more michigan, more maggy

I sure did have an action-packed weekend with Maggy, Andrew and the crew.  Sunday we had just as much fun as Saturday.  (It is possibly that their entirely too many photos in this post, but I love them all so they had to be included.)

Sunday morning we went to the Central Lake's cafe Brothers for breakfast.  Party of twelve and one high chair.  I really liked their use of old photographs.  They had them blown up and stretched as canvas.

 Mag with her nieces Julia and Lilly.

Next we had a party at Aunt Deb's house to attend.  We picked up a watermelon to take along, but before it got chopped we had a little photo fun with it.

 Watermelon thief?

 There is an uncanny resemblance.  I thought it was hilarioius.

On the way to Aunt Deb's we stopped at Brownwood to take quick peek at the flea market and craft sale going on.  Brownwood is a local attraction that has a gift shop and old-fashioned country store with great local merchandise and also serves homemade donuts.   

In the country store they even had a great collection of old photos including how they moved the building it was in across frozen Torch Lake and how it fell in and they pulled it back out.

 

 The donut shop had a beautiful porch and a line to the door for folks to get one of their donuts fresh out of the fryer.  People munching stood all around on donuts.  Twenty bucks says that lady in white is from south of the mason-dixon line.

 This log building was once a one roomed school house.  It is being used to peddle used books now a days.

 Loved this replaced log.  It says a lot.

Our next stop on the way to Aunt Deb's was cherry picking!   

 

 I've never picked cherries before (aside from the tree that grew in Rachel's back yard growing up).  It was a good time.

 The whole crew was picking so I didn't take long to fill the bags.

 I didn't really even realize they fruit grew so close together in clusters.  It reminded me of more efficient blueberry picking.

 Beautiful.

 We found two really cute monkeys living in the trees and decided to take them with us.

 At Aunt Deb's the cherries were given a good and thorough rinse and set out in a big ol' bowl for everyone to enjoy.

I loved Aunt Deb and her home, it was so beautiful and welcoming.

 

 They built a chapel on their property it was so beautiful and sweet.

 That's a big wish.

 The girls found a mulberry tree...their favorite.

 Lil hiding her berry stained face behind a tree.

 The cutest kids on the block!  It's a good thing someone have them Baby Bandz at the baby shower so their kid can match the family eye ware uniform.

After lunch Maggy and Andrew gave me the driving tour of downtown Traverse City with the highlight being a stop at their natural foods co-op, Oryana.  Oryana has a cafe that makes all sorts of great things.  I had a big mug of a locally grown tea that was pretty tasty. 

The next morning we took it pretty easy beginning with a trip to Bellaire and Moka for some quiet time chatting and reading.  I had a delicious soy chai.  It was so good.  Then we spend that afternoon beach hopping.  We hit three beaches with the last one being on Torch Lake.  The water was a beautiful as can be. 

 The access point has stairs that lead directly into the water...no sand or stones to climb over.  We had the spot all to ourselves.

This is one of Maggy's favorite spots.  Even I couldn't resist that water.  It was perfect, just cool enough to be refreshing but not warm enough to linger.  After we got out of the water, we sat on the steps and let the sun warm us up and dry us off.

What a perfectly lovely weekend!  I miss sitting on the porch already and the company it held (but not Fatty Bob or the snake).