Weekend/Holiday Plan

The Mackinac Bridge Walk is an annual event held every Labor Day since 1958 in Michigan in which people may walk the length of the Mackinac Bridge. Walkers are traditionally led across by the governor of Michigan. In an average year, 40,000 to 65,000 people participate in the five-mile walk.

The Labor Day bridge walk is the sole exception to the rule prohibiting pedestrians on the bridge. At the beginning of the event, the two east lanes on the bridge—normally used for northbound traffic— are reserved for the southbound pedestrians, with the west lanes carrying two-way vehicular traffic. Walkers begin on the St. Ignace side of the bridge in the Upper Peninsula and walk south to Mackinaw City in the Lower Peninsula. Upon reaching Mackinaw City, walkers are awarded a numbered "Certificate of Completion." School buses shuttle walkers back to their cars.

We are spending the night in Gaylord and then will head up to Mackinac is the morning for the walk. And NO, I am not walking, FACT, I am scared to death of heights. I could NEVER walk over those grates with water below. My palms sweat profusely and I can't look out just driving over the bridge. I'd surely die walking over.

Whatever your plans may be, be sure it includes something fun!

Babs

 

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Friday Five

I'm trying to get a bit more creative with my blog. As you may have noticed, I began creating a Wordless Wednesday. Wordless Wednesday is just a great photo I have come across that strikes me and want to share with all of you. Some may be my own, others from Tumblr, or who knows where. I will always give credit for photos used.

Today, Friday Five. A lot of blogs do a Friday thing. Like five random thoughts, five things you may not know about me, etc. etc. I am attempting to present five accomplishments or discoveries over the past week. So here goes: the first installment.

One. I accomplished actually cooking some meals. The domestic goddess returns! I made a pot of soup, a meatloaf dinner, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and some mac n' cheese orzo. My poor mother hasn't had any homemade goodness for a while so I am committed to starting that up again now that fall is right around the corner.

Two. Oh my goodness, I always think about purging stuff but never get very far. I actually went through all of my desk drawers and cleaned out every single file, every single drawer. Do I ever have a pile of trash. Better than that, I created new files and alphabetized them. I have room in my drawers and can actually find things now.

Three. I cleaned out the refrigerator. Wiped it all out. No more gross, moldy stuff way in the back.

Four. I sold three things on ebay this week and a couple on craigslist! Getting rid of perfectly good items that someone else would love....Pottery Barn duvet and shams, vintage chenille bedspread, vintage apron, designer scaves and buttons.

Five. Froze fresh corn. As you may have read, I made the best corn chowder this week. It was so good that I bought a dozen and a half ears of corn. I blanched it and cut it off the cob and packaged it in freezer bags. I have six bags ready for six batches of soup this winter. Can you believe corn was $5 a dozen at the farmers market yesterday. Today we went north a ways to get apples....no apples yet but he had the fresh corn and it was only $2 dozen!

Have a great holiday weekend. Do something fun to wrap up your summer. We are....I'll share more tomorrow.

Babs

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Party Friends

Frequently I mention that we go to the KC's for burger night and during the winter months for Friday fish. We've acquired some fun friends over the past few years through hanging out there!

The party we went to last weekend was with a lot of the folks, so I thought I would introduce you to a few of of them.

Dick and Shirley . Party Hosts

 

Harry and Sue

 

Jim and MaryLou

 

Bob and Mary

 

Lee and Sue

 

All the Gals

 

All the Guys

 

my Richie and Larry

 

Yours truly and hubby

Nice group of people.!!!!

 

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Farm to Table..Sort Of

 

Oh yum. Left over corn on the cob cut off the cob and made into a pot of potato corn chowder.

So good. The fresh corn makes such a difference. All I did was de-cob about five ears of corn, boil a few small gold potatoes, saute a small onion, a clove of garlic, fried a few slices of bacon. Mixed corn, potatoes, onion, about 2 cups whole milk, some chicken broth and brought it to a boil and turned down to simmer. When I served it, I topped it with crumbled bacon.

Going to the marketThursday to get some corn and going to cook and de-cob and freeze!

 

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Wordless Wednesday

 

Picture taken from my nephew's girlfriends FB. She and friends hiking in Oregon.

 

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Anniversary Dinner

 

Red's on the River

 

View from our table

 

Outdoor seating

 

Effen Cucumber Martini

 

Honey Roasted Pear Salad

 

Salmon

 

Petit Filet

 

Dessert trio

 

French Pressed Coffee

Excellent!

,

 

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Party

Our friends had their "Wrapping Up Summer" party over the weekend. They have a beautiful home on Fremont Lake. The day was absolutely perfect.

We drank, played a few games of.Bocce ball, hit golf balls into the lake, paddle boating, and ate!

 

 

 

 

 

Good friends, good time! Really? Winding down for summer? How can that be?

 

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Thirty Three

Happy Anniversary to Us!

 

Thirty three years ago today we said "I do". Best thing we both ever did! Our hope is that we our blessed with many more!

 

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Spontaneity

1. Coming from or acting on a sudden impulse.

That's what we did last night. I happened upon a business in Rockford...about 45 minutes away. Found it on the internet as they are a local coffee roaster.

 

While perusing their site, I found they offered outdoor cooking classes. Fast forward, Lynne and I enrolled in their BBQ rib class. They were strongly promoting cooking on the Big Green Egg. Have you ever heard of it?

Very interesting grill. Fabulous actually. Temperature is well regulated. You can cook at 200 degrees to 700 degrees. It keeps going for 12 hours with little addition of hardwood. Anyway, after the class we ate! Oh my, the best ribs, beans, coleslaw, and garlic bread. We must have been hungry as I forgot to take a picture.

interesting little place. They sell deli items, have a bakery, sell kitchen and outdoor grilling necessities, roast coffee, sell candies and they make jerkies.

I came home with two different coffee beans, Columbian Supremo and Red's Special Blend. (red's is a fine dining establishment on the river in town). Also I bought a bottle of the fabulous BBQ sauce they served, The Slab, and a bottle of rub. They bottle their own and they use ground coffee in the base! Amazing.

The proprietor said if you have old spices that are losing their flavor, add a touch of ground coffee to a mixture and you get an amazing flavor.

Fun evening, nice sitting out doors and as always, so fun being with Lynne.

Do you ever have spontaneity in your life?

 

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Blueberries

We went picking today! Little over six pounds of berries.

First up was blueberry buckle.

Will use some in a salad this weekend. Eat a few handfuls and the rest go into the freezer.

 

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