USA Round 2: Leaving

October 25th

Today we got breakfast at Perkins with my family and then we all headed off in different directions for our respective homes.  We drove to Chicago O'Hare to fly back to Italy.

 There's a moon and a plane landing at sunset.

And somewhere we flew through cotton candy.  I swear I did not edit this photo.

Goodbye to the USA.  It's been fun, but it's expensive to come visit.  We probably won't be back before the end of this duty station unless someone important dies.  And I don't want that.  No one important die.  I will miss you, and our bank account won't like it.

This concludes our adventures in USA Round 2.

USA Round 2: Indiana - Wedding

October 24th

Brendan and Lauren are getting married.  Weee!

Getting ready photos of the guys.  This apparently meant haircuts and lots of hair products.

 I don't know who this is, but he's one of Brendan's friends...or something.

Brendan needed some cleaning up first.

 But got there in the end.

 And Carey got some touch ups as well.  Remember Carey?  He got married in July.

 Woo church.  

 Brendan walking down the aisle.

Top: Carey and Anna, Sean and.....,  Andrew and.......

Bottom: No clue.

I only know my cousins and Anna.

Priest, Brendan, and Tim (father-of-the-groom).

Mawwaige.  Mawwaige is what bwings us together today.

And the were successfully wed.

How many bridesmaids does it take to bustle a dress?  

A lot of them when you've lost the bustle diagram.

And to the reception!

Michael is prepared for the bar being closed during dinner.

Garter toss.  Brendan has a lot of single friends.  

Dan took a lot...A LOT of blurry out of focus photos of the evening.  

They kind of make me dizzy to look at.

Uncle John played the couple out.

Happy trails Brendan and Lauren!

This concludes our adventures for today.

USA Round 2: Michigan to Indiana

October 23rd

The calmest lake day of all and our last day at the cottage.

We packed up the car and headed to South Bend, IN.

This concludes our Michigan adventures.

I didn't take any photos in Indiana this afternoon.

Some random stats:

• This is my 200th blog post.  Woo!
• We've been living in Italy a little over a year.  We arrived September 17th, 2014.
• In the year we've been in Italy, Dan and I have both been to 10 countries together including Italy and the USA and 11 countries each.  Dan went to Portugal and I went to Romania separately.  In order we have been to Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Turkey, Spain, the USA, Switzerland, and Serbia.  Some countries received multiple visits. 
• I have been to 22 cities/areas in Italy.

USA Round 2: Michigan - Holland and More Stars

October 22nd

Today Dan, I, and the moms explored the town of Holland.  We window shopped and had lunch at New Holland Brewery.  Dan and I sampled many of their beers on our continued sampling of Michigan's offers of alcohol.

Dan got this beer sampler.  Start from the bottom left and going up, across and back down.

Blue Star Bitter (5.5%) - Fruity and spiced, tastes a bit like a sour apple cider.

Copilot (6.1%) - Creamy, fruity, and delicious.

Dragon Milk Stout (10.0%) - Raisin, coffee, and toffee flavors.

Carhartt Woodsman (4.4%) - mild, oaky, and hoppy.

Sundog (4.5%) - Coffee with fruitiness, light, and a roasted finish.

Monkey King (5.6%) - Mild, hoppy, tastes like banana bread, with a raisin aftertaste.

I also had an Ichabod (5.2%).  It was a holiday beer that was spiced, had hints of coffee, and no aftertaste.  

After lunch we headed out to Holland State Park to climb some hill....which we totally failed to find.  We wandered out on the causeways instead. 

A lighthouse!  And a ridiculous mansion.  

The internet tells me it belongs to Amway heir David Van Andel.  So now you know.

Artsy shot!

The lighthouse known as Big Red.

It was a bit windy.  Also proof my mom was there....sort of.  You can kind of see her face.

Dan and I were there!

Sherrie too!

We stopped at Crane's for pie.  They had a pie and cider flight so I got both.  Ciders:

Dry Apple (6.5%) - dry and tart, refreshing. 

Blueberry (6.5%) - tastes like blueberry.  

Cherry (6.5%) - tastes like cherry.

Sweet Apple (6.5%) - very very sweet, cloying aftertaste. 

Pies: 

Cherry - delicious

Blueberry - delicious

Apple - extra delicious

Pumpkin - good but not exciting.

After stuffing ourselves we went back to the cottage.

A deer!  Woo!

And more sunset photos:

So mom and I were looking at the stars, when we looked out across the lake and saw these strange lights floating above the horizon.  We couldn't figure out what they were for the longest time.  I deduced that they must be plans taking off from Chicago.  That, or they're UFOs.

This photo is not blurry it is a star track compilation photo to see that the Earth is spinning.  

The stars started on the lowest point and progressed upward.  I think I used eight photos to get this one compiled one.

This concludes our adventure for today.

USA Round 2: Michigan - Cider and South Haven

October 21st

Sherrie drove up yesterday afternoon to come hang out with us.  Yay!

This morning it was finally calm enough to investigate the beach.

Look!  Almost no waves!

This very picturesque drainage rock fall thing.

There are two other children in this photo, but you can't tell.

SMOOoooooooth with a capital SMOO!

We decided to go to Virtue Cider to try their cider.

Mums!

Cider barrels!

Virtue Cider's ciders.  We tried all of them.

Spirit Springs (6.7%) - Tart, grassy, and dry.
Lapinette (6.2%) - Cheesy, earthy, and musky.
Elder Hall (6.0%) - Smokey nose, sulfur, sour, maybe lambic like.
Publican (6.9%) - Barn fresh nose (polite way of saying manure), soft, slightly cheesy.
Percheron (5.5%) - Spiced, woody, grassy, and a bit cheesy.
Cherry Mitten (6.5%) - Spiced cherry, pie like, cinnamon, and warming.
Prince Hal (6.2%) - Minimal nose, grassy, and slightly sweet.

All in all I don't think anyone was crazy about any of the ciders.  The Cherry Mitten was probably the favorite.  Brendan was sad there was not kid friendly cider.  I think we all felt that way after the "Barn Fresh nose" cider.  Side note, the Publican was designed to have that smell.
Why?  I don't know.

After the cider experience, we headed out to South Haven to explore what was there.  

We found a causeway to walk down.  Everyone decided to be silly.

We think this scaffolding thing is so you can get out to the light house at the end of the causeway in the Winter when weather is very bad. 

South Haven Lake Michigan.

We found a playground, which everyone enjoyed until my mom called to say she was almost at the cottage.  Then we headed back to Pancake Town for dinner.  After dinner Kevin and Danielle packed up the kids and left us to drive across Michigan to get home.

This concludes our adventures for today.