July 28, 2015 (Michigan)

When left to sleep unencumbered, I discovered that I could sleep until 10:00, probably later, but bacon and pancakes and eggs and hash browns and coffee smells were wafting from the kitchen. Friend Dana has this weird glitch in her personality that jolts her awake before the rooster crows and makes her want to cook breakfast for everyone. She has cooked breakfast for me every time I have found myself in some sort over night situation with her. You should definitely get a friend like Friend Dana. Friend Dana is also known as Nurse Dana, because she is a nurse. She has cared for Mae's Frankentoe and it is healing nicely!

Today was a chill day. After 6 days living out of hotel rooms and packing and re-packing the car, it was nice stay in one place. Especially when that place is Sequanota. Friend Dana set up chairs on the beach for us AND bought the newest issue of People magazine.  See why you should get a friend like her? We spent the morning watching kids dig in the sand, jump on the water trampoline, and get blasted into orbit from The Blob. You've probably seen one. Some skinny kid gets at the end of the pillow (like a partially deflated air mattress) then someone who is...ahem, larger, jumps on the opposite end thus catapulting skinny kid into the air. It was all fun and games until Master Thomas decided he wanted to give it a go. Daddy did the honors and Thomas will henceforth be known as the skinny kid who pierced the atmosphere at Sequanota. He flew waaaay up into the air, and had just enough hang time for terror to register in time for the trip down. He cried a little, but didn't break anything. Whoot! I imagine he'll want to put a few more sleeps before his next Blob encounter.

Charlotte on The Blob

We took the boat into Boyne City to the Red Mesa Grill for lunch. They had $3 Margaritas. I hate Margaritas and it is opposite day.

You can't have her, she's MY friend!

Thomas falls asleep sitting up

I know it's blurry, but I love Joy! It is my favorite!

Happy boy

We came back to Sequanota and beached around a little more before heading to the cottage to get ready for dinner. This is one of the quaint things about this place. Everyone dresses for dinner and eats together at the main dining room.

They ring the dinner bell at 6:30 SHARP and everyone spills out of their cottages and walks down the sidewalk towards the club house. We sat at the same table that Chris Ervin's family has sat for a million years. During dinner different people would tap their glasses and make announcements such as, "The plumber is here and has corrected the blockage at the Smith's cottage (name changed to protect the offender)." and "The Jones family won the annual Treasure hunt", "Soft shoe tournament starts at 6:00 on the shuffle board court". My kids were captivated...

Seriously, it wasn't the announcements that put them to sleep it was because we wore them out! Score additional cocktails on the porch!

Then came the birthday parade! It was so cute. All of the kids go back into the kitchen come out banging pots and pans and sing happy birthday to someone. We only missed it by one day. Dang!

Blurry Birthday parade. It did wake Mae up, briefly.

After dinner we retired to the porch for a cocktail overlooking this beautiful, perfect place. We packed the car and we are doing something we've never done before. We are sleeping in our next-day clothes because we have to leave this slice of heaven in the middle of the night to get to The Henry Ford Museum in time to see them build a truck in front of our very eyes! Yes, we are following Sequanota with Detroit......Detroit. I just set my alarm for 4:00. I should probably hit the hay.