Charlevoix and Bullfrog Light Co.

On our way home from Traverse City we took a detour north to visit Charlevoix. My husband had never been there and we enjoyed lunch and a bit of shopping in the beautiful downtown. We had good timing: we arrived just in time to see the Beaver Island ferry unload (but weren't quick enough to get a picture!). Imagine the ferry was in the foreground and be sure to look at the cool house in the background and the beautiful fall colors:




















We were surprised to find our favorite hotel in Traverse City, Pointes North Inn, is also in Charlevoix (Points North Inn Charlevoix)! We've decided that the next time we go up north, we'll stay in Charlevoix and visit Traverse City on the way home. I'm looking forward to that! I'd also really like to visit Beaver Island sometime. We like to go up north in the off season (Oct. - April) to avoid the mass of tourists. I assumed the ferry didn't run during the off season but was surprised to see it runs until Dec. 14!

Charlevoix is the home of Bullfrog Candles so we had to visit the Bullfrog Light Co. I've loved Bullfrog's beautiful candles for years. They are not scented but glow from the flame all the way to the base. You can see their many beautiful, seasonal patterns on the web site. I was amused to learn that the store isn't just their factory and store, it's their galactic headquarters. I even took a picture of the sign:




















The store was smaller than I expected but it had a good assortment of all their candles plus a "seconds" room where you can purchase slightly imperfect candles at a discount. (Yes, of course I bought some!)

The saleslady was very friendly and helpful. When I told her how much I love Bullfrog Candles, which ones I owned, which I'd given as gifts, etc., she gave me $7 can of Bellagio Gourmet Mocha for being such a loyal customer. What a nice thing to do! Needless to say, I'm even more loyal now. :)

It was hard not to think about all the work (and stress) waiting for me at home but I really enjoyed our weekend escape.

Autumn Wine

One of the fun things about Traverse City is the variety of restaurants and wineries.

Saturday night we decided to try something different and made our way to Boone's Long Lake Inn. They not only get a demerit for the apostrophe error on their web site, I don't recommend the restaurant! After hearing how good it was, I was very disappointed. The rustic lodge is beautiful, popular, and the service was good, but I found the food quite ordinary, especially after eating at Amical (a French Bistro and one of my favorite restaurants) the night before.

My husband has been reading Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haig so this weekend we explored Traverse City's many wine shops look for unusual ingredients. You might think northern Michigan is too cold for grapes but the Leelanau Peninsula is full of Wineries! I hardly ever drink but do like very dry red wine. This weekend I discovered two new favorites at Cherry Republic. Their store in downtown Traverse City offers free samples of all their wines and they tell all about each one as you are tasting it.We tried two: Cherry Red Wine and Cherry Spiced Wine. Cherry Red is a very dry mix of 80% grapes and 20% cherries. It's not expensive and it is the best wine I've ever had. Cherry Spiced Wine has cinnamon and orange in it and is good at room temperature or heated (aka mulled wine). I'm so glad we found Cherry Republic! They also ship if we can't find a local distributor after our supply runs out.

Traverse City In November

We're getting away from it all in Traverse City this weekend. Because of the unusually warm October weather, the fall colors are now reaching their peak. The color is usually gone by now, so the timing was perfect for our trip.

This is the view from our hotel room. Isn't East Grand Traverse Bay beautiful?

Cool weather, pretty fall colors, a calming view, and the U of M-MSU game is on. Who could ask for more?

Beautiful Manistee

After leaving Chicago, we went to Manistee, MI. For those who are not familiar with our state, Manistee is a Victorian port city on Lake Michigan, between Ludington and Traverse City. According to the Cities Unlimited web site the population of Manistee is similar to Davison, but Manistee is bigger, older, and tourist-oriented. We drove through on our way home from Traverse City in early Oct. and wanted to go back and explore this pretty little town.

We enjoyed the downtown stores and I was especially delighted with the Manistee County Historical Museum. It's in an old store front and is remniscient of an old-fashioned general store, only better! Here's a map, and picture of the building, and a link to their impressive genealogy collection.

The entrance fee is only $2 and you can wander around by yourself, or a volunteer will show you the exhibits. A nice man showed us around and I was glad because he told us a lot about the special Christmas exhibits. The Christmas exhibits are so popular that the museum's busiest months are July, August, and December.

The main room, which looks like a general store, featured a Victorian Christmas tree. The oil lights had been converted to electric but there were still some (unlit) clip-on candles to convey the sense of what the original tree looked like. In keeping with the German tradition, the full-sized tree was sitting on table:


Under the tree is the "putz" or Christmas Garden which features the Nativity:


In America we changed the tradition: we put the tree on the floor and updated the village to reflect a Victorian or modern look, often with trains:

I never knew that this German tradition was the origin of our ceramic Christmas village!

After visiting the museum we had a delicious Italian lunch at the Tuscan Grille, then visited one of the downtown antique stores before driving home. It was a nice getaway but we were tired and glad to get home, where our cats were very glad to see us (despite good care from their human grandparents).

A Night in Chicago

We are in Chicago to see the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum (more about that tomorrow). Tonight we are staying at the Hotel Blake in downtown Chicago. It a great location! It's in Printer's Row, minutes from the Loop, the Magnificent Mile, museums, and more. We can see the beautiful Chicago Public Library from the hotel. It's hard to miss:

The Hotel Blake is three-and-a-half star hotel in what used to be the Morton Salt building. According to the Hotel-Rates web site, it's done in modern decor remniscient of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School. I don't like modern, but this is classy and attractive.

Our room is not the $500 a night kind but it is nice. It has a full-sized desk, an armchair with a footstool, a very comfy bed with a down comforter and bench at the foot, a plasma TV, a cordless phone, another phone in the marble bathroom, and an iHome clock radio with an iPod dock! I've always wanted to stay in the kind of hotel that includes bathrobes, but when I saw the iPod dock, I forgot all about the bathrobes! Needless to say, the first thing I did was see it my Nano worked with it -- and it did. :)

After we got settled in our room, we decided to walk around the neighborhood before dinner. We headed up State St. to the Loop where there are lots of stores. I was impressed with the Macy's. It reminds me of the actual department stores I vaguely remember in downtown Flint before everything moved to the mall, but it was even better, and huge! Not only is it multi-floored and beautifully decorated for Christmas inside and out, it connects to an underground pedestrian walkway, similar to the underground mall in Toronto. Speaking of Christmas decorations, downtown Chicago is stunning at this time of year. Even the subway entrances are decorated! I took this picture from our car, so it's a bit blurry, but you get the idea:

We ate dinner at Custom House, Hotel Blake's restaurant. It's a gourmet restaurant "showcasing a delightful fusion of contemporary American cuisine and Mediterranean influences," according to their web site. It was expensive but definitely worth it! For our appetizer we had steak tartar which I've always been curious about but never tried. It came with poached eggs the size of Robin's eggs and a basil sauce; it was incredibly delicious! For our entrees, Roger had roasted lamb and potato fingers with Black Truffle essence; I got the New York strip steak with sun-roasted tomatoes and Pommes Anna (thinly sliced potatoes with bacon). All were outrageously good and far more than we could eat. Their breakfast menu looks equally delicious and equally expensive, so I think we'll have breakfast elsewhere tomorrow.

Update Dec. 22: I added a picture of the choo-choo decorating a subway entrance. I also realize I forgot to mention that when we were walking aroud in the Loop we passed the Palmer House Hilton where I attended an academic conference a few years ago. I didn't know it then, but it's where my Uncle Jim stayed for Army basic training during WWII; they did their calisthenics in the nearby park.

TC in the Fall

My husband and I spent the weekend enjoying Traverse City. It's one of our favorite Michigan vacation spots: close to home but a good place to get away from it all. There's a wonderful bookstore, lots of fabulous restaurants, and great shopping. We like to stay at the Pointes North Inn so we are right on east bay. Just watching the water is relaxing and the view is wonderful. This is a good time to visit: they have a lot more fall color than we do in southeast Michigan (although the colors are not yet at their peak).

On the way home we decided to drive over to Sleeping Bear Dunes and follow the lake shore south before turning east to head across the state. It's a beautiful drive with lots of scenic views of Lake Michigan. The National Park Service and the Sleeping Bear Dunes Visitors Bureau have tons of info about it on their web sites. We didn't see the actual Sleeping Bear, but the other dunes are beautiful and interesting. We stopped at several of the scenic views and the Point Betsie Lighthouse.

Now that my husband is teaching Michigan History at Baker College (Flint campus) we are trying to visit more historical sites. We'd like to visit Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island soon, and eventually do the lighthouse tour. I grew up in Michigan and spent a lot of time up north, but much of "up north" is new to my husband. I found state sites that have lots of good travel info to help us find places to visit: State of Michigan Travel and Recreation and Michigan's Economic Development and Travel Site.

Mythcon Day 4 (Monday): The Last Day

The only events schedule for today were breakfast, the annual Mythopoeic Society Meeting, and Closing Ceremonies.

I tried to be virtuous at breakfast and limited myself to eggs and cereal. After breakfast we packed and checked out. I decided to wear shorts and did manage to stuff everything in my suitcase (a carry-on wheely bag), though zipping it was quite a struggle. :)

The Mythopoeic Society Meeting was brief and ended with an auction of the remaining three ducks. The lady who made them numbered and signed them for us and I'll just bet these silly ducks show up at Mythcon next year.

Closing Ceremonies involved singing a couple of songs about the Inklings (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams) and "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Hobbit?" The latter was hysterical with folks making up their own lyrics about things that happened at this year's Mythcon. Here's a sample (to the tune of "What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor" of course):

What shall we do with a drunken hobbit?
What shall we do with a drunken hobbit?
What shall we do with a drunken hobbit,
Early in the morning?

Way-hey the Mythcon's over
Way-hey the Mythcon's over
Way-hey the Mythcon's over
Early in the morning.

Ask him if a duck was involved,
Ask him if a duck was involved,
Ask him if a duck was involved,
Early in the morning.

Way-hey the Mythcon's over
etc.

You get the idea, I'm sure. Other lyrics were things like "Make him eat dessert twice a day" and "Make him dinner with a T-Rex." I wish I could remember all the lyrics because they were all very funny.

After four interesting and fun-filled days, I was sad to leave my new friends, but also glad to be heading home.

Our flight didn't leave until 4:45 p.m., so we stopped by The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for an hour. There's a recreation of a western town, a rodeo hall of fame, Great Performers section (John Wayne is their most popular attraction), exhibits of the art of Frederick Remington and Charles Russell, lots of Native American art, a gallery of American firearms, and lots more. Most surprising to me was the statue of Abraham Lincoln (for his contributions to the settlement of the west). If you are ever in OK City, plan to visit the Cowboy Museum. I could easily have spend a whole day there!

We got to Will Rogers Airport in plenty of time to check in for our flight. Two years ago, the first time I'd flown since Sept. 11, 2001, everyone told me not to wear my cowboy boots when flying because Security would make me take them off. I wore my tennis shoes and on that trip Security only randomly asked people to remove their shoes. This trip, everyone removed their shoes. I was impressed that Security at Will Rogers Airport provided a bootjack (only in Oklahoma, right?). Of course, I was wearing tennis shoes so I didn't need the bootjack, but I appreciated it anyway.

Once we got through security and we started looking for someplace to eat lunch. As luck would have it, we ran into a couple of other folks on their way home from Mythcon and were able to make conference last a bit longer by having one last meal together.

Our flights home were all on time, uneventful, and air conditioned. :)

I’m glad I went to Mythcon. I had a lot of fun, made some new friends, and got some really good feedback on my paper. I’m excited about continuing my paper and looking for new scholarly books I heard about here. I’m also be very glad to be home with my husband and kitties. Now if I could just get that drunken Hobbit song out of my head...

Mythcon Day 3 (Sunday): Ducks and Sue the T-Rex!

First things first: my presentation went well and my paper was very well-received. I got lots of good feedback and was encouraged to expand my paper. I also got some very nice comments regarding my scholarship, things like:

• Your paper was inspirational
• Wow, I’ve read The Lord of The Rings many times and I never made the same connections you did.
• When I expressed surprise that no one has written anything on my particular topic a couple people suggested that probably meant that just as Frodo was meant to have the ring, I was meant to write on this topic, and that perhaps the big guy himself (J. R. R. Tolkien, not God :) was trying to tell me something. I doubt that, but it’s nice to know other Tolkien scholars are so impressed with my work. I know some of my readers are not familiar with The Lord of the Rings so they might not get the context, but this is high praise indeed and I am pleased.

The banquet tonight was in the Natural History Museum and we did indeed get to eat in the same room at Sue the T-Rex. In fact, we all got buttons that say “I ate with Sue.” The food was fabulous, like all our other meals: roast beef, a chicken dish, vegetarian lasagna, salad, veggies, three desserts, and wine. I’m just glad the hotel room does not have a bathroom scale because I’m sure I’ve gained weight.

A joke I made last night in the hospitality room has become a running joke. Sarah, who writes for Jeopardy and attended the same U as Berke Breathed, was telling us that Breathed’s Bloom County comic strip started in the college paper. She was describing one particular strip where he lampooned an administrator. It sounded much like a later joke in Bloom County, where Milo’s grandpa was always hunting ducks because he was sure they were communists. In fact, the comic from the college papers sounded so much like Milo’s grandpa I asked Sarah “Was there a duck involved?”. This question struck us all as very funny (we were so tired everything was funny) and we laughed about it all day today.

Tonight’s entertainment included a skit by the Not Ready for Mythcon Players. Ducks featured prominently. Duck props (made of duct tape, of course) were involved. As the source of the joke, I asked for one of the ducks.


Isn't that clever? (In case you can't tell: it's made of styrofoam, duct tape, and a popsicle stick.) It was taped to an upside down plastic cup so it would stand up.

Mythcon Day 2 (Saturday): So Much To Do, So Little Time

CAccording to our conference schedule, the hotel provides free breakfast. I skipped that since I paid for the conference meal plan and, like dinner, breakfast was a Hobbit-approved assortment of comfort food (biscuits and gravy, eggs, sausage, bacon, French Toast, and cereal).

Opening ceremonies were this morning after breakfast. They are usually done in full academic regalia but since it was 103F today most people wore shorts, t-shirts, and sandals. What a casual, fun conference!

I heard several interesting papers today, including an afternoon-long session of four papers on Tolkien and Shakespeare. Look for three of them in an essay collection of the same name early next year.

Nathan, you will be glad to know I turned the AC off (briefly) in my room this morning. LOL. It has two settings: on and off. I wore shorts again today. The sessions and vendors are in one building, meals in another, and the hotel another. The buildings are nice and cool, but the few steps outside between buildings are like stepping into an oven.

Dinner tonight was another Hobbit-approved meal (where it snowed food and rained drink). We had Chicken Kiev and Salmon for dinner with the usual salad, potatoes, bread, and choice of three desserts. (I had key lime pie.) This was after a similar lunch featuring pasta. I'm sure I've already gained weight!

At dinner I learned that the banquet Sun is at the Natural History Museum we visited Fri! Judy and I are glad because we liked it so much we were talking about going back. I forgot to mention that the museum has a replica of Sue the T-Rex from Chicago's field museum. We are hoping the banquet will be in a room with dinosaurs!

I feel like a real author now. Tonight when I was hanging out in the hospitality room Wendell Wagner handed me a copy of Tolkien on Film and asked me to sign my essay. I was quite flattered! I wrote "thank you" in Elvish and signed my name. (Don't be impressed. It's only two words and most of my Elvish vocabulary.)

My presentation is tomorrow, in the last time slot before the banquet. I figure that means I'll have no one or everyone. I'll let you know how it goes!

Mythcon Day 1 (Friday): Dinosaurs and Hobbits

Today's plans were to drive from OK City to the University of Oklahoma in Norman, check in to the Sooner Hotel on campus, check in to the conference, and find out what activities they had planned for us.

Norman is very close to OK City so it only took a few minutes to get here. We couldn't check in until this afternoon so we spent much of the day in the campus Natural History Museum -- lots of Dinosaurs and American Indian stuff. :)

We checked in to the The Sooner Hotel and Suites in the later afternoon. My room is very nice, with two beds (a queen-size and a single), a desk for the TV, and a larger desk with a 'fridge and microwave but also room for a computer. The free wireless works well, so I can stay in touch with family and friends via e-mail -- and get my daily weather, comic, and news fix every morning.

After checking in to the conference I stopped by vendor's room where I purchased a t-shirt (everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts!) and a tote bag for the stupid jeans and polo shirt I wore Thurs., don't plan to wear again, and don't have room for in my suitcase. (Mental note: Kill Nathan for advice about "dressing warm" to compensate for extremely cold air conditioning.)

Dinner was excellent: catfish, bbq ribs, coleslaw, corn fritters, bread, salad, and a choice of deserts (chocolate chip cheesecake, double fudge cake, and strawberry Bavarian cream cake; I had the latter). The ice tea was really good (brewed and still hot)!

There was a book signing tonight at a nearby bookstore followed by fun in the hospitality room (just a few steps from our rooms), but after two nights of much less than adequate sleep I decided to go to bed early.

Before you ask: yes, I examined my bed layer by layer before getting into it and am pleased to report that the Sooner hotel is spider-free. :)

Mythcon Day 0 (Thursday): From MI to OK

Our travels plans for today were to fly out of Flint at 3:30 p.m. and end up in Oklahoma City at 10:30 p.m. We eventually arrived in OK City, but things didn't quite go as planned.

Our flight from Flint to Detroit was good but the plane was very warm. Our first clue that it would be a warm flight was when the pilot welcomed us to "Northwest Sauna." I was glad I had tossed a battery-operated hand-held fan in my flight bag at the last minute (in case of air conditioner- or power-failure). I was really annoyed that decided to wear jeans and a medium-weight silk polo shirt. My friend Nathan convinced me that the air conditioning would be so cold (to compensate for the extreme Oklahoma heat) that I'd want jeans and probably a sweater. I about died of heat stroke on the plane! I was ready to mug someone for a pair of shorts and a tank top -- and there were lots of potential victims. Everyone else I saw all day was dressed much more sensibly than I!

When we got to Detroit they rolled out the covered walk to the plane and the darn thing broke. It wouldn't open or move. We sat around in a hot plane while they tried to fix it. We offered to exit the plane via the emergency slides but the stewardess thought we were kidding. Just as they decided to move the covered hallway and use the open air stairs to the ground, a huge rainstorm broke. Fortunately, at that point they fixed the covered hallway and we were able to deplane.

Judy and I enjoyed walking around Detroit Metro a bit, then took the people mover to the end of Concourse A and had a nice dinner at Quiznos. I'd never been through the tunnel that leads to Concourse A: its sides are lighted with panels of multi-colored lights which change to the accompanying music. It was beautiful, sort of like the northern lights.

After dinner we found our gate a settled down to wait... and wait ... and wait for our flight. It was delayed twice and the gate was changed twice. We left nearly four hours late (almost 10 p.m.). I'm so glad I was traveling with Judy! Having someone to visit with made the wait much nicer.

The flight to OK City was good. I don't think I've ever flown at night. I could see the nearly-full moon and the cities under light cloud cover looked like Christmas lights shining through snow. I even got to see what a t-storm looks like from above! Very cool. The only down side (besides being exhausted) is that Judy and I were very crowded in seats obviously not made for tall or large people. I was so glad when we finally landed so I could stretch my legs! Unfortunately, when we did we were delayed again because another plane was at our gate. And they turned off the air at first so the plane was very warm.

By the time we finally deplaned, got our rental car, and got to the hotel (the Red Roof Inn near the OK City airport) it was 3 a.m. I hadn't slept well Wed. night due to the lightning so I was more than ready drop into bed.

Warning: Arachnophobes stop reading now.

When I flipped back the bedcovers I developed a whole new sympathy for my acrophobic husband: I found the biggest spider I've ever seen in my life. It was nearly the size of a quarter!

After nearly having a heart attack I called Judy to ask for advice. Then I called the desk and asked the nice young man who checked us in to come kill the big nasty spider. He had to dismantle the bed down to the floor to get it but I didn't care. That just assured me that Mr. Humungous Garden Spider wasn't living with all his family and friends under my bed. The nice guy not only put my bed back together (with military corners), he shook out each layer of bedding (including taking the pillows out of the pillowcases) so I'd know there were no more spiders -- and he wouldn't let me tip him! I told everyone at the desk this morning how impressed I was and got a business card so I can write a letter to his manager. His name is Ryan and he just got out of the Army and he didn't make feel like a whimp!

Despite exhaustion and knowing the room was spiderless, I had trouble falling asleep. All I could think about was spiders. First, I tried to relax and picture something pleasant, like my cats (who would have killed the spider for me...). Crap.

Next, I tried to meditate using a guided meditation on my iPod. "Imagine you are sitting on a cliff looking over the ocean..." (where there are no spiders). "Now imagine the sunrise..." (now I can see that there are no spiders). Crap.

Third, I scrolled through my iPod for something else to listen to. I lamented loading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (the one with the spiders!) on my iPod. Crap.

Finally, I decided to listen to The Fellowship of the Ring. I chose the "Lothlorien" chapter because our characters find a safe -- and spiderless -- haven there. Finally feel asleep. Woke up repeatedly because the bed was too hard. Kept listening to "Lothlorien" to keep away the spiders. Thank God for audio books!

Mythcon 37

For the second time ever, I will be attending Mythcon, the annual conference of The Mythopoeic Society.

The Mythopoeic Society is a non-profit international literary and educational organization for the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantastic and mythic literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams (aka The Inklings). Mythlore is the Society's peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarly articles on mythic and fantastic literature. Mythlore is part of the MLA database available in UMF's library via FirstSearch (in case you want to look it up).

The Society gives out four awards each year at Mythcon:

• The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature
• The Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children's Literature
• The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inkling Studies
• The Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies

This year's Mythcon is at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. It's about 20 degrees hotter than Michigan. My first Mythcon was Mythcon 35 in Ann Arbor two years ago. Since it was close to home, I drove home each night and missed all the evening fun and entertainment, so I'm excited about attending and presenting a paper.

The theme of this year's Mythcon is "The Map & The Territory: Maps and Landscapes in Fantasy with a track on Native American Fantasy/Native Americans in Fantasy." I'm very interested in the Native American aspect because we will be in Cherokee country. My grandmother was part Cherokee and I know very little about that part of my heritage. I'm hoping to find good info on the Cherokee while we are there.

My paper, "The Light of Stars: Frodo's Elvish Air," has nothing to do with maps or Native Americans but Tolkien papers are always appropriate. I'm pretty happy with the draft I'll be reading and looking forward to lots of good feedback from Tolkien scholars who are even geekier than I.

I'll be traveling with Judy Kollmann. I'm a little nervous about flying (terrorists, actually, not flying itself) but I'm sure having a friend to travel with will make me more relaxed. We leave tomorrow (Thurs., Aug. 3) and get home Monday (Aug. 7). Mythcon itself is Aug. 4-7. I'll try to post daily so you can share our Mythcon adventures, even if I have to post them all after we get back home.

Traverse City

My husband and I spent the weekend in Traverse City enjoying the fall colors. If you've never been to TC, you are missing a treat. Yes, the outskirts look like every other overgrown mall you've ever seen, but the downtown is terrific! It's several blocks of turn-of-the century buildings with a variety of shops, several art galleries, and lots of restaurants, all on Grand Traverse Bay. There are two bays, actually, separated by a peninsula, East Bay and West Bay. We stayed at the Pointes North Inn on the East Bay.

One nice thing about Pointes North Inn is that all rooms face the bay. Our room was on the first floor and the beach was just a few steps from our porch. There are lots of seagulls, ducks, and swans on the beach and they aren't afraid of people. The hotel forbids feeding them. Don't worry, though. Judging by their size, they are not starving.

Speaking of food, Friday night we ate at Mountain Jack's on the East Bay Harbor Marina. From our table we could look out over the marina and see Salmon jumping in the water. Our waiter told us the marina was seeded with about 200 Salmon, so they always have fish there to watch. Very cool!

Saturday we had breakfast pasties at Cousin Jenny's. It's a nice little British-looking cafe that specializes in pasties. They don't have a web site but are mentioned in this article: Delightful Delectables. We didn't realize they are closed on Sunday so we were not able to bring home pasties to fill our freezer. For everyone who is not from Michigan: pasties, pronounced "pass-tees," are the local version of Cornish meat pies, filled with steak, potatoes, and rutabagas. They are especially tasty with brown gravy!

After enjoying the fall colors Saturday, we ate dinner at Amicale, a French cafe. They don't have a web site, but that's probably because they are too busy creating fabulous food (a new menu every season, apparently). They are usually very busy, so while waiting for our table we took advantage of the free wireless Internet at Horizon Books, one of our favorite bookstores just a couple of doors away from Amicale, and checked our e-mail on Roger's laptop. He even posted to his blog! It was the first time I've ever checked my e-mail on a wireless network via a wireless laptop (literally: no power cord or mouse)! I felt so technologically savvy.

The only downside to an otherwise wonderful weekend was the inevitable traffic backup on I-75 south on the way home. We got off at West Branch and made our way back to M-15. Usually taking the old roads is about as fast as the expressway, but this time it took us an extra two hours to get home, probably because of the back up and heavy traffic.

If you are looking for nice place to vacation that's not too far away, I heartily recommend Traverse City. Just avoid I-75 if you possibly can.