Belle Isle

Belle Isle is a 982-acre island park in the Detroit River.  You can tell in its hay-day (maybe 50 years ago when Detroit was at the height of its wealth) the park would have been spectacular.  There is a majestic and rather grand fountain at the entrance that looks like it hasn't spouted water in years. There are beautiful abandoned buildings and unmaintained playgrounds.  The whole park seems to have fallen into disarray.  The road that circles the park is several lanes wide.  It must have seen some heavy traffic once upon a time, but when we went there were only a few cars in the whole park.  Still, we would have stayed and enjoyed it longer if it hadn't been so dang hot and muggy.

Jane of the Jungle.  She even has her leopard pants on.

I really liked this red bridge.  There was a cool turquoise one too, but we were too hot to walk over to it.

She just wants to hold the railing.

We found a baby swing that wasn't broken and took LOTS of pictures.

10 Months

Jane keeps us laughing all the time with her facial expressions and general enthusiasm for life.  When we stop the car and open the back door, she gasps and gives us the most excited face possible.  I mean she really couldn’t be happier in that moment.  Before bedtime, she’s the most playful.  She has the attention of both of her parents and loves when we chase her down the hallway on our hands and knees.   Lately it's mommy that chases and she crawls to the safety of her daddy's arms so he can run away.   
She's really taken to daddy more lately and prefers him a lot of the time as long as she's not hurt or sleepy.
When she's waiting for you to look at her, she'll call your attention with a short, polite "ah" and then when you acknowledge her,  do her excited crawl where her legs sometimes go a little faster than her arms.  I love it.  
She loves eating and will eat most everything we give her (except raspberries).  She particularly loves yogurt and gets excited when she sees me put it in the shopping cart.  Just this last month, she learned how to drink from a sippy cup and a bottle.  Phew.  We’ve been working on that for some time now.  Now she holds and drinks her bottle like a pro. 

 Our ward play group goes to the beach every week and I've gone a few times with them.  This last week was so hot, that if you weren't in the lake, you were just sweating.  Jane and I spent a lot of the afternoon sitting in the water and she just loved it.  She didn't care much for this sand.  Too wet, I guess.  She liked the dry stuff that rans off her fingers when she grabbed handfuls.  

 

Mackinac Island

Well, we couldn't leave this summer without seeing some of Northern Michigan.  Everyone told us to go north and they did not lead us astray. This last weekend was probably my favorite... I think.  We kicked it off right with a BNL, Ben Folds Five, and Guster concert on Friday night.  We got some BBQ in the adorable town of Clarkston and then headed to the outdoor amphitheater.  It was a beautiful evening and Jane thoroughly enjoyed engaging every stranger around us with games of peak-a-boo and silly faces.  She's a social one. Guster was good, but brief.  Ben Folds was a little disappointing, but Barenaked Ladies lived up to their reputation and delivered yet another entertaining concert.  I've always been a BNL fan, but even Chris who isn't too familiar with their music, loved the concert.  They are great entertainers.  Jane fell asleep half way through BNL, and slept soundly on Chris' chest through the end of the concert, all the way back to the car and home and right through getting changed into her sleeper.  I don't think I've ever seen her so out.

The next morning we headed up to Mackinaw and took the ferry over to the Island.  It's just the coolest place ever. There are no motor vehicles on Mackinac Island, only horse drawn carriages and bikes.  Tons of bikes!  They just line the road all the way down Bike Street... That's why they call it Bike Street.

Mackinac Island fudge is world reknown and there are Fudge shops every few stores.  I probably could have stopped in each one and just kept sampling fudge, but I maintained some discipline.

So Poppins is my new favorite store.  Gorgeous custom letter-pressed cards and signs, amazing stationary and packaging.  I wanted to own everything in it.

Isn't it gorgeous?  Some day when we're rich, we'd love to come back and stay a night somewhere on the island.

 

It was such a hot day, we stopped to cool our toes in the water.  It was here that I lowered Jane into what I thought was knee deep water at the most, and then later discovered she was up to her waist.  She didn't complain though.  She just likes being in the water.  She had to go pantsless for a while, though.

We rented bikes and rode the 8 miles around the island.  That was by far the highlight.  The scenery was breath-taking, the breeze was refreshing and the smell of pine in the sun was hypnotizing.  Plus, Jane got her much needed nap in the bike trailer.  I haven't been on a bike in I don't know how long, but I think my sit bones must be out of shape because they were so sore for days afterward.

 

I guess after being dipped in the lake up to her waist by her mom, she wasn't ready to put her feet in again.

We returned the bikes, got some food, and relaxed on the grass to let Jane climb around on her daddy for a bit, which happens to be one of her favorite pass-times.  When it's party-time, she definitely prefers her dad.  I have a feeling it will always be that way.  I just can't compete.  When she's hurt, though, she only wants me, so I guess I have that.

 

 

 

 Still doesn't love crawling in the grass.

 

We walked up to the Grand Hotel for some ice cream.  It was delicious, but melted too fast in the heat.

 

 

 

 We stayed the night in Mackinaw City and the next morning walked across the street to the Mackinac Point Lighthouse and the Mackinac Bridge.  This Michigan icon is the world's 3rd largest suspension bridge spanning 5 miles of water.

 On our way home, we stopped in Frankenmuth or "Little Bavaria".  It was intensely hot and we could barely walk around for 10 minutes without having to dive into an air conditioned store to recover.  We didn't last long, but we did buy a loaf of chocolate Babka, which I am eating right now.  Mmmmm.

 

 

 

Frankenmuth is also home of the world's largest Christmas store.  It looked pretty cheesy, but I thought they would still have some nice stuff mixed in.  I was wrong.  It's just an impressively large collection of tacky Christmas decor.  You want sexy Santa sprawled across your roof?  They have it.  How about a sparkly pink and black tree for your 13 year old girl?  Done.   Leprechaun nutcracker.  Yes, please!  Two holidays for the price of one!