We planned for our last day at the lake to do nothing but relax before our long drive home. We slept as late as we wanted, played in the water, and generally lounged around our cabin and the “beach.”
We all played ladder ball for a while. In this game, you throw a bolo-like object made of two golf balls and a piece of rope at a ladder made of PVC. We had been doing well earlier in the week, but we were all playing poorly on Friday. We had fun anyway.
We all took the opportunity to relax in the shade and read. It was quite relaxing.
Mid afternoon Rick, Tammy, and Angie stopped by to ask us to join them at their bonfire later that evening. After a dinner of take-out pizza and a game of dominoes, we headed down to the Serafini’s resort.
We sat around the bonfire while Jesse and Mia set off fireworks.
We had also stopped by Walmart earlier in the day to pick up a bunch of Vernors and Red Pop to take home to Maryland. While there, we found that Rainier Cherries are out, so we bought several tubs of them. We brought a tub to the bonfire to share with everyone. We love these cherries, but you can only get them a couple of weeks each year. When they are available, we tend to eat them to excess.
With some sadness and a bit of lethargy we packed up all our gear and cleaned the cabin the next morning. Our vacation was nearly over.
We had made arrangements to meet with an old high school buddy, Larry Foggia, and his family at Frankenmuth, Michigan, on the way home. Frankenmuth was settled in the late 1880’s by German immigrants. While it has become commercialized, the town had retained some of its German heritage in its architecture and food offerings. It is also known for Bronner’s, a HUGE, year-round Christmas store. I hadn’t been to Frankenmuth in 20 years. While we nominally walked through bunch of stores, I wasn’t really paying attention. I was mostly just having fun catching up with Larry, Carrie, and their kids, Nick and Marie. Sadly we had to cut the visit short after just 3.5 hours, because we were having a great time. I hope we have another chance soon to get together.
We got on the road about 2 PM, and arrived back home a few minutes for midnight, officially ending our 2012 vacation. Sad face.