Higgins Lake Weekend

This past weekend, Kelly and I went to upstate Michigan to Higgin's Lake.  I don't think you can call a house this nice a "cabin", but it was certainly a nice place to stay.

Right on the lake!

It was quite cold though, so we spent a lot of time inside.

So here's a breakdown of the family that was there:

Maggie:

Kelly:

Me:

Kelly's Mom (Karen):

Kelly's Dad (Mark):

 

The owners of the cabin are Sue and Fred.  Sue is Kelly's Dad's Dad's Sister - aka Kelly's Aunt (twice removed?).  Their son and daughter came up for the weekend.  Their son is also named Fred, and goes by Freddie when his dad is around.  Now here's the really confusing part.  He married a Sue.  So it's "young Sue and Fred" and "old Sue and Fred"

Fred is closest to us.  His son Freddie is in the back.  

Saturday was basically an inside day.  I played Scrabble with some of the crowd. And beat them easily.

Kelly and her dad dipped their feet in the lake:

Saturday night brought a wonderful steak dinner cooked out on the grill.

After dinner, Kelly and I started a game of Balderdash.  About 10 minutes into the game, the power went out. The power was out in the picture below and it was total darkness.  But the flash said otherwise.  People were mad at Kelly for taking it because  it was blinding.  Katie is the girl in the front and her mom Sue (young Sue) is in the back.  Katie is Sue and Freddie's daughter.

Sunday morning brought the sun back!  Here's a view of the lake from the porch.

And a view from the dock:

Kelly and I went for a bike ride in the afternoon, and then decided that although it was still a bit cold, we needed to put Maggie in the lake.  Can a dog so small swim?  Kinda.  Her head was basically in the water.  Kelly had her in a cute life vest.

Kelly was happy.  Maggie was so-so.

Finally, right before we left on Sunday, we got to go out in the boat.  Freddie is a good driver.  It was still very windy, as shown by the white caps in the background.  It was warm in the sun, but freezing when the wind and water blew up.

I only had like 4 beers all weekend, but it seems like I have one in every picture!

Left to Right in this Picture: Denise (Sue and Fred's daughter), Sue (Cabin owner), and Scotty (Denise's son).

Maggie enjoyed the boat.

We anchored at one point and Kelly's dad was brave enough to go swimming.  A triathlon workout.

Maggie started thinking about going for another swim:

She's going in!

Swimming! (with some assistance)

And drying off.

The ride back was cold and wet.

I love this picture.

Fort Wayne Zoo

We went to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo on Saturday, July 25th.  We felt a little silly at first because it was the "children's zoo", but whatever...animals are animals, right?  Now I've been to some pretty good zoo's - Washington DC, Philly...so I wasn't expecting much.  Zoos kinda bored me.  An animal here, an animal there, I get the point.  But this was actually quite fun.

First stop, goat petting area.  The goat wanted to eat Kelly's map.

Then we headed over to Australia.  Here's a dingo, which as Kelly said, pretty much just looks like a dog.  It was sleeping but Kelly clapped her hands and it woke up.

Then a huge pack of Kangaroos.  You could walk through them on a path.

And get super close to them.  Have YOU been that close to a kangaroo?  They look funny when they run.

Here's a random monkey.

Then off to the Indonesian Rain Forrest.  This was a candid shot.  I love it.

On our way out of the rainforest, kelly rode a lizard/dragon.

The it was off to Africa!  It's the newest part of the zoo and there aren't "cages"...it's just like being on a safari.  Obviously, there are fences, but it's pretty cool.  There's even a sky ride/ski lift type thing.  The view below is from the ride.

Then some cool animals...osterich

lion...sleeping.

kelly feeding a giraffe!

I think giraffe's are cool.

Us...in Africa.

Feeding time and animal butts

What did God do wrong with this animal?? How did natural selection not rule out this bird.  It's so freaking ugly, and even more in person.  Some sort of vulture?

On the way out, you enter the mist.  It's pretty sweet.