Last Saturday was Mer’s day, and she really surprised me. I was still getting over being sick, so I skipped running ans slept in. We did not get on the road until after 10:00. We headed north and east, and made our way onto Route 80, heading east. I was trying to guess where we were headed, so I kept looking at various signs. I figured I had her figured out when I saw a sign for Cleveland’s Holden Arboretum. We both like walks in the woods, so I thought that was likely. If not, there was a presidential farmstead off the same exit, so I thought we would get off there. Zoom. We went right on by.

A few miles later, I saw a sign for a state park. Bingo. That was where we were headed. Zoom.

Suddenly, we crossed over in to Pennsylvania. I had been joking all along that we were going to Erie, and here we were just twenty miles or so from the city. I was completely stumped. I began to think that Mer, who had packed some things in the car without wanting me to see, was taking me to Canada to Niagara-on-the-Lake for the weekend. I really had no idea.

We finally pulled off an exit near Erie that we have often seen on our trips to Maine. It is a gas-and-food exit, with lots of gas stations and restaurants. It also had one attraction that we had always joked about – Splash Lagoon, an indoor waterslide park. Mer had “won” tickets at the CVCA Auction last spring and had kept them secret all this time. It was a gray day, but still fairly warm, so Mer figured the park would not be too crowded since people would still be apt to be outside.

We got into the park, and got situated. It looked fun, but the first order of business was lunch, since it was about 11:30. We checked out the various food options and decided on the sit-down restaurant, Boston’s. We figured it would be quiet, and we were right. The food looked great, and the place was nearly empty. I tried to order a healthy chicken dish, but something got miscommunicated because I  was served a chicken pasta in a cream sauce. I decided not to complain and ate it. It was really good.

We got into the park at about 12:30, and Mer set up a “beachhead” on a couple of chairs where we could keep our loose stuff like towels. It also gave us a place to plan. There were seven waterslides of various thrill levels, a lazy river, and a wave pool. Mer wanted to start with the lazy river, then try the wave pool, then try the water slides a couple at a time going up on the thrill chart, with pausing in between. We also took advantage of the for-adults hot tub a couple of times, which was relaxing.

The park is laid out well, and they limit the number of people who can get into the park so that it does not feel crowded. Most slides had a short wait of about five minutes, and even the most popular slide only had a ten- or twelve-minute wait. The fastest slide in the place usually had no wait. I only rode it once because it whipped my head around and hurt my neck, but Mer eventually rode it three times.

Three of the slides were normal waterslides in that you just went down them, while four of the slides were made for special tube rafts. Those were fun because you could get a two-person raft, and so I could go on the ride with Meredith. They were also my favorite because they were gentler on my body while still being fast or interesting.

Most of the slides focused on speed and turns, and all but one were enclosed tube-style slides. Two slides were very interesting – one slide spit you into a big bowl where you went around two or three times before being channeled in to a short tube, usually backwards. That was a tube ride, so Mer and I could ride it together. The other unusual one was the one with little or no wait – it rocketed you into a bowl where you had little or no control, and the bottom of the bowl had no bottom, so you fell, usually ungracefully, into a six-foot deep pool. I thought I would be able to figure out a way to control my fall out of the bowl, but I was badly mistaken. I went in sideways. Mer went in feet-first once, but had her theory on control proven wrong on the next two rides.

I think we made about twenty runs on the slides in all, went in the lazy river three times, went in the wave pool twice, and went in the hot tub twice. We left at about 8:00 or so, which was good since it was about a ninety-minute drive home. Mer had done very well at surprising me.

On Friday, Mer and I went out with our colleague, Don, and his wife, Donna. Mer had Don as a teacher back in the day, so she has known him for over twenty years. Don is an excellent musician, as is his wife, and Don helped launch the CVCA band program. Due to the demands of all the extra time for concerts, Don moved over to full-time Bible teaching about ten years ago. Don and Donna are both funny people, so it was good to get a chance to go out with them.

We met at Olive Garden. Don and Donna got there at about 4:45 and (happily) got a table. When we got there about twenty minutes later, there was a thirty-minute wait. We were pleased that we could just join Don and Donna at the table. We had a great time, with good food and much laughter, and we got to hear a little about Donna’s work in a hospital writing up studies for experimental cancer treatments, and we got to hear about how Don came to CVCA on a one-year contract, although he did not know that at the time. He was good, so the school has kept him around for thirty-three years now.

After supper, Mer and I went to CVCA’s home football game, although we missed my tradition of madly cheering the band as they marched onto the field. I felt bad about that since the kids seem to like it, but we got to the game about fifteen minutes too late to cheer. We did sit up next to the band in the bleachers, though, and Mer and I stayed through their halftime show.

At the game, we were happy that two alums found us – Whitney, a graduate of 2005, and Sarah, a graduate of 2011. Mer chatted mostly with Whitney, and I got to talk with Sarah, and it was a rather pleasant way to watch a football game. As for the game, CVCA looked to be in trouble during the first quarter, which included a botched punt for a safety, but they found their rhythm in the second quarter, and they were leading at the half, and went on to win 23-8.

Last Saturday was “my” day. I went running in the morning, and then went home and made cookies. I like to bake and then give away most of the results. After the cookies were done, Mer suggested we could walk across the street to Walsh High School to see a large cross country invitational meet where both the CVCA guys’ and girls’ teams were running. It was a pretty day, cool and cloudy, and we stayed for all the remaining races once we got there – we got to see two girls’ races (the “open” run and the varsity run), and we got to see those same two races for the guys as well. The CVCA girls have had a strong team for years, and they ran away with the meet (ha!). The guys also won in a closer race. We spent about two hours there, and we got to see a number of parents and students since the race was so close to school.

In the evening, I took Mer on a date to Lorain Community College, which is about forty-five minutes away, on the west side of Cleveland. Mer had no idea of what we could be doing there, other than a vague guess of some sort of theater. We were there especially for Mer, although I had a good time as well. It was the “Big Broadway Sing-along” show. The small audience of about a hundred people was led by a man and a woman in singing thrity-seven different Broadway songs. They ranged all over Broadway history, from the 1920s through the 1980s. Mer and I dressed up formally for the occasion, and a few audience members dressed in costume. The event was general seating, and we are not shy people, so we sat in the front row, just slightly off of center. At intermission, I got to talk to the man leading the singing, and he commented that Mer and I seemed to be enjoying ourselves. During the second half of the show, he sang a ditch-that-man-and-love me song while looking at Mer the whole time, except the part where he told her to ditch me; at that, he nodded in my direction. It was a great time. Mer loved it, and I think I scored big hubby-points for the evening. Most of the songs were even in my narrow range, so I was able to sing along without making people wince. It was a fine evening for singing.

We had a social but puttering week last week. On Wednesday, we had supper with Aunt Mary in Canton at Hog Heaven, a Harley-themed restaurant that serves good food. We had a good meal of basic comfort foods, and then went back to Aunt Mary’s house, where we hung out and chatted for thirty minutes or so. I was having a good time, but I had to break up the party because of work the next day – we get up at 5:00, which comes early.

Thursday evening, we had our monthly massages at Massage Envy. I was happy to have the session, since my shoulders were in mild pain from knots. I don’t know why they were knotted, but they were, and the massotherapist did a nice job of getting the painful knots out.

Friday was a CVCA home football game, so we got there early for our tradition of cheering on the band as they march into the stadium. We met up with two former students, and sat with them in the stands and talked for much of the first half. CVCA looked a little rough during the first quarter, but pulled it together for the second quarter, and led at halftime, 14-7. We watched the band halftime show, and then left since I had an early Saturday running appointment. It turns out that was a wise decision – the football game’s second half was delayed about an hour because of lightning. CVCA held on to win the game, 21-14.

On Sunday, we had a mellow, do-as-you-want sort of day. I woke up first, and walked downtown to a bakery to pick up muffins, donuts, and strudel for people to have for breakfast, and then I read out on the porch. People got up and ready at various staggered times, and then Mer and I went to church downtown in Bridgman, to a very small church, Olivet. We have been three or four times, and we like the people. There are only about twenty people in attendance on any given Sunday, but they are very friendly people. The pastor, and older man, gave a sermon on how only God can create a new and clean heart in people, which was a touching sermon given that the pastor had just had heart surgery. We enjoyed the service very much.

After church, we ate some of the various foodstuffs, and then went down to the town beach, Weko Beach. I walked down with Katie first, and found out about her doctoral dissertation, which looked at the effects of the Enlightenment on Christian writing. What I understood sounded interesting. The others joined us a little later, although Zach and Londa sat on a bench overlooking the beach while the four of us wandered in the surf. Londa has had some back problems from a recent car accident, so she wisely avoided walking on sand. The surf was really high from the wind off the lake, and the water was warm. It was grand fun letting the water crash against my knees and feeling the pull of the water. Water has a lot of power in it, and I was surprised at the number of people who were swimming.

We went back to the house, where I took a nap and people puttered as they wished. Mer went with Zach and Londa down to the pool near the house. Ellen had been gracious enough to bring a lasagna and bread dough with her, so she made these Sunday afternoon, and we had a lovely early supper. It was very good. After supper, Ellen, Katie and I went back down to the beach while Londa, Zach and Mer went back to the pool. Mer joined us at the beach after a short time because she wanted to play in the waves. Ellen, Mer and I played in the surf for a time while Katie watched. The surf almost knocked me and Mer over a number of times, and it succeeded in bowling Ellen over in the water, and she was fully dressed (Mer and I had on bathing suits). Ellen laughed the entire time, though – it is hard to be mad on a warm day in the warm water. As we were walking back along the beach, we saw a capsized catamaran that had launched down the beach earlier. It was drifting toward the beach, and we could see two people hanging on to it, and several emergency officers were running up the beach. There was nothing we could do, so we kept walking, but kept seeing more and more emergency vehicles. We heard later there were departments from three townships, but we never found out why – it seemed like a lot of people for one capsized boat with two people on it. I hope everything turned out okay, but I never did hear anything.

After the romp at the beach, we all met up at the house again, and Mer, Ellen, and Londa played a game while Zach graded and I read. Since we wanted to head back to St. Joseph to see the fireworks, we split up into two groups for the drive up there, and we went up early so we could get dessert. We landed on the South Bend Chocolate Factory, which was a universally applauded choice. We got three enormous slices of their chocolate cake to split among the six of us. We got to sit outside, and we took our time, since we had well over an hour until the fireworks display. A band set up inside the chocolate shop, but it was too crowded to go in and listen, which was a shame since the small snatches I did hear were all well done.

We headed down toward the beach for the fireworks. We were aiming for some benches near a fountain, but discovered they were wet from the fountain, as were the small hills nearby. So, we wandered all the way down to the beach and staked out a spot. The sand was cool, bordering on cold, since the sun was down, and the wind was still steady. I had grabbed a coat from Mom’s communal closet, and I was glad that I did. We waited about twenty or thirty minutes for the show to start, and it was an impressive display. The fireworks were right overhead, since they were being launched just a few hundred yards away on the lighthouse pier. They were set to go off pretty high, so the sound did not line up with the visual explosion, but it was still a great show. It started raining just during the finale, so we got fairly wet on the pretty long walk back to the cars. It was still worth it, to see the show.

On Monday, Katie left early before anyone was up – she actually had to teach that day, even though it was Labor Day. Zach, Londa, Mer, and I went for breakfast at Sammy’s, a local restaurant that serves up great breakfasts. This day, for some reason, the service was slow, so by the time I finished eating, I excused myself to walk back home so I could get started on laundry and other clean-up details. Ironically, as I crested the last hill near Mom’s, Zach and company drove by, so I could have just waited.

I got some laundry going, and then the five of us went back down to the beach to look at the waves. They were even higher than the day before, and there was no one in the water. The sand was whipping around, and the whole scene felt wild. After we got back to the house, Ellen packed up and left to get home and grade and such. We finished up laundry, and as such, we did not get on the road until about 1:00. The trip home was not so smooth as the trip out – something I had eaten made me sick, so I had to ask to stop pretty often. The normally five-and-a-half hour trip took more like seven hours to get home. Still, the weekend was certainly worth it, and was a very good break from the routine of school.

Since we had a long weekend for Labor Day, Mer and I decided to go to Mom and Marc’s place in Michigan. It is only about five hours away, but gives a real get-away feel. We had wanted to invite our friends Zach and Londa to Mom’s for some time now, so I checked with Mom. It turned out that she and Marc were going to be out of town, but she said we were very welcome to use the house. So, we invited the Churchills and Ellen as well. Ellen asked if she could invite a friend for Saturday night and Sunday; since we had room, I said that was fine, so that was how Katie ended up as part of the group. Six was a very good number.

Friday evening was the annual CVCA staff picnic, and so we stayed for the free food and for the company. We were only going as far as Ellen’s that night, so the late start did not matter much. I ate too much dessert, and Mer and I got to visit with several people not in the tech department or in the English department. We had a good time. We hooked up with Zach and Londa, and got on the road at about 7:00. Zach and Londa offered the use of their car, so we grabbed our iPass gadget for the tolls, and after a brief stop at Starbucks for Zach to grab some caffeine, we were underway.

The trip to Ellen’s was uneventful, but very pleasant. The Churchills are both fun people, and we chatted the entire way. Ellen greeted us when we got to her place at about 10:30. I was very quickly in bed, but I think the girls stayed up and chatted for a short time.

The next morning, Mer and I walked a couple of blocks to a nearby farmers’ market and picked up some raspberries as part of breakfast. We made them available to everyone, but I think Ellen and I ate most of them. Ellen is always a gracious host, so she made crepes, which I filled with jelly or nutella and served to Mer, Zach, and Londa, who were chatting in Ellen’s sitting room. The crepes were excellent. After breakfast, we packed up and headed over to Ellen’s school, Hillsdale Academy, to give Zach and Londa the tour. After the slight detour, we headed off to Mom and Marc’s house. I went with Zach in his car, and Mer and Londa and Ellen went in her car. We took different routes (we followed my GPS, while Ellen took a road with which she was familiar), and we got to Mom’s within five minutes of each other.

We all got settled in the house, when Ellen announced she would turn into Cranky Ellen if lunch were not forthcoming by 3:00. Since Ellen’s friend Katie was not scheduled to arrive until late, we headed north to the cute town of St. Joseph. We found a cafe there called the Broad Street Cafe, and we were sitting down to eat just before 3:00, so that was all good. The food was most welcome.

After lunch, we wandered the three-block main shopping street of the town, but only poked around in one or two stores. The main attraction was the beach – it was a fairly hot day, so we headed down to the very well-groomed beach, where we waded in the water. The water was very warm, and the air was quite a bit cooler down by the water. The beach was crowded, but not unnavigable, so we walked in the shallow water over toward the pier that leads out to the pair of lighthouses that mark the entrance of the St. Joseph River. Getting out by the pier meant that I had to walk out on the pier, so we all strolled out along it. We relaxed at the end of the pier and looked around, and with some very excellent timing, a large construction barge with a huge crane was just coming in off the lake. So, I had to watch that come in. We were able to walk back behind the barge since it was only going about two or three miles per hour.

Once we got back to land, we headed back to the car. Somewhere along the way, Londa saw a poster for fireworks on Sunday night, so we made plans to come back to see them. We got back to the house and puttered around until Katie showed up. She had already eaten, and felt comfortable enough to stay behind while we went out to eat at Culver’s, a local burger place that specializes in custard (ice cream). We ate a very good supper, and headed back home. As is the rule at Mom’s, everyone does what he or she wants to, so some people stayed up and chatted while others went to bed. I was in the bedward group myself. Sunday was looking to be a great day.

Saturday was Mer’s “day,” and she had quite a surprise for me. I ran in the morning with Jim, and then got ready at home. Mer was playing the piano, and I was listening, when the doorbell rang. Mer did not react, and I did not want to really answer the door, but I finally got up to see who it was after they rang the bell and knocked. I’m glad I did – it turned out to be our friends Eric and Shanna. They were in on the surprise, and were there to spend a chunk of the day with us. As a happy bonus, their band, Bethesda, has just released a music video, so we watched that. It was excellent, and can be seen here.

We all piled into Eric and Shanna’s new car, which is very nice. It is a small SUV, which they got to help Shanna on her thirty-minute commute, especially during the winter. We had a fairly long drive, so it was kind of them to offer the newer and more comfortable vehicle to drive. We headed west on the interstate, getting off near Sandusky. We headed to Bellevue, a small town. We were going to eat before the outing event, which I had guessed by reading signs was going to explore Seneca Caverns. We ate at a small mom-and-pop restaurant which I liked very much. The waitress was blunt in her recommendations of what was good and what was not, so we trusted her, and everyone liked the food.

After lunch, we drove the short distance to Seneca Caverns. It is an underwhelming site at first – just a parking lot next to a small building, which were both next to corn fields and a cemetery. I always picture that caves and caverns lead into the side of a rocky hill, but this is not always the case. Seneca Caverns bills itself as the “caviest cave in the United States,” which seemed lame until we asked them about it. They make the claim based on the fact that the cave is more or less in a natural state – they have added lighting and cleared out some sediment, but the paths and “stairs” in the cave are all natural.

We waited about ten minutes for a tour to start, and there were about ten of us in our tour. The cave is a crack in the ground, formed by a river that flows there. No one knows where the river comes from, and they do not know how deep it is. The river rises and falls based on rainfall, and on this day we could get to seven levels before hitting the water. Divers have confirmed there are at least thirteen levels, and it is common for an eighth level to be accessible.

I have to say – the cavern is really cool. I loved it. Eric was also vocally into the cave, and I think Shanna enjoyed it too. It was not too claustrophobic, but there were still areas that were hard to get through. It had multiple levels which are accessed by natural stone stairways. Our teenage guide told us creepy stories about voices in the cavern when no one was in, and people showing up in pictures when there was not a person around, and other things like that. There were engravings of people’s names from a hundred years ago. It was just a ton of fun. The tour lasted about an hour, and I will certainly go again sometime, maybe during a drier season so we can go down another level. The cavern goes over a hundred feet into the ground.

After touring the cave, we swung by a Catholic retreat area, the Sorrowful Mother Shine. It was very nice – it had a large outdoor chapel, a smaller indoor chapel, and lots of small chapels/shrines that could hold four to ten people. It had a very extensive grounds, and were very peaceful. We all agreed that we could have spent a good amount of time there if we had not needed to get back home. We’ll have to make more time for the Shrine next time we go.

Mer had “won” the tickets for the cavern at the CVCA auction and had kept the secret for months. I hope they come around again next year so we have an excuse to go back.