NEW JERSEY - CHERRY HILL

Well I have had another great week in New Jersey with Sybil and her family. Mike very kindly picked me up late Monday night at the airport and I spent the next day sleeping in (to be honest I have done this everyday) so by the time Sybil and the girls got home from school I hadn't been up that long.

Actually that's not true - I got up mid morning. So definitely a sleep in but not all day.

Tuesday night Sybil usually goes to Zumba but this week decided to go out for dinner with some work friends. I was all fired up to do some exercise but who's going to refuse stuffed prawns and a peanut butter/chocolate dessert. In my defense, of the six full days I have been here I have gone for a run on four days. Once was at the gym while Sybil did a class and I ran for an impressive (if I might say so myself) 65 minutes on the treadmill.

Wednesday was a half day for Sybil so in the afternoon we did a bit of shopping which included looking at bench tops for her new island counter in the kitchen.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and we headed to Rumsden to Mike's sister's house. As well as Mike's side of the family I was also able to meet Sybil's sister and her family. It was a lovely day (with may too much food - although I did restrain myself and wasn't a complete pig) and it was great to feel so welcomed by a group of people who didn't know me from a bar of soap.

Or as my dear friend Karen says - from a can of paint.

Friday is called Black Friday here (can't actually recall why) and there are tons of sales like we have on Boxing Day (they don't have Boxing Day here - to them it's just the day after Christmas or December 26th). Some start at the ridiculous hour of 3am and people line up early to get the great deals. Last year someone was trampled to death in the rush to get inside the store. It's scary how crazy people get about sales. It's just material things, certainly not worth dying over. Everyone just needs to calm down.

We actually did go to one shop - Kohls, pronounced Coles - but at the decent hour of midday. I bought a few things which included two pairs of Lee jeans at the staggeringly cheap price of about $17 each. They are hugely expensive in Australia so it was a great buy. I then gave a pair of my older jeans to Sybil to go to Goodwill (like the Salvation Army op shop) so now I own three pairs of jeans. Not a lot to some people (Nicole!!!!!!!) but I don't think I have ever owned three pairs at once!

Naturally all that shopping needed to be rewarded with a trip to the movies. We went to see The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Bob and Fiona had raved about it after to going to a preview or premiere or something like that. It was so well done. The amount of work that goes into the stop/go method of filming is amazing!

Anyway the work on Sybil and Mike's ensuite/bathroom area is due to start in a few days so the bedroom closet (sorry - wardrobe) needed to be emptied. Mike had already done his part so Sybil and I started working on hers. As well as moving it out the plan was to go through it all and get rid of things. I was the one trying to get her to put as many clothes in the Goodwill bag as possible while she spent her time justifying why she should keep things. She was pretty good actually and ended up getting rid of about four bags of clothes and shoes. Considering she had clothes in there that she hadn't worn since 1996 (the drycleaning tag was proof of that), then four bags was actually a small taking. Why she needs about 10 pairs of black pants, 15 pairs of sweatpants (tracksuit pants) and about one thousand t-shirts and windcheaters I will never know. But apparently she does. And she has promised that once the work is all done and the clothes are going back in the new walk-in-robe that she will go through them all again to see if there is anything else that hit the dust.

Baby steps is the best way to go.

Plus I told her that they need to be in order of seasons, type of clothes and colours (in that order) so it all looks nice and neat (the OCD in me). She can also find what she wants much easier that way. Not too mention realise that she has more black pants than she really needs.

Apparently I am coming back to do that for her. Which suits me juuuuuust fine!

I am looking forward to it which is very sad I know. I really need to work on that show "Clean House." Anyone know someone in the t.v. industry that might want to start it up in Australia?

And employ me.

FLORIDA - JENSEN BEACH

After visiting Karen and Trev in Vermont, my next stop was Florida to see Lila who I am volunteered in China with in April at Starfish Foster Home. Karen drove me to the airport in Burlington (very much appreciated) and I was horrified to find out that my suitcase was 6 pounds overweight.

Sorry. I have to talk in that old fashioned term as that's was they use here.

Move with the times America, move with the times.

Anyhoo it was kind of scary considering I had left a case full of stuff in New York and basically all I had bought in Vermont was some wool and knitting needles. The man at the counter let me take some stuff out and put it in my carry on. I'm curious to know what this achieves. It's still going on the plane, it just means that I have to carry it. Oh well, it saved me $50 by taking a shopping bag with some shoes and clothes in it on board. But still, it seems kind of ridiculous.

So I made it to Florida and Lila met me at the airport and we drove to where she and her husband Harry live in Jensen Beach. This is actually their winter home. They are called "snow birds". People who spend half the year at home (which for them is Indiana) and then the other half - the cold half - in Florida. Originally they would drive down in their motorhome but now they have a permanent place right on the water in a park called Ocean Breeze. They have a little dog (and when I say little I mean tiny) called Bubba and a cat called TC. Which is short for The Cat. TC is a big cat (not fat, just big.......kind of tall actually which is an odd term to use for a cat) and Bubba doesn't actually realise that he is a dog.

Of course that could be because his Mum and Dad (aka Lila and Harry) treat him like their baby. I tried to get a photo of TC and Bubba together so you could see the size difference but for some reason they wouldn't sit still for the photo when I asked them to.

Bubba gets three - yes you read that correctly, three - walks a day and everyone in the park knows who he is. He has this funny way of going to the bathroom where he walks on his front two paws and this is what he is known for.

I had a great time relaxing in Florida. Harry kept telling Lila she was a bad host and should be taking me out sightseeing. But I was there to see Lila and with all the talking we did, we didn't have time for sightseeing. Naturally we spent hours talking about Starfish and the babies and we both agreed that it was so much better to talk to someone who was there. Don't get me wrong, everyone is interested when I tell them about it. But Lila just gets it in a way that no-one else can.

While we did spend quite a bit of time on the couch talking and watching t.v. (I am completely into a show called "Clean House" where a team de-clutters and then decorates peoples houses - I am totally amazed at the amount of absolute crap people keep in their houses and would soooooo love to be on that show) we did go for walks, go out for dinner and went to the movies twice. Harry's not keen on the movies so Lila was glad to have someone to go with and the first one was "The Blind Side." It's a true story starring Sandra Bullock and was great - I definitely recommend it. The second time there wasn't a lot on that we wanted to see so we went to "Men Who Stare At Goats."

Wait until it comes out on dvd.

Actually don't pay for it. Wait until it is on t.v.

So I had a wonderful time visiting Lila and Harry who, like everyone I have stayed with, completely spoilt me. I'm not sure how I'm going to cope going back to normal life when I get home.

Although who am I kidding? I'll be living with my Mum. And who spoils me more than her?

NEW HAMPSHIRE - PORTSMOUTH

We left Darcey and Tony's house the next morning about 9.30 (although Bea did her best to get us out of bed at about 6am by running into the room and thumping her tail against the pillows) so that we had time to stop off in New Hampshire on the way back to Vermont. Darcey had recommended Portsmouth and what a gorgeous town it is.

It was a lovely sunny day (although still cold), with beautiful old historic buildings (or reproductions) and lots of lovely shops.

Apart from lunch and a latte from Starbucks (a really nice Christmas one - something like a white chocolate peppermint mocha), I didn't buy anything.

Maybe my retail therapy/shopping spree is over.

Maybe it's a sign.

Maybe Nicola was just a bad influence on me.

Either way, I'm saving money. Well not really saving, just not spending.

MAINE - BOWDOINHAM

While I was in Vermont I had organized to visit Darcey (camp’s cook), Tony (her hubby) and Oliver (their little boy) in Maine. They live in a town with the funny name of Bowdoinham which is actually pronounced Bow-(like a bow tie) din-hm.

Or something like that.

Karen and I drove up on Monday and met Darcey as she was just about to take her puppy Bea out for a walk. Darcey and Tony got Bea towards the end of camp and while she is still a puppy she has changed so much in the last few months.
It almost looks like they have traded her in for another dog.
At two and a half Oliver is talking his head off now - not that I really understand everything that he is saying but he sure is talking a lot. So I just did what I do with Liam and nod a lot and say “Really? Wow that sounds great.”
So we caught up with everything that had been happening since camp, talked about camp and then drove to a cute little town called Freeport. This is where Tony and Darcey work - at a restaurant in a hotel. Before we had dinner we walked around and looked in some shops and Karen was soooooo excited to find they had an English shop. She bought up big in chocolate and lollies from England - they even had real Cadbury chocolate (I must admit that I bought a few things too). You can buy Cadbury in America but it’s not real. It’s made by Hersheys and their chocolate is yuck! So if you happen to be in the States and have a hankering for a block of that good old “glass and a half” and find it in the supermarket, check the back to see where it is made before you buy it. Or you will be very disappointed.
We had dinner at the restaurant (whose name escapes me - strange saying that one, when you actually think about it) and I ordered ribs with corn bread. The ribs were huge and also came with beans and coleslaw. Talk about super size me! Needless to say I couldn’t get through it all.
But unfortunately, I gave it a darn good try.

VERMONT - MIDDLEBURY

On the weekend we actually got out of our p.j’s and drove to Middlebury to have brunch with Chris. He was another counsellor at camp (I stayed at his house with Amy and Holly when we went to Boston) and is in his first year of college.
Middlebury College is a beautiful campus with lovely old buildings and feels completely New England. We looked at Chris’s dorm room and it’s just like the movies!
We ate in the college cafeteria and had bacon, eggs and French toast.
I will stop eating so much soon. I was doing really well on the trip with Nic and then I went to New York and ate Anzacs and then Karen made truffles………………..
Anyway it was great to catch up with Chris - he is so excited about being at college. There is so much food in the cafeteria and it’s all included in the price. Apparently there is something called the Freshman 15. The first year girls kind of go all out with the food and put 15 pounds on. I can understand why. It’s kind of like camp. If I ever go back I will make sure I moderate what I eat as well as fit in more exercise.
Although in camps defence my good work started to come undone in China.
And then there were all those waffles in Holland.

VERMONT - PITTSFORD

It was kind of strange being back in Vermont, especially now that all the leaves have fallen from the trees. I stayed in the camp house in Pittsford where Karen and Trevor (camp friends - Karen was in cabin one with Tim and I) are living and we went to have a look at camp after I dropped the car off.
It was really bizarre. Most of the trees are deciduous so the place seemed completely bare. Driving down the lane you can see the main house and cabins through the trees. In summer you have to toot the horn because you can’t see people coming the other way. You could even see the pond when you were standing in the middle of the row (I realize that will make no sense to anyone unless they have been to camp). We walked around and the whole place had an eerie feeling to it. It was like a town that the plague had gone through where everyone had either died or just got up and walked out leaving the place completely deserted.
I must say that Karen and I did a bit of sleeping in.
And watching t.v. in our p.j.’s all morning. She has a list of shows she watches and I’ve decided that she’s slightly addicted to reality t.v. Trevor kind of is too. In fairness to her shes waiting on her green card to come though before she can work so she has a lot of time on her hands. But we did do a few projects. Karen is knitting and that inspired me, so we went and bought wool and needles. We also framed a flower from her wedding bouquet that she had pressed. Since moving into the house Karen has gone a bit OCD in the cleaning department - not that it didn’t need it! So we cleaned the oven and also under the sink which was really manky (or minging as Karen says being from Northern Ireland). The drain for the sink had a bucket under it to catch drips from where it was leaking and that had overflowed and was really revolting. So I decided to do a bit of diy and found that it just wasn’t connected up properly. Problem solved!
Maybe I should be a plumber when I get home?

NEW YORK - GREENWICH VILLAGE

I caught the Bolt Bus back to New York and luckily for me they let me take two big bags on.
Actually it was more a matter of, I don’t think they noticed, rather than they let me. But anyway.
As you may have remembered by reading the posts of my trip with Nicola, I accumulated a lot of things on this road trip. I may have only been able to fly out of Australia with one bag weighing 20kg but I can fly home with two, each weighing 23kg.
Thank goodness. Because boy will I need it.
Sybil had a duffel type bag that she didn’t want which has saved me buying one and this is now sitting in Fiona and Bob’s living room filled with summer clothes, my sleeping bag and all the presents I have bought.
So what did I do for the week I spent in New York this time?
Well as some of you may know I was going to a pot luck dinner at Hugh Jackman and Debbora-lee Furness’s house. But then Fiona found out it was just for the parents on the committee at school for adopted children (Kiki goes to the same one as their daughter), so I couldn’t go. But I made some Anzacs for them to take. I have to say I’m a bit embarrassed about them as the first batch didn’t turn out so great but I didn’t have time to make any more before the dinner so those ones had to do. I have since made more which turned out perfectly. I needed to use up the golden syrup. I mean what is Fiona going to do with it? It’s not a common ingredient there and she had to order it in for me. Actually she ended up with two tins as the first one didn’t turn up in time so she went to the English shop and got some.
Even though I didn’t get to go to the dinner I did get to meet Debborah-lee and have a chat one day when we picked up Kiki from school. Her Mum lives in Mt. Eliza (small world and all that). It would be great to talk more to her about her foundation called Orphan Angels. She wants to get changes made in Australia when it comes to international adoption (plus other areas of children in need) which we are badly in need of. In 2008 there were only 270 children adopted internationally. That’s appalling considering there is approximately 143 million orphans worldwide. The 16th - 22nd November is National Adoption Awareness Week in Australia. Debborah-lee started it last year and it’s a fantastic way to have a voice about adoption. Have a look at this site. You may not be interested in adopting but you can still be informed and educated about it. Some of the statistics are mind blowing if not completely horrifying.
www.adoptionawarenessweek.com.au

What else did I do? Well it was a week of sleeping in. Naturally. I also convinced Fiona to buy a microwave (I tried last visit but she wasn’t up for it but it was great for popcorn the night I babysat Kiki) and while we were at the shop suggested a new phone as the old one has seen better days. Ended up being a good thing as the new one doesn’t make the internet drop out when you use it. Plus it has two handsets, so when the phone rings they have a much better chance of actually being able to answer it because surely both won’t be missing. Then again……………….. if she put it back in the cradle instead of leaving it lying on the table (where it gets buried under stuff) then it wouldn’t be a problem. Plus it would always be charged.
Fiona’s response? “Why would I put it back in the cradle? It’s much better on the table. That way I don’t have to walk to the other side of the room if I want to use it.”
Right.
Who would want to walk all that way? I mean a whole six steps. That’s just absurd..
I also went out to lunch a few times. On the last day, as well as Fiona and Bob, I met with Carol and Alla from Half The Sky. That’s the organization I went to China with in 2007. Carol was organizing the volunteer’s back then and it was great to catch up with her again and Alla I had never met before. But a great thing that I found out was that Half The Sky is getting registered in Australia!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!
So the week went really quickly as always and before I knew it I was back on the Bolt Bus to New Jersey to spend the night with Sybil again before driving to Vermont the next day.

NEW JERSEY - CHERRY HILL

Nicola and I finished our road trip with 6600 miles on the clock. Pretty darn good huh?
Well we thought so.
Mike (Sybil’s husband) drove with me to the airport to drop Nic off for her flight to L.A. and on the way back we stopped by the high school he used to teach at (he’s retired), to show me around. It was very American. Naturally. They’re so different to our schools, the main thing being that all the rooms are essentially in one big building or are at the very least, connected by walkways. I guess the main reason is the weather. Can you imagine walking outside each time you went to a different class, like we usually do, and having to trudge through piles of snow in winter?
No. Me either.
They also had the cafeteria, gym and individual seats with a desk attached to them. Just like they do on tv. See, not everything you watch on tv is made up.
The other thing that is really different is the actual school system. They basically study everything (with a few electives) all the way through high school whereas we choose subjects based on what we want to study at university. I’m in two minds about this system. The teenager in me is horrified to imagine having to do geography and history (not to mention P.E - or gym as they call it) through to Year 12. But the grown up in me thinks it’s a great idea as it keeps your options open and you don’t feel forced to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life in Year 9 like we do.
Their college/university is set up differently also. Your first two years are spent trying all different types of subjects and then you decide what you want to major in. It’s great as it allows you to get a taste of a variety of different subjects and then decide what you want to get a degree in. Apparently one of the major universities in Melbourne are changing over to the U.S. system. It will be interesting to see how it goes.
So while I think there are many areas that the U.S. are behind in (let’s move to the metric system people, for crying out loud) I think their university system sounds a lot better than ours.
Apart from the cost of course. No HECS system here.

I didn't have my camera with me to take a photo of the school so here's one of Sybil's dogs. Molly is on the left and she has different coloured eyes. Buddy is on the right and has "issues".

NEW JERSEY - CHERRY HILL

We made it to Cherry Hill (I keep mistyping that and writing Cheery Hill) in time to beautify ourselves. I had called ahead the day before and was told I didn't need an appointment for the hairdresser - just walk on in.

I am intrigued by that way of running a business. How do you know how many staff to have on?

I had also phoned to make an appointment for Nicola to have her legs waxed. This is kind of how the phone call went.

"Herro"

"Hi. Is this the Bees Knees Salon?"

"Who dis?"

"Ummm. Tracey."

"What u want?"

"I was just wondering if I could make an appointment tomorrow for a half leg wax?"

"Ok. But I need to see legs before I tell you how much it cost."

"Ok."

"What else you want?"

"Nothing, thanks. Just the leg wax."

"Ok. But I need to see legs before I tell you how much it cost."

"That's fine. But I can make an appointment for 2 o'clock."

"2 o'clock fine. But I need to see legs before I tell you how much it cost."

"Ummm. Yep that's no problem. See you tomorrow."

Anyhoo..............

I was able to walk into the hairdresser and pretty much get helped straight away. I was sitting there in the chair when Nic came in to say that she wasn't getting her legs done. Apparently it was going to cost $65!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For a half leg wax!

Nic has really fair hair and as far as I'm concerned, not that much of it. So $65 seemed outrageous. It's not like she had really thick, dark hair! At home it is a set price for a leg wax and for a half one it is usually less than $20. I have since checked at a place in New York - expecting it to be more because it's New York - and found it was $35. So how this lady got to $65 blows my mind.

So we went to Target and bought some pre-waxed strips for about $7 and I waxed her legs at about midnight, after we had finished packing.

Luckily my hair was done fairly quickly and I felt v glamorous. A cut, foils and blow dry can do wonders for your self esteem.

We then drove to Sybil's house and stayed the night with them. A lot of which was spent washing and packing.

Not to mention ripping the hair out of Nicola's legs!

OHIO - BERLIN

Our last full day of sightseeing was spent in Ohio. We really wanted to go to an Amish area and so we visited Berlin and Millersburg in Holmes County.

We were looking for a particular restaurant that we had read about in the LPG but couldn't find it. We stopped at a kind of general store (where Nic tried her first corn dog which are hotdogs in corn bread, I love corn bread, corn muffins, corn dogs......) and then went for a bit of a drive looking for the Amish and Mennonite Museum that the LPG had also mentioned. We ended up stumbling across it by accident.

The tour was given to us by a volunteer at the Museum whose named was Krist (not sure how that is spelt so have just gone with the phonetic version) and started with a 15 minute video talking about the Amish and Mennonites and the different orders there are. Like old order Amish, new order Amish etc. which basically differentiated how strict they were. We then went into a round room that had a cyclorama painted in it. It took the artist 16 years to complete and is extremely detailed. It tells the story of the Amish and Mennonite history and Krist walked us through it, explaining as he went.

After the cyclorama we went through a typical Amish school house and a barn. The school house is old and had been relocated to the museum grounds. The barn was new but was built in the traditional Amish way. Completely of wood. There are no nails but it is built in a way similar to how furniture used to be, using dowels where nails, bolts or screws would normally be (they were called something else but a dowel is what they are similar to).

We also got a look at a buggy and the roads in the area even have a buggy lane similar to our bike lanes. Nic and I were the only ones on the tour so we got to talk to Krist about a lot of things. He had as many questions for us as we had for him.

A few interesting facts we learnt -

The language spoken at home is German and most Amish children don't learn English until they go to school.

Amish children finish school at grade 8 - the focus of the Amish way of life being agriculture - whereas Mennonite children often go to University.

Being Amish is a way of life not a religion - the Amish are Christians.

We learnt a lot more but they are the facts that I remember correctly.

Our plan for the rest of the day (well it was 4pm when we left so not much of the day was actually left) was to drive until we were tired and then find somewhere to sleep. In the morning we would drive the last few hours to get back to Sybil's house in New Jersey for our last night together before Nic flew to L.A.

So anyway, early in our trip Nic asked why we didn't just drive at the end of each day and stop when we got tired. I explained that I prefer to have a night or two booked ahead of time. This way we know we have someone to stay, we know what we are paying and it keeps us on track time wise in the scheme of the whole trip. Nic found this a bit stressful but as I tended to do the searching and booking of the places she agreed to do it that way. Anyway on this last night in a motel I agreed that we should just drive until we felt tired and look for somewhere but that she had to be the one to find the place and sort out prices.

She agreed. The pressure was on.

And I think there came a time where she started to feel the pressure. The thing is we normally see heaps of signs on the side of the freeways for places to stay. Absolutely heaps of them. This time when we started to feel like we were ready to stop, there was nothing.

Paul rang to say hi to her and she asked him to call back in half an hour because - although we thought we would have been at a hotel by that time - we hadn't found anywhere.

So Paul called back later.

We were still driving. Still looking.

Eventually, much to Nicola's relief, not to mention mine, we saw a sign for an exit that had accommodation. It wasn't until later we found out that the reason there wasn't sign after sign of motels and the fact that it was pitch dark outside with no lights to be seen, was because we had been driving through a huge mountain range. And when I say huge, I mean one big enough that it runs all the way up into Canada.

Nic's plan was that she would go to the first one we found and be happy with whatever it was. (One of the reasons I didn't want to travel so randomly was because I didn't want to have to drive to a bunch of motels each night before we found something suitable). The first one was called Motel 6. Not a very promising name but we had stayed at one called Super 8 which had turned out to be fine, so we couldn't base it on a name. She waited in reception and then waited some more but no-one came. So she decided to go next door to the Best Western and if that didn't work out we were coming back to the Motel 6.

No going from motel to motel for us - thank goodness.

Luckily for Nicola the person on the desk not only gave us a discount for having AAA (kind of like RAVC), she also found a coupon for us. She told her she would rather give us a cheaper price than have us go back to the other one as there were often police and drug dealers up there.

Apparently.

Needless to say Nic was pretty happy with herself.

Me? I was just happy we hadn't done it this way every night.

MICHIGAN - ANN ARBOR

Ann Arbor is a lovely town in Michigan and we were lucky to stay with Carmel who is the sister of Alyson that Nicola and I went to High School with.

We drove up just as Carmel and a friend were getting back from a walk which was perfect timing. We then drove to one of the beautiful local parks - Carmels favorite - and went for a walk. Rather a brisk one actually which was fine although later I realised that maybe I would have been better to change out of my knee high boots. They are not really that hard to walk in but later on the whole front of my lower legs were hurting so I guess I used completely different legs muscles than in my other shoes.

Carmel works at the University of Michigan and she took us there and we drove or walked around part of the campus. There are some beautiful old buildings as well as a new one for the School of Business which cost something like 150 million dollars.

We came back and checked a few emails and made a few Skype calls before we headed out to a local restaurant that is a favorite of Carmels. It was great to go out and eat in a proper restaurant for dinner - something we haven't done much of. We then spent the rest of the night relaxing and sitting in Carmels cosy basement with a fire going.

MICHIGAN - DETROIT

Our next stop in Michigan was Ann Arbor to stay the night with a fellow Aussie, Carmel (who is the sister of Alyson that Nic and I went to High School with).

We did take a little detour via Detroit though (an out of the way detour really) as we had read in the LPG about a street that was all decorated in polka dots. It was the idea of a resident to try and brighten the neighbourhood and it seems to have become a well visited street because of this. As well as the polka dots there is lot of......................stuff.

The photos explain everything really.

MICHIGAN - HAMILTON

When I was volunteering in China earlier this year I met the son of one of the other volunteers. He was in China for work and decided to visit his Mum at the same time. Not long after he went back home to the U.S. I received a lovely email from his wife inviting me to stay with them if I happened to be in Michigan at some stage.

So that's where Nic I and I went next - to Hamilton, Michigan to stay with David and Amy, their four wonderful children - Austin, Hailey, Andrew and Hannah and their exchange student Minnie. Add three dogs, two cats, a rooster and a bunch of chickens (not to mention Nicola and I) and it was one busy household.

But how enormously welcoming they were. Nicola was a complete stranger to them and I had only met David but they took us in (sounds a bit like we were strays doesn't it) and made us feel completely at home. Hannah gave us her bedroom, Amy fed us so much wonderful food (including a cooked breakfast both mornings), you get the picture.........basically we were spoilt.

The first night we relaxed and watched a movie with the younger kids (Dave and Amy had a meeting and Austin and Hailey had to play in the band at a football match) and it was just what we needed after so many busy days.

We slept in the next morning and after pancakes (with a choice of plain, chocolate chip, peanut butter or cinnamon) we drove to the nearby town of Douglas. There were lots of lovely shops there (didn't do too much damage to the credit card) and we had lunch at The Wild Boar - which included Bison soup!!!!!

After Douglas we went to Saugatuk (which is where we were originally going but didn't quite find it straight away) which was just as lovely and had even more shops. There was also a Halloween parade for the kids which was fun to see.

When we got back we went for a run before dinner. It was so cold and I don't think I warmed up until near the end. But still, I was impressed we did it.

We then had a pizza and movie night (which included chocolate/candy of course) and afterwards had fun taking silly photos and videos and singing.

The next morning was Sunday and although we didn't have time to stay for the whole thing we went along to church for the first hour. David had asked us if we would sing a couple of songs for the senior and junior Sunday school class. After the welcome they had given us, it was the least we could do.

Although I have to say, I know who got the better deal!