Last week (and weekend), Mer and I traveled to Bridgman, Michigan, to spend Thanksgiving at my Mom’s place. Mom and her Significant Other, Marc, are wonderful people to be around on holidays. They want you to be comfortable doing whatever you want to do, and they throw in an endless supply of food to boot.

We left Ohio early afternoon on Wednesday (we slept in – why get up early on the first day of your vacation?), and started on the 5-1/2-hour trip to Michigan. We go through South Bend on the way, so we stopped off to see a friend who lives in South Bend with her husband. Our friend’s family was in town for Thanksgiving, so we all went to Ponderosa. That was my first time ever going to a Ponderosa, although I had been to Bonanzas in my youth. That was very gracious of them to let us tag along, although it was not a good thing for me to go to a buffet the day before Thanksgiving!

We got to Mom’s about 9:00, and Mom, Marc, Sonotmu and OrangeJoJo, and the Rev. were already there. We got the junk out of the car and got settled in to our room, and chatted.

On Thanksgiving, the game playing started in earnest. SoNot and JoJo both like to get interesting (and fairly unknown) games to play. We started playing various games, which was cool. SoNot and the Rev. both convincingly beat me at Abalone. Then JoJo beat me at Tyrus (by ONE point!), but I managed to win the second game (which should have been a tie, except JoJo made a mistake in the last round). I then played Mom at Yinsh, which I won. Meanwhile, Mer and the Rev. played many games of Tyrus. I lost count of who won what. SoNot and JoJo played Abalone (SoNot won), and Rev. and SoNot played Abalone (Rev. won). It was a very competitive morning and early afternoon.

It was not ALL lazing around. The weather was beautiful the entire weekend, so I took the opportunity to go for a 3-mile run Thursday morning. It was really nice. I ran along the beach along Lake Michigan and then toward the town of Bridgman. In the 3 days were were in town (not traveling), I managed to walk or run about 15 miles. It is a great place to take walks.

We had a *wonderful* Thanksgiving dinner with all the usual fixings. Mom and Marc sure can cook. We ate well all weekend. In addition to Thanksgiving diner, Mom kept pints of Ben and Jerry’s on hand, as well as chips, chocolates, and nuts. Marc made us his mouth-watering burgers and chili. They took us out to breakfast at a diner on Friday. Through it all, I only gained about 1 pound – the walking did me some good, methinks.

You can take the English teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the spin off the English teacher. Most of us spent the evening watching the recent version of Othello. It was well done, and beautifully shot. One warning for my readers: it is rated R for some sex and violence.

Friday morning I went for an early walk before Mer woke up. I saw a small heart made of stones on the beach, and it gave me the idea to make something for Mer. It took a little while, but it came out nice, and just in time for the sun to start to come over the dunes. I got to take Mer there after breakfast in town, and she kept wondering why I was so focused on getting a ways down the beach. She thought the walk was worth it once we got there.

SoNot, JoJo, and the Rev. had to leave for the Windy City on Friday. I took a nap and ate some more wonderful food, and then we went to the beach for a tremendous sunset. What a nice evening on the beach! On the walk home, I saw something moving at the bottom of a dune hill near Mom’s. It turned out to be a very friendly big cat. He was friendly toward me, but he took much interest in the rustling under nearby leaves. I don’t think he caught anything. Good kitty!

Once back at the house, we convinced Mom and Marc to watch “O” with us. It is the Othello story updated to a prep school and the basketball court. It was nicely done, and the plot and dialogue were easily traceable back to Shakespeare’s text. It is well done, but is very violent, has some sex, and a LOT of language use. Be warned. One of the bonus features on the DVD was a restored 1922 silent movie version of Othello. It is hard to describe. The film made up several scenes, rearranged things, switched dialogue, and generally made things pretty amusing to watch. I’m not saying I want to see it again, but it was worth seeing once.

Saturday, Mom and Marc took us to the studio of Fritz Olsen, a sculptor. He did modern stuff, which I usually only find okay. I did like several of his pieces, and it was a great afternoon to be out and about. After going home, and the inevitable food, Mom and Marc took us out to the Acorn Theater to see Spider Saloff, a jazz singer (singing mostly older jazz from the 30s-50s). It was a very nice concert, and the theater was cool – an old factory that had been converted to a theater. I do wish Spider had sung some Gershwin – I’m fond of his music. Her accompanist was a fantastic guitar player. The only odd thing was he tended to hum while playing his solos. His humming was not always in tune, and it tended to distract from the jaw-dropping things he was doing on the guitar. Still, a very fine evening.

So, that brought about Sunday. We got on the road a bit late, so we did not get home until about 4:30. I do like the Michigan escapes – lots of food, rest, and fun people.