Fake Life...

...where the calories don't count and someone else makes your bed.



Every once in a while, my Dear One and I need to get out of Dodge.

Sometimes it's as close as the Hampton Inn a mile from the house.  Other times we venture a bit further.

This past weekend we took our Fake Life, as we like to call our time away, in Grand Rapids.

A cousin was turning 50 so we went to join her celebration.

We asked if we could bring some party crashers and Jen agreed, so we picked up our son Michael and his best friend Zahraa and we all got to eat wings, pizza and dessert and enjoy the music of "Ryanhood".   They are a two man acoustic band.  I had never heard of them, but they were pretty good!


We left the party early to take a short road trip.

As my regular readers know, we vacation in Grand Haven every year.  Well, Grand Rapids is so close to Grand Haven that we couldn't not visit.  So we drove to the beach!  Just driving into the town makes my blood pressure drop.

It is so beautiful and peaceful.

We got there a little before 9 p.m. which happened to be enough time to park and walk to the beach to see the sunset.

I got a couple of terrible photos (faceless bodies and electrical wires and a pole) but it's enough to remind me that we were there.

The kids can take better ones when we return together. 

I'm not a corn dog fan, but the place the kids frequent, Pronto Pups, was doing booming business. I've never seen the line as long as it was Saturday evening.  My cousin (a different cousin than the birthday cousin) reported that her hubby stood in line for 1.5 hours waiting for corn dogs for the family.  According to those who would know, it's totally worth it. 

After the beach we hit IHOP.  It's a late night tradition Wayne and I have when we are doing Fake Life.  

We stayed at a nice hotel where the sheets and towels had been washed by someone else.  We slept in and ate a nice breakfast that we did not have to prepare and then went to Mass at the lovely Cathedral of  St. Andrew.

Internet Photo

We drove home enjoying quiet conversation, lunch prepared by someone else and I got a short nap in the vehicle. 

Fake Life ended rather abruptly. We walked in to a trashed kitchen and laundry that needed to be done. We forgot the all-important "heads up, we're on our way" phone call, but that's ok.   It was enough of a breather that I didn't even mind doing some dishes and letting Wayne cook me some supper. 

Next Fake Life coming up soon.  

Sibling Retreat

My three sisters, my brother John and his wife and I had quite a weekend.

While cleaning a few months ago, I came across a fifty-year-old photo of some of my siblings and me on the back of a stone turtle. The photo was taken in Grand Haven on a family vacation when I was 6.

That's me in the back. 

Since it's been 50 years, we decided it was time to take another photo.  

I contacted the family from whom we rent our summer vacation spot and they were able to tell us where to find the turtle.  They were also kind enough to let us rent the house for our weekend getaway. 

So we set a date and last weekend it was finally time to go do a reshoot. 

We had a blast taking the new photo.  Please note the white socks on John and Margaret. 😂

I'm not quite as limber as I used to be and so I'm just faking actually sitting on the turtle.  My big sister was able to get up there though.  Way to go, Terry.

Unfortunately, getting down posed a small problem. Laughing didn't help matters. 

No one was hurt in the process! 

We let Connie and Michele have a photo with Mr. Turtle, too. 

After the turtle photos were done, we headed back to the cottage were we had to have a stair photo. It's tradition. 

We walked on the beach, ate, baked cookies, ate, talked and laughed. 

We got to FaceTime with our brother Dave who lives in California and could not be with us. 

It was very relaxing and so much fun that we decided we need to do it again next year, this time with David along for the fun. 

A reporter name Becky from the Grand Haven Tribune has taken our information and plans to run an article in their paper-the same paper we were in the first time.  Our 15 minutes of fame, 50 years apart. 

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