Au Gres, Michigan

Our last few days in Michigan were spent in Au Gres. This town is primarily a vacation spot for spending time on Lake Huron. My grandma lives there and my parents rented a lake house for a few nights. Being right on the lake was amazing and the house was well-equipped. It had a fire pit that we enjoyed two of the nights.

The memorial service was held on Sunday, September 18. I was not very close to my grandfather, so I was not sure how I would feel at the service. But it was a very emotional few hours. He served in WWII and they had a presentation of the flag to my grandmother. I started bawling (my version) during this part.

After the service, we went to my Aunt Maria's house and took a few photos. (The cousins picture is missing my cousins from my Dad's two older sisters.) It was good to spend time with family. We never lived in Michigan when I was growing up and we did not have the chance to spend a lot of time with them throughout my childhood.

Dearborn, Michigan

For the next day of our Michigan trip we were in the Detroit/Dearborn area. My cousin's wedding was that evening. My parents suggested we visit Greenfield Village and/or the Henry Ford Museum. We ended up just having time for Greenfield Village. The place is HUGE! It's filled with tons of historic buildings like Edison's lab, Robert Frost's house, the Wright Brother's bicycle shop and so much more. This was my favorite part of our Michigan trip. They also have an amazing military discount. Charles got in for free!

Enjoying a post-lunch treat--Buckeye!

We closed out the evening celebrating my cousin's marriage. I saw some of my cousins that I haven't seen in at least 15-20 years. Everyone is so grown up now.

The Holy City: Fort Sumter

Did you know that Charleston, South Carolina is this year's World's Best City (according to Travel + Leisure)? My home town of Mount Pleasant is adjacent to Charleston. This July my parents rented a beach house and we all went down for a visit.

View from the beach house balcony

I was craving humidity (yes, you read that correctly) and the beautiful views of palm trees, beach and marsh. This trip satisfied all those cravings and more.

On our first full day, we visited Fort Sumter. Even though I grew up in the area I had never visited this historic site. The boat ride out to the Fort was lovely and educational.

View while waiting to board the boat

The first thing we saw after stepping foot inside for the tour was a rifle musket demonstration. I really enjoyed this. I had just read a book that took place during the Civil War and talked a lot about firing rifle muskets. (The book is called I Shall Be Near You and I HIGHLY recommend reading it).

The USS Yorktown. We didn't visit it on this trip, but maybe next time

Charleston skyline

The rifle musket demo. I'm glad I don't have to wear that uniform on a hot summer day in Charleston

 

After the tour and boat ride back, we visited Jack's Cosmic Dogs for lunch. This is a Mount Pleasant/Charleston institution and, again, another place I've never patronized. My chili dog was yum, yum, yum! And the atmosphere is fun with a vintage flair.

Travel: Drive-thru daiquiri?

My parents have been living in northern Louisiana for about a year now. I finally had a chance to visit in April. I was a little bummed because the weather forecast called for rain pretty much the whole time I was visiting, but I was lucky and we had some gorgeous, Southern spring weather for the majority of my time there. I love being in the South in April. It is, in my opinion, one of the best times to visit. I would prefer South Carolina, but Louisiana was fine, too.

While driving around antiquing, we noticed some drive-thru daiquiri places. My sister and I thought that was kind of strange, but we also wanted to try it. We waited until our youngest sister came into town and the whole family piled in the car after a yummy birthday dinner for my Dad.

We visited Cajun Daiquiris. Everyone, except my mom, ordered one. I tried the passion fruit daiquiri. Despite being filled with artificial colors, something I normally avoid like the plague, it was pretty delicious.

Almond Poppy Seed Bread

When I was growing up, I don't remember my parents hosting a lot of parties or attending a lot of things. Occasionally my mom would host or attend an event and would make Almond Poppy Seed Bread. I am sure she made it other times, but I always associate this recipe with parties. It is the most delicious bread on the face of the planet. If you do not agree, then you are just wrong. ;)

I have made it a few times thanks to the family cookbook my mom put together and gifted to me. Each time everyone says how amazing it is. Of course!

Today I hosted a spouse get-together. It wasn't well attended which was a bummer. But I made my bread and the three people that came all said it was delicious. The spouse event was a Potluck and Recipe Swap so I made a cute recipe card for everyone to take home. I figured it would be nice to share with all of you, too!

Frisco Bay

Despite living so close to San Francisco, we have not been since moving here...until last weekend. Unfortunately, our reason for visiting was Charles' grandmother's funeral service. While the reason for going down was sad, it was a good time to see Charles' extended family.

While in town, we ate a ton of good food and took in the sites. We saw some of the same things we did last time. The weather was gorgeous which made for good walking weather.

Before heading back home, we stopped and checked out the Beat Museum. This museum highlighted the Beatnik generation; I knew absolutely nothing about this subject beforehand and thought it would be a neat way to learn a thing or two.

The church of Charles' grandma

At the Cable Car Museum

Sister Visit

This week my sister, Delaney, came out to visit. It was nice to see her and to have our first house guest. She flew into the bay area to spend a couple of days with a friend and then I met up with them in Napa. It sounds so fancy to meet someone in Napa, but I was a little disappointed in the part of Napa I saw. There was a lot of road construction and even more traffic. Ugh! I will have to give it another try.

Since Napa is so expensive, we actually stayed the night in Vacaville which was about 30 minutes outside of Napa. We checked out their outlet mall, which was a let-down and had some dinner.

The next day we grabbed breakfast at a local spot, Joe's Creekside Cafe. Afterward, we visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA. You can tour the factory and get samples of jelly beans. They also had a wine and chocolate tasting that we participated in. Yummy!

Jelly Belly artwork

Our options for the tasting

The winner

The next day we spent time in Roseville for lunch and pottery painting. We also walked around the mall.

Our pieces

And yesterday we were planning on hiking. Right before we were about to leave the power went off expectantly. Therefore, I could not open the garage door to leave. We thought about walking down to another trail but the only way out was blocked by a couple firetrucks and police cars. I guess there was a fire. On the way back, we realized there is a fruit tree in a yard down the street and saw a deer napping in a flower bed. We came back to the house and played Monopoly until the power came back on. Then we drove up to Grass Valley for manicures and a snack. I went with a fun bold hot pink on my nails...perfect for summer!

Now I'm ready for more visitors!

Christmas Traditions

The holidays are full of traditions. I thought I would share a few of mine...

- Decorate... I don't know if this really counts as a tradition since most people do it. But you cannot have the Christmas holiday without decorations. Some of my favorite decorations are my two German houses. I grew up with these types of houses from when we lived in Germany. My mom's collection seemed to grow each time my Dad went to Germany on a business trip. Then a couple years ago when my brother-in-law lived in Germany, he gave me one of the houses. It was the best ever!

- Christmas breakfast... growing up it was either sticky buns or coffee cake. And then at some point we added quiche. When Charles and I got married, our Christmas breakfast tradition became chocolate french toast. Yum, yum, yum! And when we visit my in-laws, we enjoy waffles!

- Christmas pajamas... I don't remember when this started, but it was one year when I was a kid. We begged my parents every year to let us open a present on Christmas Eve. Thus the Christmas pajamas started. The nice thing about that is you have new pajamas to wear on Christmas morning.

My 2012 Christmas pajamas...I love the sheep!

- Christmas Eve service... I love the Christmas Eve service at my parents' church. The church is large and they have the traditional choir and orchestra. Normally that is not my cup of tea at church, but on Christmas Eve nothing is better. They always pass out candles that we light towards the end of the service. The lights in the sanctuary are turned down and everything is illuminated by the individual candles. It is kind of magical.

- Watching movies... we would usually get a movie for Christmas. After all the presents were opened and the wrapping paper mounds disposed of we sit around and watch one of the new movies we received. It's a nice way to spend time together on Christmas and enjoy your new presents.

I just love Christmas! There are so many fun traditions that families can have this time of year.

Home is where...

Almost 100% of the time I would say home is wherever my husband is. The only exception is when I'm in Charleston.

I had the chance to visit this past weekend and soaked up every minute. I ate really good food, saw a few people, and spent time with my family. It was much needed.

Here are some of the highlights (and recommendations if you are in the area):

Sesame Burgers and Beer: they have really unusual, but delicious, toppings for burgers. The first time I ate there I had peanut butter, banana and bacon (the Memphis) on my burger. Delicious! This time I got 3 sliders--Memphis, chili and cheese (Colorado) and Hawaiian. Yummy!

Boulevard Diner: Great local spot. I enjoyed the Carolina Club which is your basic club sandwich, but it has pecan mayo. They also have some of the best desserts. I had a hard time deciding but went with the banana chocolate chip cake with peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Amazing!

Waterfront Park: Waterfront Park in downtown Charleston is always a great place to visit, but this time I took my sister to Mt. Pleasant's version. We went right around sunset and the weather was perfect. It was nice to walk down the pier, see people fishing and swinging and to take a few pictures.

 

The Market: This is a must anytime you're in town. I haven't been since they remodeled and now there is a section with air conditioning! I'm glad they didn't make the whole Market that way. I think it would take away from the experience.

Charleston Riverdogs: I've been going to Riverdogs games for years (since their old stadium--which caused a small debate with my Dad about if they were the Riverdogs at their old park). It's always fun and the "new" park is right off the marsh with a gorgeous view. They lost, but we had great seats and enjoyed fireworks afterward.

Frisco Bay

Charles and I recently returned from a trip to San Francisco, CA. The circumstances of our trip were not ideal, but the trip was a good opportunity to meet new people and see new things. The reason for going was that Charles' grandfather passed away, so we went to his memorial service. But I was able to meet all of Charles' aunts and uncles on his Dad's side (13 in all), his grandmother, and a few other people.

We saw a lot of neat things and decided again that we do not like big cities. Too many people! But it was fun seeing all the San Francisco landmarks (and learning about a few that I had never heard of before). Here are some pictures from our trip:

Cable Car Museum

Alcatraz in the background

Musee Mecanique (reminds me of the Princess Diaries and basically the main reason I wanted to find this game in the museum)

Pier 39 sea lions

Golden Gate Bridge (north side)

Samuel P. Taylor State Park (Redwoods)

Marin French Cheese (The Cheese Factory)

House boats