Michigan Vacation!

Mahrkale and I went to Michigan for this weekend. She had a family reunion scheduled, so we went ahead and bought planet tickets. Then the reunion was cancelled, so we just decided to keep our tickets and go up anyway for the sweet living hell of it. I'd never spent any significant time in Michigan, so this was my chance. It's summer, so weather wasn't a huge concern. We visited both of her parents and step parents. It was my first time meeting her stepmother, who is a very nice and intelligent woman. We spent the first half of the trip with her father and stepmother, then the last half with her mother and stepfather. All good people in my book.

There are a lot of pictures of animal skins and taxidermy in one section, just as a forewarning for any particularly tender people.

There are heaps of pictures behind the cut! 32 in total!

On the MARTA trip to the airport I saw this ad. I thought it was funny on a number of levels, not the least of which is the name of the gentleman.


Since the weather was so nice we spent the first leg of the vacation at Mahrkale's father's beach house on Lake Michigan. It's a hell of a nice place. I love the view from the span of windows that look out over the water.


Here's the patio with an awesome view.


The path down to the beach!


Mahrkale and her father on the beach.


A little slew of beach and pier pics!




I grabbed a picture of this building because it looks like something out of Bioshock. I think it's a government building if I remember.


This is Crouton! She's Mahrkale's stepmother's pomeranian. She's about four pounds of fluff and bones.


Mahrkale holding Crouton.


Last night at the beach house we caught the sunset.


Mahrkale's mother and stepfather have a cabin in the woods that we stayed at. They have an awesome firepit and we spent a lot of time there with neighbors gathered.


Mahrkale's stepfather wears pink crocs around the cabin. Mannnn....


At night neighbors gathered from all around and drank beer and chatted around the fire.


Mahrkale got the hiccups and one of the neighbors was showing her how to cure them by drinking from the opposite lip of the cup.


Ray is one of the neighbors there who let us drive his ATV around the woods. He also showed us all the animal skins and taxidermy that he has in his house. He hunts just about everything, including coyote. He brought this skin over one day.


We went to his house and saw all the dead things he had around. Since his kids don't want them he's told Mahrkale she can have them when he passes.










The last day at the cabin was hot (by Michigan standards - I actually felt pretty fine). We spent time sitting with our feet in the creek that ran by the cabin. That's Mahrkale's mother in the green shirt.




We went back to their home in Kent City the night before we were supposed to fly out. Mahrkale's mother and stepfather have this huge 34 foot RV I decided to snap a few pics of in the dark.




I had a really fun time all together. But it's good to be back and in the swing of work! Even though we plunge straight into MFM this weekend! I have more opportunities to work at a convention, though.