|
We flew to Milwaukee, drove to the Lillard's in Eagle RIver for a few days, and
then drove across the Straits of Mackinac to the Nelson's on Hubbard Lake MI before returning to Milwaukee by ferry from Muskegon MI.
A narrative (extracted from a letter to Mike Bagg) follows the pictures. 28 images  2. greeted by the famous Mack  3. The Lillard's cabin, with red pines  4. First boatride. Catfish Lake connects with 23 other lakes, the longest chain in the world  5. stopping for lunch the next day  6. lunch at Braywood Resort with our hosts Tom and Cindy  7. On the dock at Kathin Lake, the site of John & Mabel McKee's cabin, now replaced by...  8. this, and...  9. ... evidently the owners decided to retrofit a basement  10. Kathin Lake, just as Bill remembered it 57 years ago  11. sunset back home  12.  13. Mack's favorite spot  We left the Lillard's and drove to St. Ignace, where we stayed overnight. The next day we drove to the Nelson's at Hubbard Lake. 14. Hubbard Lake! Barb and Robert  15. Robert in the bow  16. Bob & Laura  17. The Nelson's cabin, on Doctor's Point, with wraparound views  18.  19.  20.  21. Bob & Robert ready the sunfish  22.  23. The motorized rollup awning was spectacularly useful, protecting us from sun and rain  24. West, Joan, Laura  25.  26.  27. lakeside dinner  28.  Our nine day trip took us from Denver by plane to Milwaukee, where we picked up a rental car and drove to Eagle River to see Cindy and Tom, and then over Mackinac to Hubbard Lake and Barb & Bob's cabin. Yesterday we drove from the Nelson's Blue Haven to Muskegon, took the ferry to Milwaukee, and flew back to Denver. Details follow. Thursday, July 17: Cindy had driven up to their cabin on Catfish Lake 3 days earlier (to deal with cobwebs, she told us). On Thursday, as we arrived by plane from Denver, Tom drove up from Chicago, and we hooked up, traveling north in our rented Chevy Cruz. He was a useful navigator/driver for the 4 hour trip, and of course we talked about all kinds of things, catching up since our last visit, months earlier. It was interesting as the deciduous forests gave way to the north woods, and white birch and (especially) those beautiful red pines and white pines began to appear as we approached Eagle River. We arrived chez Lillard about 6 pm, and within minutes the 4 of us were out on the lake in their impressive and comfy inboard/outboard boat, with Cindy pouring one of their very nice reds. We saw our first bald eagle, heard a loon, and surveyed the lakeside cabins. We returned to a delicious rib dinner and more conversation. The sunset was stunning, just stunning. So are they. 
Friday, July 18: A nice walk in the woods got my rehab back on track after a day
spent sitting (I am supposed to walk, walk, walk to get my new (as of 2 May) hip
into shape. I bought a Fitbit, which is an accelerometer-based pedometer, to help
me keep track. The graph on the right shows my performance during the trip. My goal
is 10,000 steps per day; the two low days were travel (to Eagle River, then to
Hubbard Lake).) We then took a long boat ride through several lakes (they are on a
chain of 24 lakes, the longest in the world), before shallow water turned us
around. We saw the beautiful grasses, water lilies, and the pickerel weed (big
green leaves with purple spikey flower - see picture).
We stopped for lunch at the historic Braywood lakeside resort (picture below).
After lunch we cruised back to the cabin, and then drove
into town, but first went over to Kathin Lake, where I had vacationed at John &
Mabel Mckee's cabin when I was an early teenager. I remembered the approach after
turning from the highway - along sandy roads in the woods, where I had driven
John's WW II jeep when I was 14 years old (I can still remember his letting me
drive it. I used to go fetch the mail at the highway, several miles away, and
detoured along numerous side roads that led nowhere). Kathin lake looks much the
same as I remember it (not very many visible cabins across the lake), but John &
Mabel's cabin is gone, replaced by an impressive new one with big cathedral
ceiling. It was, however, in quite a state - it had been jacked up and it rested on
massive steel I-beams, while the earth underneath was gone. It looks like they have
decided to build a basement, and they were now ready to pour the footings. Quite a
project, and kind of in reverse of the usual plan - basement first, then house.
Then we drove into town. Eagle River offers numerous fun touristy shops (I got a
tee shirt). Joan bought Minnetonka moccasins for granddaughters Thalia and Matilda.
I saw a stuffed beaver displayed in one store, and tried to buy it, but they
wouldn't sell. The reason I want to find one is that we are having an artist -
Carol Tuttle - paint murals in our window wells in Denver. One of her projects is a
beaver pond, and we want to put a stuffed beaver looking into the house through the
window. But no joy today. We returned home to a relaxing dinner of burgers.
Saturday, July 19: We had a quiet morning - more walks, plus (if memory serves) another lovely boat ride. In the afternoon, a friend of Cindy and Tom's, Jack Butler, came over for a visit. What a delight! Jack's grandmother owned the next- door cabin, and he spent his summers there (he grew up in St. Louis - he is 85 years old now, but seems much, much younger). Jack's uncle wrote a detailed history of the lake, and Jack added his own reminiscences. Cindy & Tom have the journals, and they made great reading for Joan and me - the details of life on Catfish Lake many decades earlier in many ways was no different than today. Of particular interest was a resort comprising a few dozen modest cabins - "The Everett" - which played a central historical role. It is just down the road from Cindy & Tom's. When Jack Butler was 21, he bought The Bluebird, one of those little cabins. He took us there, and showed us through the place, which looks as it did sixty or more years ago. Then he showed us his grandmother's 1929 Plymouth ("Jezebel") in the garage. He drives it one day each year, in the July 4th parade in Eagle River. Jack is also an expert on where the wild berries grow, and he brought us some wild strawberries, whose intense flavor contrasts greatly with the pithy store-bought variety, as I'm sure you know. Jack makes jelly and jam each summer from his pickings. Joan gave him a jar of her own jam, made from wild rose hips that she has picked in Colorado. It was a new variety for him. After another delicious dinner with Cindy & Tom, we all sat beside the lake by a nice campfire, watching another glorious sunset and hearing loons singing. Sunday, July 20: This was our departure day, and after we had packed up, neighbors from the other side of their cabin came over. Ana and David Engman (and one of their 3 sons) stopped in for coffee, and we had a delightful chat. David is from St. Louis, and his family has owned the cabin for decades. Ana is from Seville, Spain, and that is where they live most of the year. So, because I have a collaboration with a colleague at the medical school in Seville, and know the city intimately from my many visits, we had fun talking about Seville and its many charms. David is a lawyer, Ana an accomplished flamenco dancer, so they blend what are probably the two most stereotypical activities of their cultures - an American lawyer and an Andalucian flamenco dancer. After they left, we four bid goodbye to Catfish Lake, as Cindy & Tom headed home to Winnetka and we drove off for the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan. In examining the map, it became immediately obvious that the U.P. has no business being part of Michigan, from which it is separated by the Mackinac Straits, but is completely attached to Wisconsin, its natural home. I had never realized this before. 
We were told that in fact the Wisconsin governor
has proposed annexation of the U.P. In any case, we had a nice drive east to the
Mackinac straits. We stayed at a Best Western right on the straits (recommended by
Cindy's friends Ana & David). I had looked into going to Mackinac Island, and
explored staying at the Grand Hotel there, but rooms started at $850 per night, so
we skipped that. We had a nice fish dinner at The Galley restaurant. I had perch,
Joan had whitefish. No walleye available.
Monday, July 21: We drove over the huge bridge that spans the straits, and at the far side was Michilimackinac Fort, which we toured. It was superb, with costumed performers engaged in real-life activities from the 17th - 19th centuries. Also, about 10 faculty and interns from a local college were excavating a building site and gave us a little lesson - they had uncovered some beads and pottery shards that morning. The fort spanned an interesting time - occupation by the French, then the English, then the Americans, along with some Indian victories, too. Moving on down the road, we lunched in Cheboygan (more perch and whitefish, no walleye), and arrived at Blue Haven (Barb & Bob's cabin) about 4 pm. Laura & West Peterson were there, and Robert too. We had a delicious rib dinner, and then a long boat ride all around the lake. Another beautiful sunset over water. Barb and Bob, now in their mid-eighties, look terrific, and have the mobility of persons far younger. Tuesday, July 22: I resumed my rehab walks, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, and with long conversations with just about everyone (especially several walks with West, who leads a busy and very interesting life). Joan and Laura spent time swimming and relaxing on inflatable rafts, and Robert tuned up the sunfish sailboat, which he then took out is a stiff breeze and flew across the lake and back. Our appetites were primed by Bob's signature gin & tonics, and a delicious chicken dinner capped the day. Laura's wit and wisdom informed every conversation, and her natural goodness leaves us in awe. Wednesday, July 23: Bob guided us on a trip into Alpena, the county seat. We visited two museums. The first was by NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), and highlighted the many shipwrecks on Lake Huron. Next came the Besser Museum (Mr. Besser invented the concrete block, and funded the museum). It was chock full of eclectic stuff; my favorites were the mounted mammals. The wolverine was interesting; the caption said that, notwithstanding many verbal reports of sightings, there is no documented proof that a wolverine has ever lived in Michigan (the wolverine state). This became fodder for the folks from Ohio (Petersons), who will be reminding some of their friends from Michigan of this evident discrepancy. Between the issue of the upper peninsula and their claim of the wolverine, I think that Michigan has some explaining to do.... Bob treated us to lunch at a local Italian spot, and then we returned to Blue Haven. Laura & Joan had a great time with Lou Gilliland (sp?), an 88 year-old neighbor as spry and witty as someone half her age. They did some sewing, and then the young ladies had a swim. That night, we had dinner at Rosa's, an Italian restaurant that unfortunately had removed their famous walleye from the menu, but made up for it with a variety of pastas. Thursday, July 24: Joan, Laura, and I drove over to the town of Hubbard Lake, where I got a tee shirt, and caught up a bit on my email (kneeling on the ground in the gravel parking lot outside the community center in bright sunlight). More long walks back at the lake on a beautiful day. On one walk, we met Chuck Mix on his way home from his kitchen garden, carrying a basket loaded with squash, which he promptly gave in toto to Laura. Chuck is a longtime family friend of the Nelsons; they jointly own an adjacent piece of forested land that they intend to protect from further development. On our way back, we (Joan, Laura, and I) stopped in at Lou's to offer her some squash, and wound up chatting on the deck with her and friends. True intrigue developed later that day, when the next-door neighbors (three sisters) arrived. Laura gave us a rundown of the probable weekend scenario from these chicks, which wasn't pretty. It involved great quantities of alcohol, loud voices, endless profanity, and other physical activities (with men picked up at a local bar) normally kept more private. However, Thursday night was perfectly quiet, so I thought maybe the Flower girls (their name is Flowers) had turned a new leaf (or petal). On my Friday morning walk, however, a hand-written cardboard sign had been nailed to the main wooden sign. It pointed towards their cabin, and said, "Segula (married name of one of the Flowers girls?) girls weekend 2014." Laura said in the past, after they (the Flowers) leave, they (the Nelsons & Petersons) sing "Where have all the flowers gone?" Laura predicted a big party Friday night, but we left to go home, so we don't know what developed then (perhaps tonight, too). Friday, July 25: Joan and I had to catch the 4:45 pm ferry from Muskegon to Milwaukee, and so after breakfast we packed the car and headed out. Bob had given us good directions, and it was a pleasant, light-traffic drive. We had lunch at Cadillac, MI, on the lake. The hardest part was finding the ferry terminal once we arrived in Muskegon, until I remembered that my phone has GPS, and that took us right to the terminal. The ferry ride was smooth and on time, and a 45 minute delay of our Southwest flight to Denver gave us a more time to get the rental car returned and have a glass of wine in the airport. We arrived home about midnight local time and picked up Jen's car. They had flown off to Paris and London on Thursday for a couple of weeks (including 3-4 days with Tony & Conny Ridge in Bristol). So it had been a long day for us. Our corgi, Zippy, was waiting for us at home, having been dropped off by the kennel earlier in the evening. Emmy stopped by this morning, and we caught up a little on her family members' busy lives. Tomorrow is Matilda's second birthday party (real date is today), and Joan and I will go over early to help get ready. [Click HERE for pictures of Matilda's second birthday party] Reflecting back on the trip, it was just wonderful to see the north woods, the lakes, the sunsets, the natural beauty, and the way that the water amplifies the mood of the weather. The weather, by the way, was just about perfect every day. All of that was further enhanced by good wine and great food. Both cabins are just stunning, perfect in their design and comfort and, of course, setting. And while the venues were sublime, and the food and drink splendid, it was of course the people who made it so extraordinarily special for Joan and me. We had great conversations, shared hilarious stories, witnessed glittering wit, all of which kept us laughing all day and well into the night. While we already knew it, we confirmed that we have a truly remarkable and wonderful family. |