Backblog – Saturday April 11th

There are many great joys of being at Mom and Marc’s place in Michigan (even when Mom and Marc are not there); it is quiet, and pretty, and near the lake, and has lots of cute towns nearby. But, perhaps the greatest pleasures for me and Mer are sleeping in and eating breakfast at Sammie’s Restaurant.

Since Mom’s place is very quiet, it contributes nicely to a good snooze. Add the fact that the house is on the far west of the time zone, which means the sun comes up later than it does in Ohio, and you get a very nice set-up to be lazy. Once you do roll out of bed, you can walk (if the weather is nice) about a mile to Sammie’s Restaurant, where they serve huge and tasty breakfasts until 2:00.

So, this Saturday was no exception. In fact, since Ellen had never been to the area before, it seemed like a downright duty to introduce her to Sammie’s. If I recall correctly, I did have to wake Meredith up; the morning was getting on and everyone else was awake, so the poor thing had to put up with my shortening her sleep. After everyone was ready (no small feat with five people), we all strolled off in the pursuit of high-fat breakfast foods.

The day was nice and sunny, and the walk was quite pleasant for an early April morning. We arrived to little or no wait at Sammie’s (an unexpected bonus), and we all proceeded to eat too much. On the way back, Shannon (who likes a brisk walking pace) pulled the long-suffering Jo along and they got home well before Ellen, Meredith and I did.

Not too long after we got back, Marc showed up. It is, after all, his house. He was on his way to visit his brother and sister, and he stopped in at the house along the way. Marc is one of the most hospitable men I have ever met, and he made Ellen feel quite welcome. Ellen, Meredith, and I had chatted about going to a nice town that was nearby called St. Joseph. When Marc found out that plan, he offered to be the tour guide, and we quite happily accepted. Marc would take Ellen and Meredith in his car, and I would follow along in mine. That way, he could continue on his way north after we were all done, and the three of us could drive back to Bridgman.

We set off in the very small convoy, and Marc took the lead along the back way to St. Joe’s. He quickly pulled into a parking lot, and I followed. We were at a donut shop, and we had just beaten their closing time. Marc bought everyone a treat of his or her choice, and thus provisioned, we proceeded in our 25-minute trek north.

We got to St. Joe’s and Marc pulled into another parking lot. I followed, and this time it turned out to be the Krasl Art Center, a very small but well-done art gallery in the town. They had five or so pieces of sculpture outside, and inside there were two galleries. I’m afraid at this point I have forgotten what was in the first gallery – I think it had some sculpture, but I am not sure, The second gallery was unusual – it had a special exhibition by an artist who was interested in palimpsests. Palimpsests are previous writings on reused surfaces. Normally, these are old writings that were written down when paper was very costly, and then the writing was scraped off so the paper could be reused. These older writings are often of great interest to archeologists, This artist created modern-day examples of this by using chalkboards. He would let people use a chalkboard, and then he would lightly erase the board and have them use it again. He then captured the images (usually by photograph), and he displayed them. I’m not sure it passed the “Matt test” for modern art (the test of “could I have made this?”), but the gallery was easily done in a few minutes, and I really enjoyed the small art center as a whole.

We then drove down to the main street. The main street area of St. Joe’s is a great place to stroll – they have nice shops and restaurants, and you can see the lake from cross streets as you walk. They have a very cool toy store, and importantly for the dessert-addicited Riordans, they have two chocolate stores. We stopped at both, and picked up some chocolates for later at the first one, and I got a chocolate chip cookie a local bakery. Since we are not faint-hearted sweet tooths, we stopped for ice cream at Kilwin’s (an ice cream/fudge/chocolate store).

By this point, Marc needed to be leaving to go to his family’s, but he recommended that we stop by a local art building called the Box Factory. It used to be a factory (presumable one that made boxes), but it has been converted into studio and display spaces for local artists. We stopped by, and wandered around. It is quite large, and they have a stage for musicians, and a small cafe. Since it was late afternoon on a Saturday during off-season, the place was quite quiet. We explored the two-level structure and poked around in the galleries. There was some very nice art, and it looked as if it could be a very festive place during a busier time in summer.

We headed back to the house and found that Shannon and Jo had left. Shannon had intimated that they had to leave, and they might leave while we were away. Since it was now getting along toward evening, I decided that Ellen had to see a sunset at the beach. Since the beach looks over the lake to the west, sunsets are very often spectacular. I calculated when the sun would be going down, and we left about 15 minutes before (we drove down since it was starting to get chilly). We got out of the car and wandered around. To my surprise, the sun was staying quite high and not making perceptible progress toward the horizon. No worries!  I knew how quickly the sun could sink into the lake. After about 15 minutes and no real progress, we began to discuss the situation. In talking it over, I realized that I had calculated incorrectly – I had mistakenly allowed that the sun went down earlier in Michigan than it does where we live in Ohio, when it is really the other way around. This meant that the sun went down about a full hour later than I had figured on. We decided to spend a good chunk of the remainder of that time in the car since a wind had sprung up which made the cold, well, colder. At length, the sun did go down, and it was a pretty sunset.

We headed back home and broke out our leftovers, as well as some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and the chocolates that Mer had bought. We had brought along a DVD of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labors Lost, which I had never seen or read. It was an updated version, with the setting being right before WW 2. They also added in song-and-dance numbers that used songs from various points of the 20th century. That sounds weird, but it worked okay. I enjoyed it. The only sad part of the evening was that I was so stuffed from all my eating during the day, I actually turned down eating some of Mer’s chocolates. Love’s Labors Lost indeed.