A year-and-a-half ago, my younger son, Tyler, daughter-in-law, Leslie, and their then-12yo daughter, C, moved from a ranch house on the edge of the Palo Duro Canyon in Amarillo, Texas, to a lake house in zip code 49643—Interlochen, Michigan. My son first attended National Music Camp, now Interlochen Arts Camp, in 1988. He attended the camp for two years, then asked to attend Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA), beginning with his sophomore year. Somehow, at his young age, he knew he had found his people there. During his senior year, he met his now-wife at IAA. She was a sophomore when they met. After he graduated and went on to college in Ohio, their life paths took them different directions until an Interlochen reunion in—I believe—2013, when they reconnected and felt the same love for each other that they had experienced in high school. Now they’ve been married for nine years, and both families are ever so grateful that that reunion occurred. Both his children attended several years of camp during the 20-teens. My late husband’s granddaughter spent two years at camp, then her junior and senior high school years at IAA. I’ve spent two years at the camp as a collaborative pianist, in musical theatre, voice, and dance. And my daughter-in-law teaches in the dance department every summer. This summer, she’s acting chair of the dance department. Interlochen, with its beautiful, expansive campus spread between Duck Lake and Green Lake in northern Michigan, has been my family’s Happy Place for over 35 years.
So when an opportunity arises for me to visit that part of the world, I just ask “how soon can I go?” The graduation would be Wednesday evening, June 5, so my partner, Jas, and I drove up on Monday, June 3, arriving around 5:00 p.m. Packing for the trip was challenging. Jas hoped to get some pickleball in at the YMCA; I hoped I could find a place for a pool aerobics class; we would do some touristy things; Jas would do some home maintenance tasks to help Tyler out; we’d dress nicely for the graduation and some dinners out; and we’d spend the final day in the area visiting our former neighbors in their summer home on Torch Lake. And, unfortunately, the Weather channel indicated the temperatures during those seven days would range from the low 40s to about 92, and included more rain than sun! The back of my SUV looked like we were going to be gone for three weeks!
We left home at 8:45 a.m. on Monday, and only hit a couple of slowdowns on the way up. When we arrived, Tyler was just leaving to pick up C from the city bus stop, so I started my car again and drove the 12 miles to pick her up. Her school is a 19 mile, 30 minute drive from their secluded home, which is several miles of dirt roads away from anything. About an hour after C and I got back home, Leslie arrived from work and fixed a wonderful pork chop dinner. Boy, can that lady cook!! After conversation with the adults, Jas and I collapsed into bed in the downstairs guest room.
YouTube: Tuesday morning view from the deck, overlooking Bronson Lake.
Tuesday morning I took C to school, then ran errands to Meijer, the car wash, Menard’s, and Tom’s Grocery. Tyler saw my Facebook photo of the cinnamon rolls I had made the week before and asked me to make some for them, also. So I spent the rest of the morning making those rolls, then headed back into town to pick up C from school and take her shopping at the mall and to get a manicure. She had just learned the day before that all the twelve 8th-graders would have to attend a luncheon with the trustees on Wednesday afternoon. They would have to dress up, and had to wear something different from what they would wear to graduation that night. At Tyler’s request, I picked up some cheese from the Cheese Lady downtown, then C and I headed to the mall. We found a cute sundress for C in Target, and a lightweight cotton sweater in Penney’s for her to wear with the dress just in case the lunch venue was cold. While she started her manicure, I went back to the carwash again. I had driven on a lot of muddy roads back and forth from the house to school, and couldn’t take that car anyplace! We finally got home around 8:00 p.m.!
Leslie did the school run the next morning, and I spent the morning working on my blog, still trying to finish my account of our Alaska cruise the previous year (to the day!). Leslie and C got home from school around 3:30, everyone dressed for the evening, and we left at 5:15 to go get C graduated. The event ended close to 8:00, and we had not had dinner, so went to downtown Traverse City to Lil Bo for dinner. Afterwards, we headed home, spent a little while chatting, then all fell, exhausted, into bed.
YouTube: A walk in Lower Woodcock Lake Nature Preserve
YouTube: The beauty of Northern Lower Michigan’s Lower Woodcock Lake
After breakfast on Thursday, when Tyler had gone into his office to work, and Leslie had taken C to a “funday” at school, Jas and I drove a mile or two up the road to the Lower Woodcock Lake Nature Preserve. The Preserve has 3.5 miles of trails, a nice dock where one can launch canoes and kayaks, and lots of opportunities for birding. As we were hiking trail number one, a robin was jumping along the branches ahead of us. I imagine he or she had a nest they wanted to keep us away from. We had a nice walk. I would have been up for more, but I was experiencing right knee pain all week, and didn’t want to push it too hard. After our walk, we decided to head up to Leland, on the western shore of Leelaunau Peninsula to check out some of my favorite vacation shops, and to have lunch at The Cove. I’m not a big seafood eater, but I love the Lake Michigan whitefish that The Cove serves. I ordered the beer-battered whitefish and chips, and it was wonderful. Before lunch, we walked around Fishtown, and afterwards, we wandered into Two Fish, where I found a cute tea towel to take to my former neighbor, whom we would see on Saturday. We also went into Leland Harbor House, which is a nice clothing store that also sells Traverse City’s famous Moomer’s Ice Cream. Jas picked up a couple of Great Lakes caps and a new pair of Kühl shorts (at my suggestion). Our final stop was Verterra Winery to pick up a bottle of their excellent Pinot Grigio (“winner of Best of Class Pinot Grigio from the largest competition in North America!”) for myself and one for Tyler and Leslie. Then we headed home. Tyler called it a workday at 4:00 and he and Jas went outside to do some home maintenance tasks. Leslie prepared fabulous Fancy Grilled Cheese sandwiches, made with the cheeses I picked up on Tuesday, along with some ricotta. Fabulous!
Friday. The week is winding down. We hung around the house, Tyler working, Jas and I reading and relaxing. Leslie has decorated the house so beautifully, and keeps it filled with fresh flowers. It’s a joy to inhabit. Friday night we went to Little Traverse Inn for dinner. Lovely meal, great live music (although a little loud for dinner conversation). A fitting end to a happy week with family.
Saturday. We left Tyler’s at 8:30, heading to the northeast side of Torch Lake to visit our Youngstown nextdoor neighbors at their summer home. Meta had prepared a brunch for us, including as guests their good friends who live two doors over on the lake. The more we chatted, we realized we had met this interesting couple the previous summer on our visit. It was fun to get to know the neighbors better and exchange life stories and anecdotes. After lunch we headed out, following route 88 to stop at King Orchards for a jar of the rhubarb butter that Meta had served with her homemade bread. Then we headed down I-75 through lots and lots of rain to our next stop, Ann Arbor.
The last time we had left Torch Lake in the afternoon, we found that driving all the way home, approximately seven hours, was too taxing. I had promised Jas that the next time we were in that situation, we would break the drive into parts. So Ann Arbor would be our stopping point. While he was doing some of the driving, I logged on to my iPad and started searching for a convenient hotel along the way. The Holiday Inn Express was just off I-94 and convenient to get to dinner and back on the road in the morning.
And dinner! Because of Jas’s long career as a [freight] railroad conductor, I always jump at the chance to experience another depot. Ann Arbor’s Gandy Dancer restaurant was the perfect stop. The meal was delicious. The service was stellar. And we watched trains roll by, right by our window. We relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed our dinner, evidenced by the fact that I didn’t take one single photo of our meal.
<Sidenote On> Wiki tells me: Gandy dancer is a slang term used for early railroad workers in the United States, more formally referred to as section hands, who laid and maintained railroad tracks in the years before the work was done by machines. <Sidenote Off>
After a good night’s sleep, we woke to clear skies, and the drive home slid right by. What a lovely mini vacation.
Interlochen Family Visit, June 2024
