Recent visit to Michigan to see family

[weesoul]

Hi all    been having a brief conversation with Steve and Paula in the comments section of my blog about my recent visit.  Just thought I'd continue it here. 

To answer one question - yes, we had a fantastic chicken dinner in Frankenmuth.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing and tonnes of other stuff.  Yum!!!!!!!!  It was as good as mom used to make!

This was our first trip out of Uganda after 7 months and although some things really stuck out as strange - like drinking fountains - I very quickly got used to all the modern conveniences. 

As I posted in my blog, I got a huge lump in my throat when we were at Dubai Airport for our flight back to Entebbe and a flight to Glasgow was called.    
I'm sure that if we visited Scotland before our placement was up here that I wouldn't want to return.  I would sorely regret not finishing though.  The Ugandan kids waving and smiling at us all the time always makes me feel great. 

Hope everyone is doing great.

annie

[steveg]

Paula and I have been to Frankenmuth a few times - it's a strange place to suddenly find in the middle of Michigan - usually severely overloaded with Canadians coming over to eat chicken dinners and then shop til they drop in a small town which looks like it is an escapee from Bavaria!



The real reason for visiting the place for me though is to go to Bronners - the world's largest Christmas store - open 364 days a year (ironically only closed on Christmas day!)






I've had some fantastic places to see whilst visiting Paula's home state, and by no means have I seen even a small portion of it - there is LOADS left for me to see and do - but one thing stands out for me - The Motown Museum in Detroit
- Oh wow what a place to go - where all the music of my formative years was recorded and produced - I can heartily recommend this place to anyone who is or was a Motown music fan - all recored in the basement of this building (Berry Gordy's Home at the time)



Annie - you now have me really looking forward to my next visit!   

Steve

[Lotus Freak]

so glad that the visit went well. I hope that washing board has made hand washing laundry a bit easier. I don't know what I would do if I had to wash everything by hand.

you don't have much longer before your tenure in Uganda is up and pretty soon you will be back sitting in your house, sipping tea and looking out at the loch.

[weesoul]

Paula and I have been to Frankenmuth a few times - it's a strange place to suddenly find in the middle of Michigan - usually severely overloaded with Canadians coming over to eat chicken dinners and then shop til they drop in a small town which looks like it is an escapee from Bavaria!



The real reason for visiting the place for me though is to go to Bronners - the world's largest Christmas store - open 364 days a year (ironically only closed on Christmas day!)

Steve

We did make it to Bronner's, except we discovered it was about 20 minutes before closing time.    I want to go back -- our xmas trip would be ideal although arriving Dec 17th means it may be crowded.     Actually got a couple of xmas gifts in one of the touristy shops in town.  Cool stuff!

I highly recommend going to Sleeping Bear Dunes - it's just breathtaking!

annie

[weesoul]

so glad that the visit went well. I hope that washing board has made hand washing laundry a bit easier. I don't know what I would do if I had to wash everything by hand.

you don't have much longer before your tenure in Uganda is up and pretty soon you will be back sitting in your house, sipping tea and looking out at the loch.

The washing board actually does make laundry easier.  Now if I just had a wringer....

We actually have about a 1.5 years left in Uganda.  Dh doesn't want to leave mid-term so instead of leaving the 1st of October we'll leave the beginning of Dec 2009. .  I can't believe it's been nearly 9 months already. 

annie

[steveg]

I highly recommend going to Sleeping Bear Dunes - it's just breathtaking!

Yup - that's on my list too - as is the Upper Peninsular and that island on lake Huron where they don't allow cars at all (can't recall the name right now)

Steve

[weesoul]

I highly recommend going to Sleeping Bear Dunes - it's just breathtaking!

Yup - that's on my list too - as is the Upper Peninsular and that island on lake Huron where they don't allow cars at all (can't recall the name right now)

Steve

I'd love to go back to St. Ignace in the UP to see how it has changed.  I lived there from 1973-77 and went back once in about 1980, but not since. 

Is the island you mean Mackinac Island?  That is directly across from St. Ignace.  No cars, just horses.

annie

[steveg]

Is the island you mean Mackinac Island?

Yeah that's the one - I just couldn#t think of the name when I was at work - Thanks Annie 

Steve

[Lotus Freak]

I've been there...I really liked it. I dated this guy once who was from Michigan and we went up there one time to meet his family and we had a romantic get away and stayed at the Grand Hotel. We went on long bike rides and it was really nice not to have cars around.

[Jan]

Hi, Annie! 

There was a lame-o movie made about the Grand Hotel.  I think it was called (remarkably) Grand Hotel.  Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves.  I couldn't watch it all, but the shots of island and the hotel were nice. 

[weesoul]

Hi, Annie! 

There was a lame-o movie made about the Grand Hotel.  I think it was called (remarkably) Grand Hotel.  Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeves.  I couldn't watch it all, but the shots of island and the hotel were nice. 

Hi Jan!   

The movie was called Somewhere in Time.  I've never watched it.

I've been there...I really liked it. I dated this guy once who was from Michigan and we went up there one time to meet his family and we had a romantic get away and stayed at the Grand Hotel. We went on long bike rides and it was really nice not to have cars around.

I only went to the island once and that was on my first visit to St. Ignace to meet my then fiance's family.  We didn't stay the night but we did rent a tandem bike and ride around the island.