Vacation? What’s this “vacation” you speak of? It is unknown to me.
\n
\nWe made our annual trek back to the U.P. on Thursday, June 30. By some strange coincidence, so did someone else:<\/p>\n
\nI shall be mostly Away From Keyboard from June 30 (that’s today) until July 10. It’s part of my grand and glorious plan to have Summer Vacation #1, wherein the Bobster and his clan decide that visiting family is not stressful, after all. And of course our journeys are taking us to the Land That Broadband Forgot. (Note: hijinks ensue.)<\/p>\nAll of this is just in time for the weather to take a break and allow my house to drop below 80F\/26C, too! A couple of nice lines of thunderstorms passed through in the last 3 hours, and it’s almost feeling like I can go to sleep now. The pity of it all…<\/p>\n
I may check on my email from time to time but no guarantees. Assume I will be gone. You can commence talking behind my back on my mark.<\/p>\n
mark.<\/p>\n
Most affectionately and warmly yours,<\/p>\n
Evil The Bobster, sans his Merry Band<\/p>\n
(Because they really don’t care to be associated with him anyway. Yet, they swear by all they hold dear that bob really is nice in spite of their aversion. Eleven out of twelve dentists surveyed agree that bob is nice, and, well, if you can’t trust dentists, who -can- you trust?)\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I don’t know about Mr. Bob. He
\nsounds like he was staying up too late, or something (as
\nusual).<\/p>\nAnyway.<\/p>\n
We<\/em>
\nactually had a pretty nice vacation. Things were pretty relaxed, as we tried not
\nto schedule too many things in a single day. It all built up to a flurry of
\nactivity on Wednesday for Mercedes’ party. Since we were there earlier this year
\nwe actually got to see 4th of July parades and fireworks, as well as a visit to
\nthe International Food Fest that happens each year in Marquette, Michigan<\/a>. Of course the fireworks
\nwere canceled on the scheduled date of July 3, so we actually spent two evenings
\ndown in Marquette’s Lower Harbor. It was
\nnice.<\/p>\nTuesday we spent a lot of time
\nwith Michelle’s grandparents. They love seeing the girls, and believe you me,
\nit’s mutual. Shaelin talks about it for days afterward, especially.<\/p>\nWednesday, of course, Michelle made
\ncupcakes
\nand<\/em> a
\ncake for the birthday party. Mercedes had a really good time and enjoyed seeing
\nmuch of her family. I’ve got some pictures and video, but so far haven’t managed
\nto process them and get them online yet. Mercedes turned 8 years old! I’m still
\nwrestling with the thought that my little girl isn’t so little
\nanymore.<\/p>\n\n\nBy the way, that video came from a new Sony DCR-HC21 camcorder. The old TRV41 finally bit the dust. Completely. No workie. It’s amazing that I have a much, much better camcorder for 1\/3 the price of the old one. I mean, yes, Moore’s law<\/a> practically dictates this outcome, but come on… the thing has a touch screen that enables spot focus!\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nThursday afternoon Michelle and
\nI dropped off the girls at my sister’s house. While they played with their
\ncousin for a couple of hours we explored some of the newer construction around
\nthe area. There’s a particularly nice development, fairly new, that showed us a
\nfew of Marquette that we had never seen before. It’s too bad that we’d have to
\nsell at least two children and several organs to even make a down payment on one
\nof these houses… but it’s sure nice to
\ndream.<\/p>\nAfter that we headed out to Big
\nBay (well, really to Lake Independence<\/a>) to do spend some time with my
\ndad. Michelle’s parents also came up and brought their kayaks, and together with
\nthe canoe that my dad keeps up at camp, we went out on the water for a bit. It
\nwas a little windy but not overly so, and we had a good time. I managed to not
\nturn the hamburgers into cinders for dinner, seeing as how it was an unfamiliar
\ngrill and all, and the afternoon and early evening passed by entirely too
\nquickly. Soon it was time for Michelle to leave with her parents, and the girls,
\ndad, and I all spent the night up at the
\nlake.<\/p>\nFriday was a lazy day. We didn’t
\neven finish breakfast until nearly 11:00 a.m., and lollygagged<\/a> up to the last moment before we
\ncould leave to get back to Marquette for a quick bite. Amy wanted to take the
\nolder girls out to see Herbie: Fully
\nLoaded<\/em> and we just barely made it in time.
\nMeanwhile I took my dad up to the houses we’d found the day before just to get
\nhis opinion. He found all the same things that I didn’t like about the area
\n(close to a damp, swampy area sure to be a mosquito breeding ground), but
\notherwise didn’t say too much. He may have been in shock over how much money had
\nbeen poured into the development. I was, at
\nfirst!<\/p>\n