Going, Going, Gone....

 

 
We fought the good fight to keep summer alive in these waning days before the academics begin again.  We burned up the last of our tickets at Bay Beach on Monday and I suspect it will be one of our last trips there as the kids are either getting too big or their expectations are for the rides.  We still hit a couple of the larger rides but after a couple of laps we head home, unlike the "old days" when we could spend three or four hours there with my fingers blistering from tearing off 25 cent tickets and them giggling on yet another variation of a circle ride.  But alas, Bay Beach gives way to new venues of entertainment.  We spent some time in Two Rivers at the Kite over Lake Michigan event.  It was way cool with massive kites some of which had to be greater than thirty feet across and multitudes of others that could have easily lifted me into the air and both kids.  There was also groups of performance kiters which sounds like an SNL skit until you see it and which point it is very impressive what these people can do given the unpredictability of the wind.  Amidst amateur kites costing several hundreds of dollars and exhibition kites of Jellyfish,  Koi and Dragons that had to be in excess of thousands of dollars, we flew our dollar kites and had a blast doing it.  Merrick's kite did break loose one time, but either fortunately or unfortunately there where so many other kites in the air that his string quickly entangled in the string of another kite and we were able to cut it free and get it airborne again.  Some time during the week, we stuffed cornish game hens with wild rice and Merrick buried his face wolf style into the grill fresh fowl.  He keeps telling me it is his new favorite meal--time will tell. At some point during the week it was decided that we need a formal dinner (I suspect Sophia was the impetus of this decidsion) so we all dressed up before dinner time and ate with out pinkies out--although Merrick and I did go with the Angus Young approach of ties and shorts.  We did hit the thrift sale circuit on Saturday morning, and while Sophia didn't find any treasures, Merrick had some coin burning a hole in his pocket.  At our first stop bought a 25 cent shelf and then a couple of stuffed animals at the next. As we went to get out of the car at the third stop he proclaimed that he wasn't going to spend any more money and that "actually I am going to pay off my debts and start saving my money."  With a balance sheet in order we headed out of another barefoot hike near the wildlife sanctuary.  The area is a great place for cross-country skiing in the winter which in reality makes it an even better place to hike during the summer.  We spent some time looking at habitat and pictures of garter snakes before we went out and were then able to find two of them with a woodchuck bonus.  Sunday afternoon was spent with Sophia learning how to make 5 gallons of red/beans and rice and rounded out the night with campfire and smores.  I seemed like a nice bookend for a great summer, ending much the same way that it had started.  I packaged the red/beans and rice up Monday morning and now have about 25 pounds of red/beans and rice to last all winter.  The garden was a bust, due to the drought, and after digging just a few potato mounds we decided we would leave the little ones for next years seed crop.  Sophia had a friend over for most of the afternoon and Merrick and I played baseball using the small green grape tomatoes from the garden as balls--it was a riot and now he smells vaguely like salsa verde!