a few from labor day weekend

I hope everyone had a great three day weekend! As you know, I had my first camping experience this weekend to celebrate the holiday and it really was a lot of fun. It was different than what I was expecting but for the most part we were completely prepared and weren't going "ohhh, I wish I had brought that" which is very good.

On Saturday, our first day, we spent almost the entire day just out on the lake. We had a little bit of trouble as the plastic oars from my parents old little raft had all cracked and failed on us while out in the water. There was a general store with a restaurant on site so luckily they had one oar to purchase. We used that and it was a bit better but still it was a little difficult to get around on the small raft. Brett gave it his all fishing off the boat and caught three fish! They weren't that big but we still brought them back to BBQ and eat with our dinner.

Sunday we drove out to Columbia where they have kept the town and have shops and business's open as if it were 1850. These towns were developed when the rush for gold started and everyone came out west to strike it rich! I had been there once on a school trip and I have wanted to go back and see it again for awhile. There is a stagecoach tour that you can take, visit any of the old general stores, ice cream parlor, blacksmith, bar's and saloons and of course panning for gold. It is definitely worth a visit if you are ever in California and interested.

X x

have you ever been through Indiana?

Wow, what a whirlwind of a trip! I don't even know where to start. I am still trying to get back into the swing of things, but having last Wednesday off for the 4th has thrown me all off again. It feels good to work on these blogs and get all my pictures onto my laptop and settle back at home.

Our trip to Indiana & Chicago was so much fun! Unfortunately we had a horrible experience trying to get to Chicago. Our flight was supposed to leave on Thursday night, which would put us into Chicago around 1 in the morning on Friday. To cut the long story short because I don't want to bore you, the runway lights went out in Midway so they cancelled our flight.  We quickly booked the next flight we could find which was Friday morning. This flight was going into O'Hare this time. Right as we board the flight, the captain tells us there are thunderstorms in Chicago and our flight was delayed a few hours. So almost 48 hours later from our start time, we made it to Indiana! Which cut our time in Indiana down by a lot and we basically had just a few hours on Saturday before the wedding. Luckily Brett's uncle let us borrow his truck and we were able to do our own thing and get ourselves around as we needed.

We got up as early as we could on Saturday morning and went to find my favorite spot... Dunkin Donuts! I can't believe they have them everywhere but California. After that Brett took me out to Michigan Lake and the sand dunes to see their version of a "beach." It much nicer than I imagined; but it was so strange to not see big waves and not feel an ocean breeze. The weather was really hot - 90's with lots of humidity! After putting our toes in the water we had to hustle back to our hotel room and get ready for the wedding.

It was a really beautiful church wedding with the reception followed in a banquet hall. The bride {Brett's cousin} looked absolutely stunning as well as all the bridal party. It was such a different experience but I was so lucky to be able to celebrate and meet more of Brett's huge family. We danced away into the night until our feet could barley keep us up and then we made it back to our hotel.
The next morning we had to get up early to return his Uncle's truck and catch the 9.30am train into Chicago but more on that to come :]

X x