On Monday, the actual Fourth of July, we slept in again, and then proceeded to play tourist. On Saturday, we had gone to Bear Cave Campground to see the actual cave they have there. Sadly, they close the cave at 4:30 because the bats get active. That was enough to discourage Mer for the evening. So, we went back the next day. The cave was open, and we paid our $3 each and were let in to the cave.

While certainly not Mammoth Cave, it was interesting. The cave was a narrow corridor that looped around onto itself. There is a room in the cave where runaway slaves used to hide, but the entrance to that section was mostly underwater. I thought hard about it, but decided against wading/swimming in water that was probably forty degrees. It was a fun little tour, and after it was over the owners showed us where two bats hang out (literally). They were just inside the door to the cave, and they were about the size of mice, but with wings. While I would not want one buzzing around my head, they were cute enough.

The owners of the camp then told us there was a waterfall over the back of the cave and encouraged us to walk over and see it. The waterfall was small, but pretty, and the path led us to the banks of the St. Joseph River, which was very lovely to see. It was a nice little campground.

After seeing the cave and camp, we moved on to Mer’s next planned stop, the pick-your-own fruit farm, Tree-Mendus. The farm currently only had sour cherries, but I was still game to pick some, if only for the experience. However, we gave up on that idea when we found out that we would need to pick a minimum of ten pounds. That is a lot of cherries.

So, we comforted ourselves with getting cherry waffle boats. These are little boats made of waffle batter and topped with cherries. They were okay – I’m only so-so on cherries. But, while I was waiting for Mer to get the food, I was able to people watch, and somehow western rural Michigan seemed to be a destination for Mexicans and Eastern Europeans. It made for a festive atmosphere.

Tree-Mendus boasts being the home of the cherry pit spitting championships. The current record is about ninety-eight feet. Mer bit into a pit in her cherry boat, so she decided to give it a try. She got up to the runway (you can take a running start), and she trotted to the spit line, spit, and the pit dribbled out off her lower lip and fell at her feet. It was most amusing. She was a game sport and laughed.

We went back to Mom and Marc’s, where they had prepared a wonderful supper. We actually sat at the table (a nonexistent concept in our house) and had a good conversation. Oh – Mom had also made chocolate chip cookies that morning before we even got up, so we did not get ignored on the dessert front.

We made it down to the beach in time to see the sunset. There is a tradition at the beach in Bridgman where two (and on rare occasions, three) trumpet players play “Taps” as the sun sets. It is a great tradition, and brings out lots of people when the weather is fine. The sunset on the fourth was excellent.

Mom and Marc had both recommended the St. Joseph’s fireworks display as being excellent. So, we headed toward St. Joe’s again. We started seeing groups of people about two or more miles outside of town, and it quickly became obvious we were not going to get into downtown. So, we tried several side streets, and we finally found a parking spot across the street from a cemetery. Since the cemetery is on the bluff, we figured that would be a good vantage point. There were several other people already there.

The fireworks started pretty promptly. They were low on the horizon, and really small – you could not even hear them. I was unimpressed, but held my tongue so that I would not rain on Mer’s parade. She said she could still feel my disapproval rolling off of me. Ah well – I tried. During the show, some other people showed up and joined us. They were of the opinion that the show we were watching was a different town north of St. Joe’s. I was skeptical, since the fireworks we were watching were down near the beach and had started at 10:00, the advertised start time.

At about 10:40, a huge firework went off right over our heads. The other people had been right – the St. Joe’s fireworks were huge, close by, and had started really late. The show lasted about twenty minutes, and was really impressive. I’m glad we stayed for it.

So, that was our mini-vacation. We drove home Tuesday with no problems. It was good to get away, and really good to see Mom and Marc again.