Traveling

We spent this weekend hanging out with friends in Traverse City. They actually live here, as opposed to just visiting here. I’ve mostly lived in college towns, where summer is the relaxed season – the season where you can get a burger and fries at sidewalk seating at a bar you’d normally not approach 9 months out of the year. The other 9 months you have lots of free awesome speakers and events and all kinds of stuff. Here, of course, summer is the season where you try not to leave the house so much. Vacation cities have some distinct advantages over college towns, at least, this vacation city does. Many vacation cities just feel dirty and seedy. In any case, this place has a lot of great independent restaurants. Also, some serious wines due to the location. You also have over-priced trinket shops here, lots of them, bummer. But the city is also inviting. The city and its residents put their attention to living in a place that looks and feels well cared for. Flowers, roads, trash collection, even new home construction. And of course the reason all of this is here, the water, and the peninsula. Pretty, pretty.

In Lansing, I get all excited about the Allen Street Farmer’s Market. I actually considered taking a picture of it the other week. That’s about as progressively pretty as our geography and culture gets. Sorry to complain but its hard not to compare. We still pass the empty hole that was the abandoned factory every day.

Our friend’s place is up on a hill and we’re not close enough to the water to have a view of it but we do have a view of the surrounding area. Right now it’s sunrise and there’s a gentle fog. Lovely, and calm.

Last night we met up with some more people and went to “the cottage.” I have an interest in this phenomenon of cottages. It seems that so many people in Michigan have “a place up North.” It feels so Michigan to say “we were at the cottage this weekend.” The cottage is a place that our host’s father built with their cottage neighbor at Bass Lake 50 years ago. Each year the families had a construction goal that they would accomplish for each residence. They’re still close with their neighbors.

In any case, one the guys we were hanging out with last night rushed back into the cottage after having taken the dessert I made out on the porth to announce in an excited and, dare I say, breathless tone that “this is the best German chocolate cake I’ve ever eaten!!!!!” so it’s been all good here.

When I borrowed hubby’s laptop to blog hubby noted they don’t have a wireless network in the house. “So?” I asked. Surely a neighbor does. Sure enough, neighbors do have wide-open networks. I’ve heard such use referred to as theft. I think of it more like putting a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies on your front porch. As someone who delivers cookies to her neighbors I operate easily on this comparison. And what? Someone has enough expertise to set up a wireless network but not lock it down? No, I don’t think so, but maybe I’m just not realistic. In case, when someone offers me a warm chocolate chip cookie I say thanks, and pour a glass of milk. In my current circumstance, milk with a great deal of coffee in it.

Also, I came up here all aflutter with some concerns and now I have some perspective, and some calm, and a plan of action for the next week, which is all the planning I need for this particular situation.