Saturday, July 27, 2013

Round Trip to Indianapolis

Today, we drove to Indianapolis to see Betty who has had a rough couple of months - health wise.  She looks great and we were so pleased that she was the old Betty (sense of humor and all).



She'll be moving to California to be near her oldest son, Mitch, and his family.  In the meantime, her step son, Mark, and his family have been WONDERFUL.  Her stepdaughters have been attentive too:  Elyse and family came up from Florida to visit with her.  She talks to Shelley weekly.

Marty, her younger son, came up from the Washington, D. C. area to get her packed up for the trip to California.

She is blessed.  Hopefully, she is on the road to recovery and can look forward to California.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Ida, Fran and Terry meet at Marilyn's for our trip to Interlochen, Michigan and the National Music Camp.  It is 41 years since Marilyn went the first time!!!

Of course, it would not be a road trip with this group without stopping for donuts first.  We then drove to Saugatuck, Michigan and had a yummy lunch at Coral Gables, right on the water.  We ate inside because it was HOT!  We did get a rock-star parking spot right across the street.  The red car you can see at the bottom of the photo is Marilyn's car!  After lunch, Ida and Fran did a little shopping while Terry and Marilyn sat inside checking voice mail and emails.


We drove up to Interlochen, the wonderful Music Camp, near Traverse City.  And checked into our AIR CONDITIONED rooms at Stone Center on the campus, our home for the next four nights.


After checking into the hotel, we went to our favorite restaurant in the area, Boone's, and had a wonderful dinner.

We went back to the campus and sat outside listening to the Melissa Etheridge concert. We sat on benches, outside of the venue where she was performing.  We had not purchased tickets for the concert as we were not familiar with her music and also did not know what time we would arrive at Interlochen.  Everything she sang sounded exactly the same to me (Marilyn).

Ida and Terry listening to the concert

Fran and Ida listening to the concert

Friday, August 19, 2013

It was still HOT, so we left the campus for Traverse City and our favorite breakfast spot, the Omelette Shoppe.  We discovered cherry toast, with cherry jam, and frosting on the side!  OMG!  We had omelettes also.  The people outside were soon scurrying inside as the rains came!

From there, we went to the Cherry Republic, where we sampled their goodies and Ida and Fran brought cherry jam. Terry and I bought fresh cherries for the group to enjoy in the evening.



We then drove up at the Music House Museum, which had been recommended to us by some friends.  It was a fun demo of old-fashioned organs, pianos, and even an organ-grinder from Germany.



Since it was hot and we were not too hungry, we forced ourselves to go to Moomer's, our favorite ice cream establishment, for sundaes!

Back on campus, everyone did their own thing.  Walking, reading, going down to the beach to sit, or listening to rehearsals, etc.

We met up again to, you guessed it, eat!!!  We tried to get into a new place, Maddy's, but they did not have a table, so we left (in the sudden rain shower). We drove a little until we found a cute spot called Rico's.  We ordered salads and had a pleasant dinner.

We came back to the campus and Ida, Terry and I went to a faculty jazz concert which was excellent.  Fran went to a vocal showcase.

We met up again in our room for the dessert buffet of snacks that Terry put out!


Saturday, July 20, 2013

Today was beautiful and the weather had moderated.

We decided to go back to another favorite breakfast spot, L'Chayim, a bagel/deli restaurant in Beulah, Michigan.   The lox and bagels were yummy!  We came back to campus and everyone did their own thing.

Terry, Ida and I went to hear a jazz rehearsal at Charlie's Shack and then explored the new Arts Building.  Fran was catching a choral-theory class while we were listening to jazz.

Of course, lunch was an ice cream cone from the Melody Freeze on campus.  Do you see a pattern here??

After everyone doing their own thing, we met to go to dinner and this time we were successful in getting into Maddy's.  This building once housed an Italian restaurant that was not a favorite and now has a varied menu.  We had a good dinner there, so it is back on our list of restaurants in the area.

We came back to hear the World Youth Wind Symphony concert, which we enjoyed.  Here's Ida sitting in the seat that we donated in memory of our friend, and travel companion, MaryJane.




After the concert, we ran over to the High School Musical Showcase.  We missed some of the showcase and the singers really needed to be miked, but one is always amazed at the talent of these kids.

Terry put out the dessert-snack buffet in our room and we talked, laughed and ate.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

We decided that we would have breakfast in the Stone Center (our hotel).  It is the faculty cafeteria and also the high school cafeteria.  The morning was busy listening to rehearsals, walking the campus, etc.

At 11 a.m., our friend Martha joined us.  She drove in from Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  We decided that we would go back to Rico's and have pizza. The other night, when we had our salads, the pizza at the next table looked so good, we wanted to try it.

                           Fran, Martha and Ida outside of Rico's where we had our pizza lunch

After lunch, we had to inspect Martha's new car and then had a dessert buffet in our room, and saw Martha's photos from her trip to Newfoundland.


                                                    Martha with her new car

                              Ida, Terry, Martha, Marilyn and Fran admiring Martha's new car.


We then went to hear the Interlochen Philharmonic with Festival Choir, at Kresge, one of the venues that overlooks the lake!  Here's a side view of the lake before the concert.



Martha, Ida and Fran went to an organ recital.  Marilyn and Terry took naps!

We then met for dinner from the grill tent set up on campus for special concert nights.  The hot dogs, hamburgers and gyros were great and we were all being careful not to get mustard on our white pants!

The World Youth Symphony, in Kresge, was our next concert.  In honor of NPR (National Public Radio) and Interlochen's Radio station that was celebrating its 50th anniversary.  The first part of the concert was a NPR Medley, by the composer B.J. Leiderman.  Mr. Leiderman played the piano with the orchestra.  He has written the theme songs for:  Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me; Stump the Chumps, Marketplace, Weekend Edition (open), Weekend Edition (close), and Morning Edition.  It was a fun piece.  We also heard Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.

Martha left to drive home and we had a repeat dessert buffet in our room.

Monday, July 22, 2013

We are packed and ready to go.  We met in the lobby and checked out and loaded up the car.  We decided to go back to Rico's for breakfast.  Now we can say that we have had breakfast, lunch and dinner at Rico's.

We all had pancakes and they were good and it fortified us for the trip home.

We drove and switched drivers (from Marilyn to Terry) at a rest area.  We then drove to South Haven and had a delightful lunch, at the first exit for South Haven, at a place called Cousins.  We all had  salads with chicken on top and strawberries!  This restaurant has an RV park connected to it in the back.  Marilyn took over the wheel again for the balance of the ride home.


We arrived home in time for Marilyn to attend the Township's meeting.