Of Root Beer Floats

The other day one of the grandkids and I were discussing root beer floats and I learned that this young man had never had one.

How anyone could reach the ripe old age of six without ever having had a root beer float was inconceivable to me.

Well, since we had all the stuff necessary to making a root beer float, he decided that he was willing to try one.

After trying it, he decided he was a fan, he liked it.  And I felt like I had done my duty as a grandfather, to introduce this young man to one of life's finer treats.

The Reunion

They came from all over, from far and wide, across mountains, and plains, and sea.  From all over.  Over the years we have held what we have called family reunions but we're too spread out and attendance has never been what we had hoped for.  One of the first that we called a reunion was a gathering we had at Mount Rushmore, it was fun but not everyone was able to make it.  That was in 2016.  Our next effort was a couple of years later when we went to Door County in Wisconsin.  That was in 2018 and was a little better attended.  And it was a very good time.  We wanted to try again a couple of years later in connection with Stachelbeere getting married. After all, what brings families together better than weddings and funerals?  But that blessed event was held in Hawaii and a pandemic interfered; those two things kept attendance down.  In the end we didn't call it a reunion and just went with having it be a wedding, even though we did have several of the families present and we did make a week of it. It was as well attended as the first reunion in 2016, despite how close the pandemic came to preventing anyone from coming.

So anyway, we began talking and planning for this reunion two years before it was actually held.  We picked the specific date first.  I found out later there was a great conspiracy among  my children that resulted in the date of the reunion.  More on that later.  Then we set about picking the place.  There was a lot of discussion around where to have it, the consensus seemed to favor a camping reunion again.  Most of the kids enjoy camping and, in some ways, it seems easier.  But as we were narrowing down a specific place to camp, once again the kids got together and it was suggested that everybody gather at our house and camp in our backyard.  That, it was felt, would go a long way to helping get the most of our tribe together, since many of the family live within an easy drive of us anyway. And we were perfectly okay with anything that would boost attendance.  So it was decided to have it at our house.

Then there was some preparation that was needed. You can't have a camp out without a camp fire and one of the projects we've been wanting to do around the yard for a couple of years was to install a place to use the little portable fire ring we bought a couple of years ago.  We found that if we used it out in the grass the heat kills the grass under it so we wanted to put in some paving stones to have under it. Schwartzbeere to the rescue!  We picked the front corner of the garden space and with Schwartzbeere's help (a lot!) got the stones installed.

This was a project we worked on over several days, with the able help of a couple of the grandkids. 

Then, of course, we had an appropriate celebration. 

Then when it was all done and celebrated we tried it out and decided it was going to work very well.

Another project was something else we had been planning on doing anyway and decided that, with everybody coming and knowing there would be a lot of food passing through the house during the reunion, it was time to replace the freezer that had been failing for the last while anyway.  So we bought one and arranged to have it delivered just before the reunion.

That was an interesting operation. They arrived and did a bunch of measuring but decided it would fit if we took the doors off that it would have to pass through. Soon enough they had that done, the freezer in place, and the doors back on. We were glad we had opted to have it delivered and installed; doing that ourselves would have taken a lot longer and been a whole lot of work.  So the old one went out into the garage, where it still worked well enough to supplement our fridge and freezer space but would also be easy to move  right on out and have hauled off after the reunion.

The last bit of preparation was to put up a tent Brombeere had picked up at a yard sale a few weeks before the reunion. We had been talking to all the kids and making arrangements for sleeping space and, since there were some who were planning on bringing tents to put up in the backyard, Brombeere had picked up an extra tent but wanted to be sure it actually worked.  So, with lots of help from his kids, Schwartzbeere put it up and we decided it was all there and would work quite nicely.

Schwartzbeere and his kids were only too happy to see it up and decided that if it fit them it would certainly work for the Stachelbeeres, who were the ones who would be sleeping in it for the reunion. So, after the test run, the tent came back down to wait until its planned occupants arrived and put it back up.

The first to arrive was Stachelbeere and his wife, they flew in so while I was working my regular shift at the temple, Brombeere went to the airport and picked them up.  Then we hung around until a little later in the afternoon and met Moosbeere and his family at the temple; they had driven across the country to be there. They had arranged for their eldest to do baptism at the temple. So I went with them and did baptisms, Stachelbeere and his wife did sealings, and Brombeere watched Mossbeere's younger kids, who were too young to go in the temple.

They were quite delighted with the tiny frogs they found while waiting.

It wasn't really part of the reunion, but it was a wonderful way to spend some time with family. Temples are, after all, what it is all about. Then Moosebeere left to spend some time camping with the other side of their family and the rest of us headed for our home. It was still a few days before the official start of the reunion.

After picking up Stachelbeere at the airport and going through the temple, it was late when we got home. But the next day Stachelbeere put up the first tent out in the backyard. The tent city was beginning to take shape.

The next day Heidelbeere and her crew arrived. That was also the day Moosbeere and his gang arrived after their camping trip. 

And the next tent went up in the backyard.  This was our tent, that we've had had for several years.  Schwartzbeere and his kids were going to be staying in this tent.

A little later in the day Heidelbeere's tent also went up. The place was beginning to fill up up.

Yet a little later, Erdbeere and her family arrived and their tent went up, bringing the total to four tents in the backyard.  Everyone else was finding space in the house except Himbeere, they were staying in a nearby motel.  Too much craziness, I guess.

The kids, many of whom had never met before, all got along very well.

This was not the official first day of the reunion, this was the "arrival day". And it was so nice to have everyone there. Lots of gabbing, visiting, playing, and relaxing went on that day. Lots of helping each other get settled and situated, and everyone found their place and made their arrangements that would carry us all through the next three day of celebrating our wonderful family. Everybody had done a lot of planning and work to be ready for this time and it was off to a great start.

It wouldn't be a proper campout for our family if there wasn't a little bit of rain.  The weather decided to get it over with right up front so that night we got rain.

Unfortunately, it wasn't just a sprinkle; it rained hard for a while. Everybody except Schwartzbeere retreated to the house and found space on floors, couches, and wherever else they could for this first night. We made room and it worked, everyone hoped that the next few days would be drier.  And they were. Schwartzbeere reported the next morning that the only time they got water in the tent was when he opened the door to make a quick dash into the house at one point during the night. If it hadn't been for that he would have stayed dry all night. That gave the rest of the campers hope. It worked out well.

The  next day, the official first day of the reunion, the plan was to head for a park.  It was close enough so that those that brought their bikes could ride to the park, everybody else would drive. We also took our kayaks.  The plan was to be there a few hours.

After the park and lunch, several families had brought stuff for crafts. So stuff was set up both inside and outside the house and everyone that wanted to could rotate between crafts as they wanted.

It was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of creativity.  Everyone had a good time.

After the crafts we got a fire going.

The crafting had actually been paused for dinner so by the time the fire was going everyone had eaten.  Those that wanted to, which included most of the kids and many of the adults, roasted marshmallows and made 'smores.  Many of the kids actually thought burning the marshmallows was the best way.  Those with  more discriminating palates did the slow roast thing and there were many very well done, marshmallows done to perfection.  It was good. It was relaxing. It was the perfect end to a very fun day.

The next morning brought a totally unexpected surprise, and herein was the conspiracy.  My children had all gotten together and found someone to help them announce to the neighborhood that I was having a "milestone" birthday.  And, since I have a birthday buddy, they surprised us both.

The last day of the reunion  began, after the birthday surprise, with a visit to a planetarium where we had scheduled a private showing for just our family, of a show about the ongoing effort to get back to the moon. Those that wanted to went, and that was nearly everyone, and we had an interesting, restful time learning about all that's going into getting back to the moon.  There's far more going on in that effort than I had realized, and I have been watching and following it pretty close; I have managed to tune into several of the rocket launches as they have moved forward with the Artemis program.

After that the plan was to head to a local park for a photography session and dinner. We had rented a lodge at the park. We had known going in that we were not going to everyone in the whole family for the photographs but we went with as many as we could and it turned out very well, as good as it could have under the circumstances.  I think everyone was a little surprised by how long it took but it went well, the kids pretty much all made it through and we should end up with some nice photos.

Then it was time for the dinner and birthday party. 

There were presents and cake; we both worked on getting the candles blown out: it was successful. It was a very good time.  If I have to get older it was an excellent way to enter the next decade.  I think my birthday buddy had been looking forward to this more than I was and she was delighted with it.

One of the more popular crafts that was done was painting rocks.  Edrbeere is an excellent artist and has been painting rocks for quite some time. She lead that craft and kids kept coming back to it, even after the reunion had officially ended. Part of the plan of the reunion had been to paint a bunch of rocks and then go add them to a "snake" that has been growing here in the community; the person that started it painted a rock to look like a snake's head and then other bring their painted rocks and line them up behind it, forming a snake. We had hoped to go out as a group and add to the snake but time just ran out.  Erdbeere went and added a rock to it before she left town. A few days later we went with Schwartzbeere and his kids and took a few more rocks out and added them.  There ended up being five rocks between the rock Erdbeere left and the ones Schwartzbeere left. It was fun.

Technically, the day of the photos and birthday party was the last official day of the reunion.  But Erdbeere and her family stayed a couple of days beyond that.  Heidelbeere and her husband let us watch their kids while they took a little time off and went camping and kayaking in the Apostle Islands National Lakeahore. And Stachelbeere and his wife borrowed our car and went down to Nauvoo and then stopped to see Erdbeere on their way back. Gradually, over the next few days and week, everyone trickled away back to real life and the house got quiet again.  

All the tents are gone ...

... and the lawn has recovered from where the tents were.  Two of them left good burns in the grass but they have both pretty much recovered.  Nothing left but happy memories.  I would have to call this reunion the most successful one we have ever had.  

One thing I noticed pretty quick as the kids and their families began arriving was everyone's interested in a digital picture frame we keep in our living room. Moosbeere's family gave us one several years ago and I decided I liked it.  I eventually replaced it with one with a better display and I keep pictures of all our kids and their spouses, and the grandkids on it. 

There's over 400 photos on it right now, it would take 10 or 15 minutes to watch it all the way through.  I keep photos from the last two years on it, lots of happy memories. It has always fascinated Schwartzbeere's kids and has provided us the opportunity to talk to them about family and the family they have on their Dad's side of their family, most of whom they don't see very often.  In the weeks leading up to the reunion we talked to the kids about the fact that they would soon get to meet all the people they saw on display there. Several times I saw kids and grandkids stop and watch the photos display, some staying longer than others. I liked that.

Not only was it nice to have all the kids and grandkids here and enjoying themselves, but I also found myself several times thinking back to the several reunions we had when I was a kid. There were ten kids in my Dad's family, I was one of the older grandkids.  They would have a big reunion every few years in the summer where everyone would try to come; those were big crowds.  The thing they had in common with this reunion was they were always held at my grandparents' home. They had a lot of the same elements, camping out in the yard, lots of people, lots of food, lots of talking among the grown ups and playing among the kids.  One year there was a talent show that each family contributed to. They were a lot of fun.  I got to know several of my cousins that were about my age pretty well. I kept thinking now I was on the other side; then I was a grandkid, now I was the grandpa.  I had wanted that for my own kids as they were growing  up but since we moved so far away that didn't really happen.  I remember those reunions as good times, I hope my kids and grandkids will look back on our get-togethers as happily as I do.  Family is a good thing.

A Grand Adventure

It was a bridge that initially attracted our attention to the area. 

Brombeere heard about this bridge that connected the Michigan Upper Peninsula to the rest of the state and said she wanted to see it some day. So we began learning more about the area and planning what it would take to get there.  We had actually planned to take this trip last fall but something came up and it got postponed. But finally the day came!  We packed up our car, loaded it all up with the stuff we wanted to take.

Then we were ready to get on our way for a couple of days in the "UP"!

We had discovered a fairly popular island near the bridge and learned that motor vehicles were not allowed on the island so we took our bikes and planned to see the island by bike.  Mackinac Island was the name of this popular island.  

We drove and drove and drove until we got to St Ignace where we had decided to stay while we played in the area.  Then the next morning we got up and drove to the ferry that would take us out to the island. 

It was only a short trip out to the island, about 20 minutes, with a brief side trip under the bridge that had first attracted us to the area.

Pretty soon we were pulling into the main harbor at Mackinac Island, ready for our adventure to begin.

Our plan was to ride around the perimeter of the island, a trip of just over eight miles.  There's a nice paved road all the way around, right at the water's edge. But first we had to get out of the little town that surrounds the harbor area.

It was an interesting little village, no motor vehicles are allowed on the island (with just a couple of exceptions for emergency vehicles) so there were a lot of horse drawn vehicles, such as taxis and other  carriages, and lots and lots of bicycles.  If you were brave, you could even  rent individual horses to tour the area on. You can rent bikes or bring your own.  We had opted to bring our own.  Our plan was the ride around the island and then look around town.  

So off we went! We had done some research about what there was to see on the island.  One thing Brombeere wanted to see was a natural feature called "Arch Rock".  That was the first stop our our way.

We had known the arch was a little ways off the path.  What we hadn't fully comprehended was that the short trail to the arch was all up hill, a climb so steep it was all stairs.

So, yeah, we took the stairs up to the arch.

The sign at the bottom said there were 207 steps to the top but to get to the highest view point there were actually a few more.  The total actually came to 225.  And we made it!

It was a spectacular view, worth the climb.

After we got back down and had continued our ride a short way we were able to see the arch from the road. 

We continued  on around the island, stopping where something caught our interest, playing in the water, having a good time as we went. Normally I "map" my rides to keep track of them but this time I didn't; we just rode, not in any particular hurry, just enjoying the journey.  It was a remarkably clear day and very pretty in any direction you looked.

Pretty soon we were  coming back into town and began meeting more people, not that there hadn't been plenty of other people on the trail around the island.  But there definitely were more people in town.  We decided to first ride up to The Grand Hotel, a famous and very high class hotel on the island. 

Even their carriage was a cut above the rest of the "shuttles" for any of the other, nicer places you could stay; matching greys, liveried driver, fully enclosed carriage, the whole nine yards.

The island rises over 900 feet to the highest point but the hotel wasn't at the top; we decided to give it a try.  At first it wasn't so bad but coming up the final approach to the hotel it got a bit steeper, that plus all the other traffic around the hotel made it a pretty complicated ride.  This was, after all, a major stop on all the sight-seeing tours on the island.

It's a big, impressive hotel.

It would have been fun to stay there but it was a little much for our taste.  So we finished our "look-see" and then headed back down the hill for some lunch.

We had decided that for meals we weren't going to go to any chain restaurants, we were going to take a chance on the local places.  That can be a bit risky but we lucked out, all the food we had was excellent.

We had lunch on the island at a place called the Seabiscuit Café, it was real good. Then we went a couple of doors down the street to a fudge place.  There were a lot of fudge places to choose from.  We  picked this one because it had a lot of people going in; we figured if it was attracting that many people it must be good.

They were making fudge right there in the shop, that was pretty cool to watch.  We picked a bunch of fudge and some peanut brittle.  Then we hit a few shops for souvenirs.  

Then it was time to get on the ferry and head back to the mainland.  It had been a really fun day on the island, well worth the trip.  The top deck had been full on our way to the island but coming back there was plenty of room so we rode on top.  That was fun.

We got desert back in St Ignace, at a local ice cream shop, of course.  Then we spent a little time looking around the marina and enjoying the view.

Then we wanted to head across the bridge that brought us here, the Mackinac Bridge.

This was a big suspension bridge, almost five miles long, built in the 1950's.  For a long time it was the longest suspension bridge in the United States.  It's still the fourth longest. At its highest point, the bridge is 200 feet above the water, enough for any of the ships that might want to go under it.  It is the official dividing point between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  It is designed to have 35' of sway, which would accommodate some pretty severe weather.  We didn't feel any of that, which was a happy thing.

We found a little park right by the bridge so we could take a better look.

Brombeere also wanted to dip her toes in the water so she could add Lake Huron to her collection of the Great Lakes she's played in.  The water in any of the Great Lakes is always pretty cold so just dipping her toes was enough for her.

There was a cute little lighthouse there in the park, too, so that was an added bonus, the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.  If we had gotten there sooner in the day we could have taken a tour, including hiking up to the top, but we were too late in the day for that.  So we just found a park bench, listened to the waves, and watched the birds for a while. 

After a while we we went back to St Ignace and checked out the marina ...

... and the Wawatam Lighthouse ... 

... and watched the sun set.  A very quiet way to end the day. Then it was time to head back to the hotel and call it a day.  And it had been a very good day.

The next day the plan was to head for Canada, only fifty miles to the north.  

We had brought our passports and got in with no problems.  Google Maps kept saying there was a covid check-point at the border but that turned out not to be the case, no covid check.  We got right into Sault Ste Marie with no problem at all.  

Something we noticed right away, once we got into Canada, was that the GPS began giving distances in metrics.  Miles were gone, now it was all kilometers and meters.  That was weird. interesting but a little weird.

Since we had our bikes with us we were planning on going for a ride in Canada; we picked a nature reserve called the Fort Creek Conservation Area, right there in Sault Ste Marie.  I had studied it out as much as I could on the Internet and figured a ride on the stretch shown in black on the sign below would be a good ride,  It wasn't as long as we normally go, out and back would only be about three miles, but there are a lot of hills in this conservation area and I wanted to avoid them as much as possible.  This route would involve some hills but, as near as I could tell, it would be generally uphill going out and down hill coming back.  We've done that before, it's not so bad.  Besides, the main point here was to be able to say we'd ridden our bikes in Canada.

We found our way to the parking lot where we wanted to start but when we got the bikes out of the car and were getting set up and ready, Brombeere noticed her chain was not right, it was all twisted and stuck; it wouldn't move at all. I can do minor bike repairs and I have a biking tool I keep with us on rides so I can handle some repairs so I took a look.  I'm not sure how it happened, but the chain had gotten all twisted around the front derailleur. With both of working on it, and getting a bit dirty in the process, we managed to work the chain back to where it belonged. It didn't appear anything was broken, just a twisted chain. Brombeere took a slow spin around the parking lot to get the chain and derailleur back in proper alignment and then we were ready to go.

This section of trail is part of what they call the John Roswell Hub Trail, a 25.5 mile recreational trail around Sault Ste Marie that connects several points of interest, it's closed to motorized vehicles.  It goes through a number of parks, the Fort Creek Conservation Area being the largest.  Most of the trail is a designated route along city streets.

We got started and noticed right away that it looked like we were going downhill, not steep, but downhill nonetheless.  This was disconcerting because, when you're going a route you plan on coming back on, and you feel like you're going downhill, it's hard to think of anything other than how much work it's going to be to come back and have to go uphill all the way.  That's distracting.  But we pushed ahead.  After a while, though, I noticed that even though it looked like we were going down hill, we were not coasting, we had to keep pedaling all the time to keep moving; it wasn't making sense. 

A mile and a half is not very far on a bike and pretty soon we reached the turn-around point.  I was glad for it, too, because we were at the top of a pretty big hill.  If we had gone any farther it would have been a lot of work to get back up that hill.  So we turned around and headed back, with a bit of dreading of the climb we thought we'd be making all the way back.  But we were pleasantly surprised, even though it had looked like we'd been going downhill all the way it had been an optical illusion. I've known of a couple of places over the years that have been called "gravity hill"; they looked like inclines but in a car you actually roll "up" them.  Apparently this was another one. It was down hill all the way back, with a couple of exceptions that we made it up with no trouble at all. Even the one hill that had felt like it was going to be a lot of work was no trouble at all, we had a good run and made it up just fine.

Suddenly we were back and it hadn't been hard at all.

It actually had been a very nice, albeit short ride.  Made me wish we had been able to find a longer ride. But still it was a very pleasant ride through some very beautiful scenery.

Brombeere didn't want to go back yet so we drove around, seeing what Sault Ste Marie had to offer.  We went to their tourism office and got some information about the city.  Then we went and got some lunch, we found another good place to eat.  We found a couple of quilting stores and a little museum that was actually quite interesting; it had an antique snowmobile and a scale model of the Edmund Fitzgerald with a time line of its final journey. We learned that the Sault Ste Marie area has been influenced by Indian, French, and British settlers to become what it is today.  We had the whole   museum all to ourselves, an interesting place.  We stayed until it closed.

From the museum we went and got some ice cream (naturally) and then called it a day. 

We headed back to the good, ole USofA, the motel, and the All American Moose that had greeted us or sent us off each time we left or returned to the motel.

The next morning we started back for home. But there were a few more stops we wanted to make. One thing that has been on Brombeere's bucket list for a while and here, near St Ignace, was an opportunity for her to do it: a Zip Line. We pull in, got her all set up, and she made the climb up the tower to start.

It took a few minutes to hike up to the tower. She said it took a little courage to step off, but when she was done she said it was great and she'd do it again in a heartbeat. They actually had two zip lines that she did, one that was 700 feet and a second that was 400 feet, lots of fun.

Our last stops were at another quilting store and for lunch on the way back.

This was a good vacation, some fun days well spent. Over the years we have not done very many vacations like this.  We decided when we were done that we would need to do this again.

So now all that is left is the souvenirs we brought back and our happy memories.  It was a good time, a very good time.