Sarah and Matt's Wedding and Reception

Saturday, the day of Sarah's wedding, we met Joe and Ashley downtown and had a nice brunch at the Twisted Olive. After knocking around Petoskey a while for some last minute shopping we all headed back to our respective hotels to get ready for the 4 p.m. wedding.

The Detroit and Dewitt Stocks traveled to the wedding in the humble Subaru, but Adam joined Graham Austin in the Holiday Inn's limousine for the trip to the Crouse Chapel (in the Bayview Association area).

 

Matt and Sarah's wedding was the first ever non-member wedding in the chapel. Wally must have been very persuasive! The chapel was a comparatively modest structure with lovely stained glass windows. 

The wedding party lingered outside the chapel for a casual reception line. Joe got a special hug for being a reader in the wedding. He read aloud the "Apache Wedding Prayer," a poetic fiction created for the movie Broken Arrow:

"Now you will feel no storms, for each of you will be shelter to the other. Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other. Now there is no loneliness, for each of you is companion to the other, You are two persons, but there is one life before you, and one home. Turn together to look at the road you traveled, to reach this---the hour of your happiness. It stretches behind you into the past. Look to the future that lies ahead. A long and winding, adventure-filled road, whose every turn means discovery, new hopes, new joys, new laughter, and a few shared tears. May happiness be your companion, May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead; And through all the years to come. Go this day to your dwelling place and enter into your days together. May your days be good and long upon the earth. Your adventure has just begun."

The reception was only a few miles from the chapel by car, but in a different universe aesthetically. As opposed to the quaint simplicity of the chapel, Bay Harbor is like Disneyworld for the wealthy.

The lake view in front of the Inn was world class, and as they say in the tourism ads, pure Michigan.

Sarah did a great job of getting around to visit folks at the wedding--always a challenge for the couple. Of course, Adam and Joe are easy to visit.

Once the dancing started, Ken and I stayed for a while but finally left Adam to enjoy the company of people his own age and went back to the hotel. He caught the limo for the ride back once the party broke up.

The next day the groom's family hosted a brunch at the Inn. This is done more and more when the wedding is far from home for many of the guests, and that was certainly the case here. Many visitors had traveled from England, and some from South Africa.

After the brunch the Joe Stocks headed back to Detroit and the rest of us made haste for the cottage, where we spent a few hours before Adam and I had to leave for the airport. Adam's flight was a late one, but mercifully, on time, so he arrived in New York at the expected hour and was able to get some sleep before work the next morning.

Great wedding, and for us, a welcome visit with our own kids.

Here is a link to our photos from the weekend on Flickr. And another link with more pictures of the Stock family at the wedding.

Knot Just A Rehearsal Dinner

The girl next door is getting married tomorrow. And when I say next door, I mean literally next door on White Pine Drive (growing up, at least). But now Sarah Dutkowski lives in London and gets home only rarely, so this full weekend of wedding activities is a really nice chance to see her and get to know fiance Matt Welsford and his friends. Adam flew in from Manhattan, and the Detroit Stocks will be in attendance as well.

Ken and Adam golfed with Wally on Friday morning at Bay Harbor, along with a nice chap named Duncan (with Sarah, below)--a friend of Matt's. They all had a great time, and Duncan was nice enough to sit with us at "Knot Just a Bar" and shoot the breeze while we waited for the arrival of the wedding party (post-rehearsal dinner),

Also kind enough to sit and keep us entertained was Graham Austin, another of Matt and Sarah's friends (on the left in photo above). The other fellow is Ollie Tritton, Matt's best man. Charming young men.

We really enjoyed visiting with Sarah's lovely younger sister, Laura, who lives in Los Angeles. It must be hard for Wally and Sheryl to have them both so far away. They are so much fun, two great gals.

Wally and Sheryl with Kathy and Tom Dominguez. They were conserving their energy for the big day to come.

Kate and Garrett's wedding at the old home place

The wedding couple, Kate Geisler and Garrett Harabedian, after the ceremony.

I left the cottage on Saturday over Labor Day weekend so I could travel to Watervliet on Sunday for Kate Geisler's wedding. I have LOTS of photos--too many to include here--but these will give a peek at the setting: what was once my Woodruff grandparents' home, now the home of Kate's mother and father, Pat and Geoff Geisler. The place looked beautiful. When I get the photos loaded to Flickr I will link them here.

The flower girls didn't want to yield the altar to the bridal couple and had to be pulled back to their seats.

Looking from the site of the ceremony back toward the house. Note Grandma and Grandpa Woodruff's sap buckets, pressed into service as pots for a row of white geraniums.

581 Paw Paw Avenue--great memories from childhood live here.

Labor Day Weekend, 2013: Girls and Schneiders and Kayaks

This year, for various reasons, none of our other kids were able to come for the weekend but Jonna and her tribe saved the day (weekend)!

The girls came up late Thursday night. Friday we rode out a bit of a storm (see previous post) but spent a lovely, clear evening on the beach with John and Sharon after dinner at Rosa's.

Jonna proved she was up to the challenge of photo-bombing family photos, a skill Adam mastered long ago.

I brought the ice cream ball along to the beach so we could all participate in the creation and enjoy the scrumptiousness of homemade ice cream. Although not all were enthusiastic about taking their turns at shaking, the resulting product was delicious indeed. The thing is pretty dang heavy, I'll say that.

While I was up at the cottage stirring the ice cream, John brought out a pack of BIG sparklers for the girls to play with. It's always fun to see the pure enjoyment on HIS face when the fireworks come out. The first time he and Sharon visited us on Black Lake, he brought along some fireworks (not strictly legal at that time), and once it was sufficiently dark, set them off on the end of the dock. By that time of night he was smoking a cigar, and as he walked out on the dock to start the show, he had it clenched in his grinning teeth, in the manner of Franklin Roosevelt. The man has a mischievous streak a mile wide.

With very few artificial lights to dim the sky, it was dark and full of stars. We all stood in amazement at the black, light-speckled ceiling, silence broken only by exclamations of wonder. I saw the longest shooting star I've ever seen, and Melissa saw it, too. The photo left isn't mine, but is the best I could find to represent the one we saw.

As we sat enjoying the night sky (and our ice cream), John exclaimed and pointed toward the horizon. "Northern Lights!" he said.

I grabbed another Internet photo to represent what we saw. Although there was no purple in our view, it was the same general pattern as above--smears of green light shooting up from the horizon and flashing gently as we watched. John wrote about it in his blog a couple days later.

What a bloody magical evening.

Seeking to re-enact accomplishments from their kayak trip two weeks earlier, the girls strapped on iPhones and set out for another beautiful trip on the lake. I was only too proud to have provided the unifying fashion theme: bandanas.

Jonna takes the little L.L. Bean kayak, Melissa the Pungo 14, and Shaina the Pungo 12. Melissa takes very good care of my best paddle, the super light one that Pa picked out to go with the third kayak he and Mom provided for our cottage boatyard.

A final shot from the weekend--one of my apricot daylilies in full bloom in Wellington Garden.

Storm's a comin'

One of the best things about the location of our cottage is its placement at the north end of the lake. This puts us in position to see both sunrises and sunsets, and all possible phases of the moon.

But the real bonus for Ken is the ability to watch storms coming across the lake. He can spot them long before they get to us, and watch them as they gather steam or dissipate over the lake.

He does know enough to come in out of the rain, but just barely.

Stunning.

Sue & Steve & Ron & Jane

It's been two years since Sue and Steve visited us here at the cottage. We sure were glad to see them! They arrived on Sunday, greeted by a traditional parking sign created by Ken. Even though they are "big lake" people now, they have inland lakes in their blood (rented on Mullett and owned on Macatawa) so they really enjoy the Black Lake experience.

Hugs all 'round.

We love laughing together

Sue and Steve have their own Hack-Ma-Tack memories--including visits with us--so it was a natural spot for a nice evening out for the four of us.

Tuesday the parking sign got swapped out for our next arrivals--Ron and Jane. Luckily, we were able to manage a day overlap in their visits. We tried--persistently but unsuccessfully--to get the Homies to stay another day or so, but they headed back home on Wednesday.

Ron and Jane had to leave Thursday morning. We hope next year they can stay a bit longer, especially now that Ron is retired!

Sue and Jane

Paging Dr. Howard, Dr. Oberon, Dr. Howard...

Ron demonstrates his fine Corn Hole form

Steve, me, Sue & Ron

Looks like Ron just made one of his famous remarks

Identical Cousins

As great as it is to have all our kids at the cottage, there is something wonderful about smaller, more intimate visits as well. Jonna and Melissa drove up on Friday (August 16) and spent the weekend with Ken and me. Highlights:

Dinner at the Bluffs. Note that Melissa did not stop squeezing lime into her Corona for the snapshot. We have our priorities, after all.

The girls took a nice long kayak ride, tracking their performance with an app on their iPhones.

Rock-hounding at Schneiders

This was the first time Melissa and Jonna had ever been to John and Sharon's place. John and Sharon weren't there, but with their permission we had a lovely time collecting rocks along the shoreline.

We felt especially honored to be on the beach today, because it was the anniversary of Jessica Schneider's death. I walked up the beach and sat for a while in quiet, meditating on the sacredness of this place and how lucky I felt to be there with my two girls.

Melissa found the most amazing stone of the day (perhaps of the summer!): half quartz, half basalt. She collected a number of fossils for sons Harrison and Lennon, and one way or the other ended up with a number of stones that looked like a bit like turds. She really knows how to please her boys.

Hijinks at Pier 33

Jonna and Melissa are first cousins, born three days apart in 1975. They have so many inside jokes it's sometimes hard to keep up. Often we just sit and listen to them laugh, tease each other, and comment on the foibles of others. They are masters of the coined phrase, and have many pet names for each other. I introduced them to the concept of "identical cousins," from the old Patty Duke show. They took to it immediately and used it as an excuse for all manner of silly/similar tastes, preferences, and behaviors. Listening to them order food at a restaurant--finishing each others' sentences and speaking in unison--is both funny and alarming.

"Still they're cousins....identical cousins, and you'll find, they laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike...you could lose your mind, when cousins....are two of a kind!"

Dr. Oberon's birthday at the Wallaces'

A random comment about Ken's impending birthday while drinking at the Dirty Duck with Chet and Kathy Wallace garnered us an invitation to celebrate the day at their lovely house on Long Lake. As good as her B&B-influenced word, Kathy arranged a lovely, easy-going evening in Ken's honor with lots of food, silly hats, and some of our favorite guests (Ross, Paula, Wally, and Will from the Lodge). We went out for a pontoon ride, which ended with a thunderstorm chaser, and a dined on a selection of grilled meats courtesy of Chef Chet (say that 3 times fast). Red Velvet cake was the finishing touch. The evening produced one classic video (available for private viewings) of Ken and Paula in a laughing fit. Alcohol was involved.

With Chet

With Paula

With Kathy

With Will

With Ross

With Wally

Dutkowski Part IV

The Dutkowskis were in Petoskey for a couple days and drove over to kick around Black Lake for the afternoon. We took a pontoon ride, played Corn Hole, and visited one of our favorite dives...er....restaurants.

Sighting the "old" cottage on Mullett Lake

On the front porch of the cottage on Mullett Lake (Mike, age 10; Joe and Adam, age 6)

Our family's love affair with inland lakes started long ago on Mullett Lake. By the time Ken married me, he had been renting the Panella cottage (on Mullett Lake Road, southeast side of the lake) with his two boys for three years. After we were married in 1988, we continued the tradition with our three boys every year through the summer of 2001. There are many great stories to be told about those years, and we have albums full of photos of the boys, Jonna, and many visitors including Grandma and Grandpa Woodruff.

While on our Inland Waterway trip with the Schneiders, we motored up close to the southeast edge of the lake to see if we could spot the old place. And when I say "old," I mean the site of the old place, now occupied by a decidedly un-quaint new home.

Just before the last year we rented the place, the Panella's tore down their little red cabin and built a shiny new updated home (in preparation for retirement, no doubt). That proved to be the end of our Mullett Lake tradition. With the boys getting older and summer together-time getting scarcer, the loss of the old, familiar cottage was the last straw.

In 2001, we drove up to the cottage separately for some reason--Joe and Adam with me and Ken later. The boys and I had a bit of time to process our own disorientation with the strange and sterile new home by the time Ken arrived. He got out of his car, took one look at the two story garage and home where our cozy red cabin used to stand and said, "Fuck."

That was the last year we rented on Mullett Lake. We attempted to establish a new tradition of renting, but weren't able to find a suitable place or time. (The story of our two stays on Torch Lake is for another time.) So we drifted along with good intentions but without a family gathering place for several years.

Then in 2007, that fateful email from Sharon Emery arrived in my inbox, with pictures of the lake lot on the lane where they owned property. That email led to my PowerPoint pitching the idea to Ken, which led to our trips up north to look at property, which led (in rather short order) to our purchase of the cottage on Black Lake.

But I digress.

Back to the Inland Waterway excursion. We did find the Panella cottage, and although the house stirred no memories, the lakefront, the bench, the bifurcated birch tree, and the dock (upon which our Black Lake dock is based) were still as we remembered.

The Panella cottage as seen from the lake on August 8, 2013