Let's Go Up North

We left here on Friday about 10 am to head up north for our annual family canoe trip.  On the way up we stopped in Clare and met our friends, Bob and Cathy, for lunch.  Bob and Cathy live up in Houghton Lake and we don't get to see them nearly as often as we would like.  It was a good time catching up with everything that has been going on in our lives.

After lunch, we headed out again and stopped to pick up some Michigan Sweet Cherries.  Last weekend was the Cherry Festival in Traverse City and they didn't have any cherries yet.  Everything is late this year because of the crazy winter we had.  I was happy that the cherries were ready now though.  They are delicious!!

We arrived at the cottage and got things all squared away.  It is so hard roughing it for the weekend each year.  But I will gladly sacrifice for the sake of family togetherness.

This is the living area that we used to relax and read while we waited out the rain on Saturday night.

This is the kitchen that I had to slave away in Saturday night when it was pouring so the guys couldn't grill dinner.

This is standing on the deck overlooking the yard that we enjoyed for the remainder of the weekend that the sun was shining and it was beautiful out.

The shack was built in the 1800's.  It is the coolest thing!!

This is the view from the deck looking towards the lake that we enjoyed when we weren't on the river.

After we got settled in we went to the campground where the rest of the family gathers in cabins, tents and campers.  Dawn, Tom and the boys stayed at the cottage with us.  We visited with them for a while and got the plans settled for canoeing the next day.  When Dawn called and said they were about an hour out we went back to the cottage to start dinner.  Hamburgers, dogs, beans and corn on the cob.  We were starving and it was good.  I think I crashed about 10 while the others went out and enjoyed S'mores at the bonfire.