoping to attend the 30 year as well - because maybe, like this one, planning to attend will turn a one night plan into a whole vacation plan like this one did!

PICTURES HERE

Our whole vacation to Michigan was really the first time we were able to take what I’ll call “full advantage” of the fact that I have a job I can work from anywhere and we are now ‘kid-less’. This meant and in fact means, so long as I have a laptop and my cell which also connects my laptop to the Internet, I can work from anywhere. What this allowed that really jumped out on the trip was we did not have to rush. We could take our time, visit with everyone, see all the places we wanted to see and do it over a month’s time. I would work days when needed, but for the most part I could wrap up early on many, take a long weekend, we had the holiday, etc.

So both Kimberly and I got to do all our all favorite Michigan spots. I got Luigi’s Pizza, and Birth Run, and Big Johns, Halo Burger, etc. we both got Mackinaw and Sleeping Bear, and Kimberly got Jenison and Hager Park, Fricano’s Pizza and the beach cities of Lake Michigan – including Holland and Saugatuck.

We had a blast both days we got out to the Beach. Holland, famous for Tulip Festival and the whole Dutch culture, is only about 30 minutes from Jenison where we were staying and Kimberly’s old home. So we headed over there one day during the week when I was able to get wrapped up fairly early and spent a whole day in town walking the shops, eating the most excellent Pizza a Fricano’s and then heading over to the Beach.

It’s a huge beach with a famous old Michigan Lighthouse and a very nice channel for boats to use that runs into the city. We walked the Pier, walked the channel a little, and then walked the beach and took in the setting sun. A perfect ‘Michigan Summer day at the Beach’.

The day we planned on heading over to Saugatuck it was raining pretty hard (first kind of bad weather we had all month really). We decided to go anyway and hoped that it would clear up. The city is also only about 25 minutes from Jenison and on the Lake. Seeing it was still raining hard when we got to town, we decided to hit this cool antique store we saw a sign for (and it was tight there!). I found a cool old pottery piece and Kimberly snagged an antique bowl type set and I think it was all $11 or something.

We left the antique store and headed into town (it’s right on the beach and the marina is next to all the stores and shops) the weather started to clear. Once in the main part of town, we quick grabbed a parking spot by the boardwalk which was no easy feat. Seeing we were hoping to get some exercise in, Kimberly and I laced up the shoes, put on the headsets and decided to play tourist by running around the town.

For the next almost hour we ran around the streets of both Saugatuck and Douglas (just across the bridge). It was so cool! I can’t tell you how much fun we had seeing these great little beach communities by jogging around. We both said we could get used to this life… the towns are great because they do not allow any chain stores, you can tell everyone loves the place, there are a ton of boats, and cottages, and shops that are way cool with true art and unique items (versus the tourist crap you see most everywhere else), it was just an excellent morning/day.

The rain did start back up after our run, so we couldn’t do a lot of pictures to share the feel for this place, but we sure will be back someday and can take more then. We had a nice lunch (I ate more lake fish of course), bought some good Balsamic Vinegar at a shop, tooled around the place some more, saw a black squirrel, got some great spices from a fresh spice market, and headed back to Jenison.

Our days at Kimberly’s old hang outs were really enjoyable, they are very cool spots and we would recommend both Holland and Saugatuck (Saugatuck for the city – Holland for Beach). After getting a chance to visit these spots again Kimberly said at least twice “too bad you didn’t realize as much back then you had this and it was so close…”

PICTURES HERE (Mostly Holland due to rain in Saugatuck)

During our vacation time in the Grand Rapids area we spent several nights at mom and dad’s place. It was very comfortable for both of us and it was especially nice that Michael had a desk area to call his office away from home, that made it very convenient for him.

One very enjoyable evening with my parents was spent going out to the Beltline Bar for their famous wet burrito. I had not had one in a dozen years or so but the memory of how good it was held up. After we got back from the restaurant we sat up playing The Pirates Dice Game half the night, laughing and having fun. Good times.

PS (by Michael) I was happy to see one of Kimberly’s old memory places still there and still good - too many of the others are long gone sadly.

Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City (spelled different, pronounced the same – like you ‘gnaw on a bone’) are to Michigan what the Grand Canyon is to Arizona. It’s like the Classic Michigan Vacation (or weekend trip). The place everybody visits, the place you take out-of-towners who are staying with you for a week or two, the ‘must see’ place for the state.

We arrived in Mackinaw City about 6:00 PM or so on Saturday after a full day in Traverse with our 5K run, the Parade and walking around the Festival all day. We were pooped, but excited to be in Mackinaw. We checked into our room which had a perfect view of Lake Huron which was about 50 feet of sand beach from our balcony, unpacked (again…), and hit the town.

To my surprise, Kimberly actually allowed us to hit a store or two and eat dinner before we walked into our first Fudge Shop! Oh yeah, for those of you not from Michigan (though even most non Michigan people know) Mackinaw is famous for Fudge. It’s where it was ‘invented’ and where you get the best of the best (and that part’s true). So after walking around for awhile after dinner, hitting two fudge shops and getting I think six kinds and three pounds, we grabbed a local Michigan Wine and headed back to our room.

We wanted to try every kind of fudge, so there I was cutting a piece off from each block like it was drugs in the 60’s, and I was a junky with anticipation that couldn’t wait! A pretty close description for us actually…. We finished the night sitting on our balcony, eating fudge, drinking wine, watching the sunset on the Lake, and the lights go on the Mighty Bridge.

I woke up early the next day before sunrise. Our room and balcony faced East and I knew the sunrise over the Lake would be amazing. It didn’t fail. I took several pictures you can see of the morning rise over about 5 minutes the change in view and colors is incredible.

After a filling breakfast at the Hotel we were off on the Starline Ferry headed to the Island. Mackinac has no motorized vehicles still (always will be this way I am sure) and the only way to get there aside from a very small plane is the ferries which thousands us ever day. A twenty minute ride or so and we were on Mackinac. Within 20-30 minutes of arriving we had grabbed our bikes and were peddling the first of (what would be) two loops around the island. We did one loop for exercise and one slower with stops and doing the ‘tourist’ thing.

We squeezed about as much as you can in our day on the Island: We biked the loop twice, climbed up and took pictures at the ‘hole in the rock’ (I always forget what that is called), played tourist at about every store, picked up all the souvenirs for everyone, ate more fudge of course, took a ton of pictures, biked on the inside of the Island for a bit (very little people and some great scenery), stopped off at the Grand Hotel, ate more fudge and but more stuff. A full day for sure.

We would have loved another day on the Island (or 10), but by 7:00 or so we were dog tired from the crazy busy 3 days, and were back on the ferry to the mainland. After a great pasta dinner at Nonna Lisa’s we headed back to Grand rapids with our eyes glued to the road trying to make sure we did not make Bambi an orphan.

Lots of PICTURES HERE and video will be coming soon.

This is just a quick little blog to do some braggin’. Kimberly and I did the National Cherry Festival 5K ‘Festival of Races’ race while in Traverse City. It’s actually a pretty big race (and of course huge Festival) with about 3,000 people running in the 5K and 15K races.

Considering we were on vacation so we didn’t have all the creature comforts of home, had a very long day the day before (we drove 4 hours, did a decent hike, climbed a huge sand hill, walked another 7-8 miles around town and the Festival, got very little sleep, drank some vino, etc. etc.) I think we did pretty stinking good. Kimberly came in 14th and I came in 12th in our groups (which had about 70 or so each) FINAL RESULTS HERE– so not too shabby considering all!
Next time we do this race…. Top 10 for sure

Our time in Traverse City during the National Cherry Festival was my favorite (non family) time of our whole Michigan Vacation. We had a lot of great days, but the time spent here was just perfect and we are already talking about making the Cherry Festival a “once every two or three year thing” as we get older and have more flexible time.

We arrived in Traverse City already having had quite a full day as mentioned in our Sleeping Bear Dunes Blog. After checking into our hotel, which was just up the street from the Festival grounds a mile or so, and not at all too far from where our 5K race would be the next morning, we headed out to ‘check out the town’. We found a parking spot pretty much on the main drag of the city. Traverse is decent sized resort town in Michigan, and there are places all over I am sure to hang out, but the main area is concentrated near downtown. The main road through town runs along the Lake with the beach (and the Festival this time of year) on one side. A block or two East of the ‘Lake Road’ is the main road through town.

After walking about 2 miles in one direction taking in the whole town and trying to decide on a place to eat, we ended up choosing ‘dessert before dinner’. I just couldn’t wait to get my taste buds started on the Cherry gig (this is the World’s Cherry Capital after all and it was during the Festival!), so we found what looked like great Pie place and ordered up some famous Traverse City Cherry Crumb Pie. Let’s just say it was hard for me to split it with Kimberly and I’m normally pretty good at sharing… Just up the street we had a great dinner at the North Peak Brewing Company, filled with lots of carb’s for our race, walked around the Cherry Festival grounds for some time (nice that it stays light to about 10:00 PM this time of year) eating some more cherry stuff I am sure – and then headed back to the Hotel.

The next morning first thing was the 5K race which I will talk about HERE. After the race we had to walk back to our car (the race was one way!) and then head back into town. The race was so early, we had finished the 5K, walked 3-4 miles back to the car, went to the hotel, showered and were checked out by 11:00 or so. This gave us plenty of time to get back into town and check out at least part of the Parade, walk the festival and shops, buy all of our “Cherry Stuff” – and of course eat more “Cherry Stuff”. We of course did all of the above. The parade was amazingly big. We watched over an hour, went inside and had an amazing lunch, came out and it still went on for another hour after that!

By late afternoon we were ‘Cherried out’ and ready to head up to Mackinaw City – we still had a whole nighttime planned there too! Talk about a way too much fun and crazy couple of days….

Traverse City PICTURES HERE

We needed to be in Traverse City sometime late afternoon Friday as we wanted time to settle in at the hotel, we needed to pick up our race packet (for the Cherry Festival 5K first thing Saturday Morning), and for sure would need some wind down time. So doing some working back math, we figured we could squeeze in a said trip to old Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes on the way to Traverse. So we headed out for ‘The Dunes’ first thing in the morning – leaving from Grand Rapids. Figuring it was about three hours or so to get there, and then only an hour from there up to Traverse City, we would have a decent amount of time to hang out. We planned to get there, maybe have a picnic lunch, do a little hike, climb a little Dune maybe and then scoot out over to Traverse by 4:00 or so.

Sleeping Bear is one of those ‘Michigan Memory” places. Not quite Mackinaw but a place you remember going as a kid that was way cool. You could grab a cutup box and slide down a big dune, just like sledding only with sand – awesome stuff. Course as an adult you actually think about in order to do that, you also have to CLIMB up the sand in order to get to slide down

The drive up to Sleeping Bear (which is actually a National Park) may not be half the fun, but it’s a great classic Michigan drive with some scenic areas and towns that remind you of why you loved growing up in this state. We arrived outside the Park area about 11:00 or so and stopped by the information/ranger office. The Park is pretty big, I think it covers about 40 miles of the Lakeshore at least, so here you grab your permit, a souvenir (we got a backpack pin) and head out.

After reviewing all the info we planned on doing the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and one of the smaller hikes (Cottonwood) that takes you a nice little loop around some of the Dunes. First we stopped off at a local market grabbed some turkey, wraps and chips. Upon entering the scenic drive within 30 seconds it seemed the drive name proved true – there was a doe and a pretty little fawn right outside our car window – it was cool. We drove in the Park a little more and found a spot to have lunch by one of the view locations that look out over the Dunes and Lake Michigan.

After lunch we did take that hike, the weather was perfect if not a bit warm. Then we went over to another lookout spot where you are high above the Lake on a Dune. It is a famous spot to ‘head down to the Lake’ if you are so inclined. I had remembered this place from when I was young – so I had to give it a shot again (though I am not sure I went to the lake before). I grabbed the video camera, turned it on and headed down the 500 ft. elevation decent (in maybe a 1/3 mile) to the Lake. I will eventually have the clip HERE, but I think it took maybe 2 minutes to run down – the trip back up about 10 times that! Wowzer, climbing sand is like trying to fill a bucket with holes in it – you just do not get anywhere fast – it was brutal.

After getting back up we headed over to another spot to grab some Lake Michigan Dune Sand for Kimberly’s friend who collects sand from around the world and headed off to Traverse City. We still had a ton more that would be packed into this day (my second favorite of the whole trip) but that’s another story…. or another Blog as it were…

With the whole month away from home and gym, we had been looking at ways to keep somewhat of a normal exercise schedule while we would be traveling in Michigan. We of course had found the Cherry Festival 5K in Traverse, figured we could get in a few street runs, and perhaps find a small gym a couple of days close to where ever we were staying.

So when Kimberly sent me the internet link I could hardly believe it. There it was, a 5K race on July 5th in North Branch Michigan! North Branch Michigan?? A 5K? The day after the 4th?? And we were going to be there… how cool. Not only would we get to do a 5K, get some exercise in, but it being a small town in Michigan, I started thinking we may even have a chance to be up near the top in our age categories. The only downside, it was July 5th, the day after the 4th at the Pond and it started way early in the morning. It meant we would have to skip drinking on the 4th and limit the amount of eating (bummer) least we have ugly stomach feelings half way through the race.

Anyway, we ran the race, had a great time, and Kimberly won a 2nd place medal for the family! I was very proud of her, she was just a drip out of first place even. I was thinking I would have a medal too, but seems my age group was 21-50. I know one thing there was no one under 35 ahead of me and I was 11th overall – but alas, no soup for me – Kimberly would have to be the only person coming back with the hardware from our family . It really was fun and we got these cool “North Branch Freedom Run” T-Shirts to wear as well.

Lastly, for any of the cousins who want to give us grief for ‘pooping out’ at the Bonfire at 2:00 am (at the Pond this night of the race, we did fireworks, hung with everyone, drank Tequila, another amazing night) I just want to remind you we were up at 5:00 am doing this race - AND it was the day after the Fourth of July so it’s not like we sleep much that night. So…. not old, just a long couple of days

Kimberly and I have a whole lot of “it just doesn’t get any better than this” experiences. Heck, I write about some of them in the Blog. What can I say, life for the most part is pretty good lately.

Well, we had another one of those - we had lots actually while in Michigan and Oklahoma - but this one in particular was quite a special day for me on our vacation. I had looked forward to the day ever since we were planning the trip, and it just could not have turned out better. One of those days that ends up even better than you hoped for. One that you realize then how good it is and you take time to soak in the memory.

THE BACKDROP: Fourth of July in North Branch Michigan. Back at the Dhooghe Family Pond where I had spent so many enjoyable Summer days and nights in my youth. About everyone from my extended family (Cousins, Aunt’s, Uncle’s, etc.) is there, the weather is perfect, the horseshoe pits are fired up, cousin Jim has brought the meats and the huge grill/smoker thing from his business and there is about a half ton of great food to go along with the grilling – salads, desserts, you name it. Talk about a perfect setting for America’s Independence Day! I love my family. It had been eight years since I had seen them, heck some even way longer, and it was like I was over just last weekend. Some things never change… and that’s a great thing.

I took a ton of pictures of everyone – HERE. You can guarantee one thing for sure, it won’t be eight years before I get to see all those boneheads again. Only next time, I’m going to practice my horseshoe throwing beforehand (damn Cousin Jane’s boy is a ringer – no pun intended!).

PS: While in North Branch I also spent a couple of days running around my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Marge’s farm. The place has so many great memories for me, and it was way cool working in a workout running around the place (talk about beating a treadmill in the gym!). One day Kimberly went with me, she did most of the running while I took a bunch of pictures of the farm and the beautiful setting all around the farm house. So if you want to check those out too – they are HERE

Those of us that moved away from where we grew up in our youth know that whenever you get a chance to take a vacation or spend some time “back home”, it of course means getting back to family more than anything else. Our trip for sure has been all about family, and getting to see everyone. But a trip home also means having an opportunity to check out the ‘old haunts’ – those favorite eating places, or your old school, a hangout place, whatever, just those spots from your youth that bring back good memories. So, seeing it had been eight whole years since our last trip up Michigan way, you know there was going to be some of those spots on the agenda.

Most critical (yes I said critical and I believe it to be an accurate word representing the situation) for me was a pie at Luigi’s. Easily the best Pizza place from my youth, and still about as good as it gets (how many places truly hold up like that?). So we of course did the Luigi’s thing in Flint. I believe we were there within about 3 hours of getting into the State! I did skip the Angelo’s Coney that night (it’s basically right next door) though I swung by for a glance in the window and a picture for a quick relive of the days of old.

After leaving Luigi’s we scooted up to Birch Run and the next couple days hung out in that area. Swung by the old house, checked out the train bridge I used to ride my bike to, noticed the old Pear tree is gone, took some pictures, and was amazed how everything around there still seems so much smaller than I recall.

The next day in the morning we walked around all the outlet shops there in Birch Run and got a couple of screaming deals. Then for lunch we got to have a Halo Burger (still a great burger!). After Halo we drove the “whole 7 miles” from Birch Run over to spend a nice afternoon walking around Frankenmuth and getting that Bavarian, Polka type vibe on a perfect Summer day. We skipped the Zehnders Chicken Dinner (still full from Halo Burger) but we did have a nice ice cream and Kimberly found some Chocolate Pez which she was jazzed about. We finished with a late afternoon walk around Bronner’s for a couple of ornaments – man is that place HUGE.

All in all, a great time in this part of Michigan, though our quest for Koegel Red Hots in a Jar was not resolved….