August 15 Christy's cottage

Friday:  Finally! An afternoon in Montague with the ladies of my MNBS group. We were invited to come and spend a few hours with our co-fascillator, Christy. Her family has a "cottage" on a tree-lined bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Montague. She invites us every year! I always take a bunch of photos of Lake Michigan while I am there. Today, the lake was NOT rolling in like it was last year--I really love wave pictures--so these pictures are not quite what last year's pictures were; but that's okay. I think I will find use for a few of the drift water ones at least.

Not all the ladies were able to make time to come. There were eight of us instead of the thirteen regulars we have on Monday night. We all brought a little something to share for lunch, and afterwards we went down to the beach.

On the left is Christy, and next to her is Julie. I love these two ladies.

One of the many beautiful views from the deck ...

Next door to where their cottage is located is a pathway that winds down towards the beach ... and then a stairway right to the sand.

I actually walked alone for about 30 minutes because the other ladies were doing other things, and some of them are not able to walk on the sand due to physical conditions. I headed north because last year I mainly walked south. 

Once I got a little distance from Christy's place I made it to the next "point" but then it was all private cottages; so I turned around and came back and walked where I had walked last year. The waves were not rolling in, so the pictures are less interesting this year.

There was significantly more drift wood this year, though.

I tried to get a good, clean picture of a seagull in flight--but once again, failed. These are just too far away.

I didn't have my phone with me--only my Canon, so I don't know how far I actually walked.

Cindy, Christy and Bethany took a little swim. I thought about bringing my bathing suit--but I really don't like being in a bathing suit in public--so ... I didn't bring it! I kind of wish I had, though, because it was really really HOT and the water would have been refreshing.

This is Lynda. She was "new" to our group last year, but she attends the same Sunday morning class at Calvary -- several of us are in that class together.

I needed to take a bathroom break, as did Christy, so we went back up to her cottage. I saw that it was about 4:15 and I decided to drive back to Grand Rapids to see if I could get to the Greek Fest in time to see Erin do her Greek dancing on stage. My MapQuest in the car wasn't working correctly as I left Christy's place (which is kind of out in the middle of nowhere), so I got temporarily "lost", which sadly cost me dear time--enough to where I missed seeing Erin dance. Sigh. 

August 14 DTJ (cont.)

Thursday (continued):  Our next stop was "Hog Heaven", but we passed these "Wanted" goats first and fed them. It was about midday at this time and many of the goats were resting in the shade, so this was the only one Aidan fed.

We went through the gate that leads to the pigs and walked past another gated area with EMU's. What hilarious birds ... and BIG! Super interested in people--not one bit SHY. I fed this one a carrot and I thought he was going to take the entire cup of carrots away from me!

One of Aidan's most favorite animals is the PIG. I was very glad to see there were many little pigs running out and about this enclosure.

The Emu's are just across a little walkway from the pigs, so I kept going back and forth because I've never been this close to this large of a bird before!

Aidan thought the Emu's were pretty funny, but he was more interested in the pigs. He was very tender with them. I think it's amazing how children respond to animals.

Aidan sat in the driver's seat of this John Deere tractor and wanted it to GO!! He was trying to figure out the gear shift ...

Aidan finally got out of the driver's seat and went around to the side of the tractor and discovered that the wires were cut to the motor ... it was going nowhere.

Aidan kept going back to the pigs, over and over again. Look at how cute they are!

Two tortoises ... who rather like each other I'm assuming. Their enclosure is in-between the budgies and the rabbits. Aidan wasn't interested in the rabbits today.

I was watching the budgie enclosure while Aidan was loving on the little pigs. It was very full of people for almost an hour. By the time we went inside to feed the birds, they weren't at all hungry! So Aidan tried and tried to get a few birds to come on his feeding stick--but not very many did, and I didn't catch a single picture of them doing it.

Aidan was persistent and very patient, though ...

I dumped a few seeds in my hand and held it close to a bird and was very glad when it hopped into my hand to eat. Budgies are so soft. I miss my little Matey Bird.

We were getting pretty tired, as well as HOT, so since we had been here for three hours we decided to head back to my house. However, since I allowed Brendan to pick something from the gift shop to take home with him when it was his turn to visit (it was Brendan's half birthday the next day!), I did allow Aidan to pick out something from the gift shop as well. He was rather intent upon getting either a rubber band shooter, a sling shot, or some other kind of GUN. I didn't think any of those were very "safe" toys; so he chose a little stuffed pig instead and then since it wasn't very expensive, I treated him to an ice cream cone.

Aidan said it was very delicious! The scoops were HUGE! He had wanted three scoops, but I told him TWO was the limit. I'm glad I did! It took awhile just to eat these two!

We drove back to my house to hang out briefly, eat a light lunch, play a few games, and then I returned Aidan home by about 2:00 in the afternoon. I am very glad I had the opportunity to spend this time with Aidan. He is very dear to me.