On the Road to Michigan..............

We were invited to Michigan to the Ramage cabin to spend time with Scott and his family. When Scott and I were younger we use to travel as a family to Canada to our Uncles place. I have always wanted to return with my children some day. We have many fond memories of those days, fishing off the dock, the out house, the ice house,the dog taking the fish off our hooks as we caught the sunnies and I could go on and on. Well we arrived in Michigan and Scott met us at the small grocery store and we followed him back the lane to the cabin. It was very similar to Canada. The cabin belongs to Meghan's mom (Dorita) and her aunt (Dorita's sister). It was so kind of them to share their cabin with all of us and their family. We had many good meals and wonderful fellowship. By the time we left there was 21 people enjoying each others company and we all would enjoy dinner together nightly. Meghan's brother Rob is very into fishing, this was like a magnet to my son. Brandon got a fly fishing rod in town and Rob helped him learn to use it properly. As for town let me paint you this picture, you have a small grocery store, a Ace hardware with a gift shop in and a small general store in someones garage. That's it!!! Oh and they do have a library, bank and country club with golf course. It seemed Scott's favorite place to visit was the cemetery, he had to go to the cemetery to check his cell phone once in a while (or to twitter). Scott and Meghan's phone did not get service at the cabin, it was a dead zone for them. Back to the fishing, Brandon did not catch anything big enough to keep but he was happy just being able to fish and going out on the boat with Walt and Rob to fish. Rob has a cabin of his own on the lake, so his wife Pam and daughter Rhea shared their cabin with Rob's brother David and family(Terry and Hannah), then Robs two other children came up and joined us too (City and JD). The only 3 children missing were Drew, Kathy and Mallory. But Mallory was coming on Tuesday. David is a natural at jet skiing and water skiing so he was kind enough to take the kids out tubing. He had the speed boat to pull the tube. Brandon and Nicole have never been on a speed boat so that in itself was a new experience. Brandon debated about trying the water skiing but went with tubing instead. Neither of the kids would go first so they had Uncle Scott go then Nicole followed and Brandon. They both went around the lake 4 times on the tube and loved it. Brandon was going to try the jet ski too but on Monday he got a headache, sore throat and fever and didn't get a chance. Nicole did get a another chance at tubing on Monday and this time she fell off and learned it wasn't as easy to get back on in the middle of the lake, but she still loves it. The kids enjoyed fishing off the dock and swimming in the lake with their cousins (Tradd and Cooper). The one day a cat showed up and it seemed to have attached itself to Cooper. If Cooper was out it was following him, if he wasn't outside you didn't see the cat around. The family plays a card game called Nertz and taught us so we could join in. We all had a good time playing that in the evening. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable vacation! I know my children have many fond memories they made in Michigan and although it wasn't Canada there were lots of similarities. Thanks to the entire Ramage family for making us feel welcome and sharing their family and cabin with all of us!! Enjoy the next couple posts of the pictures from our trip.