Fall officially came crashing in over the weekend, and I’m missing the summer already. I like warm weather, barbecues, having the kids home from school, going to conventions, and all the other hallmarks of the summer months.
One of the best memories I haven’t written much about is the week or so I spent with my wife and kids at my wife’s family cabin up in the U.P. (That’s the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for you Midwestern-challenged folks.) It’s an old, two-room hunting shack, and when I first started going up there with my wife, we had no electricity, no phone, and no running water. It was paradise.
It’s still paradise now, even though we have electricity in now, and our cell phones work if we stand under a pair of trees on the short walk down to the lake. Ann’s uncle even installed a pump to bring wash water up from the lake. And, of course, we now have five young kids joining us—along with two teenage babysitters who make that possible.
Here’s a shot I took of the lake this past August. I use it as the desktop on my computer, and we had it blown up for a framed print on our dining room wall. Until next summer, it’ll have to do.
September 25th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Sounds like a great place to have a smalle “Gathering of Friends.” Game gathering.
September 26th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
On rainy days maybe.
One year, my brother-in-law and I played Silent Death, but the copy I had didnt’ have the playmats. We played it without the hexes, going free-form miniatures-style instead.
September 27th, 2006 at 7:53 am
True. Rainy days are pretty much only good for playing games, and the occassional jump in a mud puddle.
When you host the Forbeck Fan Frenzy Convention let me know.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:11 am
I’ll post it here for sure.
September 27th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Say yah to the u.p., eh? I’ve always like the UP, being a Michigander by birth…it’s a part of my heritage I suppose. Hopefully you ate a pastie or two…
September 27th, 2006 at 11:17 am
We actually have that bumper sticker—”Say Yah to da UP, eh?”—on our minivan, Brett. My father and his family are all from lower Michigan, and I have lots of relatives there too. They’re all trolls (they live under the Mackinac Bridge), but my wife and her family are from the UP.
I’ve had many a pastie in my life, both from roadside stands and homemade. These days, you can even find frozen ones in grocery stores around here. I even have a CD from Da Yoopers and have visited Da Yoopers’ Tourist Trap up in Ishpeming. Fun stuff.