Summer catch up

Is this what happens when you get old?  Because I swear my birthday was just last week but the calendar tells me that August 29 was a while ago!  Where has this year gone??????

So.... Cliffnotes!

Sometime in the end part of August was the Cheeseburger Fesitval and Sis1 happens to have a friend who has a camper permanently parked at the campground on the beach.  So we went to visit her & her family for a while, rode some jet skis, did some shopping and then went to eat some cheeseburgers!  And my poor pasty white body got fried in the sun.  

Like I said, August 29 was a special milestone birthday for me!

This is what was greeting me when I got to work that day...

Yes, another skeleton!  This one is names Walter and he's still at work, sitting on the plant stand in the corner. 

The Spouse sent me 29 carnations (because I'll always be 29) and one red rose.

He's such a sweetheart!

The Spawn was so excited to get this banner to hang outside the house. 

She gave me these awesome earrings the day before, too. 

The pic doesn't do them justice - they really sparkle!

So I guess I should ease back off my Halloween skeleton shopping a bit (HA!!!)

My quest for the cows from Tractor Supply was successful.  I also got their mini horse. 

I got  pair of geese from Michael's, a pair of little goats from JoAnn's and finally a tiny puppy and a random armadillo from At Home. 

Oh, and a 74" skeleton (named Marvin) from HalloweenCostumes.com

The week after Labor Day, the Spouse & I went up north on vacation. 

Like WAY up north.

Here we're crossing the Mackinac Bridge. 

And on the other side of the UP, we crossed the International Bridge into Sault Ste Marie, Ontario.

He has the talent to be able to get to destinations with perfect timing - we got to the shoreline just in time to watch the sun set over Lake Superior. 

We went to the Canadian BushCraft Heritage Center and got to explore a bunch of cool planes.

The main thing we went to go do was take the Agawa Canyon Train Tour.  

a 4 hour train ride out into the literal boonies, then we had a couple hours to explore the area & have a picnic before heading back into civilization. 

LOL!!!

The Search & Rescue Volunteer in me cringed at the thought of searching for someone in that terrain!

We went a bit early in the year, so there was only a wee bit of color in the forests, but it was still so pretty!

We HAD to stop at a food truck to get some real poutine.  

~drool~

We also had breakfast at this place called the Breakfast Pig.  OMG.  I had something called the MBC FT, which is French Toast with maple syrup, bacon & cheddar cheese, with a side of cheesy eggs.  And if we went back, I was going to get the PB & DAAAMN which is french toast with strawberry rhubarb jam, topped with fried chicken thighs and drizzled with more jam and warm peanut butter.   

On the way home, we stopped in St. Ignace and climbed Castle Rock.  I don't remember ever being up there before, so if I had been, I was really young.  It was one hell of a climb!

It was especially cool that they were having a mass evacuation drill on Mackinac Island and we could watch the big ol' Chinook helicopters airlifting stuff back & forth between the mainland & the island. 

The Spawn's birthday is September 28 and of course that means...

We had stuff going on the weekend after her birthday, so that's when I moved Marvin out next to one of the big maple trees, along with the cemetery sign and gave him a shovel like he was getting to work. 

Stay tuned for part 2 of the "Catching Up" series!