Lazy Summer Days

Wow, it's hard to believe that summer vacation has come to an end. Every year it seems to go by faster and faster. Keeping this in mind, we decided to end summer with a bang and rented a cottage in Sutton's Bay. We had a great time! The cottage was a home away from home complete with 2 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, a full kitchen and much to all 3 of my boys delight, a TV!!!!! The very best part was that we were practically sitting in Grand Traverse Bay. We could see the water from our front door and with just a hop, skip and a jump across a narrow country road, we were frolicking on the beach. Stephen and Matthew had a great time playing in the sand and discovered the art of sandcastle making with the steady guidance of Michael. They were also thrilled to find out that the water was shallow. Fortunately there was no major drop off so they could walk out for what seemed like miles. There were some jet skis moored a ways out, and the boys thought they were hot stuff due to the fact that they could walk out to them and not be in over their heads (with Michael or I not far behind of course!). Aside from swimming and playing in the sand, we did manage a couple of day trips into Traverse City. While there, we visited Pirate's Cove to partake in a game of miniature golf, drive some go-carts and race down the water coaster. Afterwards, to tame the rumblings in our tummies, we had lunch at Don's Drive-In. It was a very cool retro diner with lots of chrome, red vinyl and pictures of famous icons from the 50's and 60's. The kids meals were served in cardboard basket replicas of a 1955 Ford Fairlane Hot Rod and I had a hand-dipped chocolate milkshake that was out of this world! We also wandered around the marinas in Traverse City and Sutton's Bay. Stephen was really impressed with the "Tall Ships" that were docked there. He and Matthew thought they were cool because they looked like pirate ships. Maybe next year, we'll try and reserve a sailing venture on one. Michael and I also took the boys to visit Michael's grandfather in Kewadin. We had a very nice time visiting and the boys had a good time walking on the beach with Aunt Nancy. Stephen was extra excited because he found a Petosky Stone and has been proudly showing it to everyone he knows. Overall we had a wonderful time. It was nice to have my family all to myself for a week with no outside interruptions and we could just focus on each other. The boys were thrilled to find out that we have made arrangements to return next summer. Hopefully each visit will create special memories that they can file away and share with their own children some day!


Here are the boys driving the kiddie go-carts at Pirate's Cove.






Stephen loved sliding down the water coaster!





More pictures of our trip are in an album posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/MMeister326/TraverseCityTrip#