Vacation

We went up to Traverse City for two nights and three days.  The weather was nice.  Sunny and windy and not too hot.  We climbed the dune at Sleeping Bear and enjoyed Gabe's excitement at going up with grandma and grandpa and running down with mom and dad.  His enjoyment shows in his feet.  He skips along or even dances as he goes.

We swam, played in the waves had pizza at South Bar lake and played on the playground.  That was a nice way to top off Summer 2010.  They have a hops farm at Empire now.  Everyone is getting into the beer scene.  The hops growing on our house are as healthy as those growing up there.  Looks like it is their first year too.

Although things have changed over the years up at Empire, enough hasn't changed to bring back pleasant memories of vacations past. Going to the Lions rummage sales and auctions, riding bicycles, staying at various rented abodes and playing tennis.
It is still a great place to spend a few hours or weeks.  Tiffany's is still open under new management.  The old man who owned it for a long time passed away a while back.  When you have good memories of a place, a short vacation gets magnified into a long one.

PS  I left out the train ride we took at the park in T.C.  If you don't know about it, there is a small gauge track that winds around a park there that is right on the shore of Grand Traverse Bay.  The train is composed of a steam engine and three colored cars that the passengers ride in.  The cars are about three feet across but it is a fun little ride for kids or even adults who want to do something a little different. The steam locomotive was made in the 1940s and is the first of eight made by some guy. It is the only one of the eight that is still running.