The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2008-05-25 05:04 pm
thewhitelily) wrote2008-05-25 05:04 pm
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USA Day 3: More Michigan
So today’s big plan was to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rchevalier, who’s also in Michigan.
First of all, though, we went to the farmers’ market just over the creek from iviolinist’s, which was small but fun. We came away a jar of apple butter richer, so we have some apple produce from Michigan. Hurrah! (Although rchevalier was disappointed to learn later that we hadn’t establish the variety of apples from which it was made.) Still, now I can look up the recipe I came across a couple of months ago which insisted that while you could substitute other things for apple butter, there was really no comparison. Then I looked up what was involved in making it and decided... substitution will just have to do for now. :)
Squirrel spotting on the way back from the market – the top one looks like it might be a silhouette, but it’s actually a black squirrel. Expect more squirrel-spam to come – they're most exciting to us poor deprived Aussies.
Iviolinist kindly drove us up to our second meet-up of the trip (I suspect in part because she’d heard the stories of our driving from the previous day) and...
Meeting rchevalier was fabulous, not only for the white feather quill she gave me (which I'm really hoping will come back through customs okay), but was heaps of fun just keeping up as she bounded around showing us points of interest. We walked around a loop trail from the park we’d met and I got a botany lesson in distinguishing the various oaks and maples we came across (and identifying poison ivy, which is significantly less distinctive than I’d imagined), and lessons in whistling on an oak cap. (Which I tried again later on when I found another one, and discovered I could even still do it without tuition! Woot!) For the record, sugar maple has smaller leaves, red maple has larger leaves, and silver maple has elongated leaves. Unfortunately, I failed my oak quiz at the end of the trek and still can't remember how to distinguish red from white, so I should probably avoid providing further lessons to the general public. :P
After waving goodbye to her, we headed on towards the coast of Lake Michigan to meet up with iviolinist’s awesome boyfriend, who definitely has the seal of approval from us. They took us on the grand tour of Grand Haven, corn dogs, and the pier at the lakeshore (a beach with surprisingly excellent glacier-ground sand, even to snobby Australian tastes), and finally the local bowling alley where I even managed to win the second game. :)
rchevalier, who’s also in Michigan. First of all, though, we went to the farmers’ market just over the creek from iviolinist’s, which was small but fun. We came away a jar of apple butter richer, so we have some apple produce from Michigan. Hurrah! (Although rchevalier was disappointed to learn later that we hadn’t establish the variety of apples from which it was made.) Still, now I can look up the recipe I came across a couple of months ago which insisted that while you could substitute other things for apple butter, there was really no comparison. Then I looked up what was involved in making it and decided... substitution will just have to do for now. :)
Squirrel spotting on the way back from the market – the top one looks like it might be a silhouette, but it’s actually a black squirrel. Expect more squirrel-spam to come – they're most exciting to us poor deprived Aussies.
Iviolinist kindly drove us up to our second meet-up of the trip (I suspect in part because she’d heard the stories of our driving from the previous day) and...
Meeting rchevalier was fabulous, not only for the white feather quill she gave me (which I'm really hoping will come back through customs okay), but was heaps of fun just keeping up as she bounded around showing us points of interest. We walked around a loop trail from the park we’d met and I got a botany lesson in distinguishing the various oaks and maples we came across (and identifying poison ivy, which is significantly less distinctive than I’d imagined), and lessons in whistling on an oak cap. (Which I tried again later on when I found another one, and discovered I could even still do it without tuition! Woot!) For the record, sugar maple has smaller leaves, red maple has larger leaves, and silver maple has elongated leaves. Unfortunately, I failed my oak quiz at the end of the trek and still can't remember how to distinguish red from white, so I should probably avoid providing further lessons to the general public. :P
After waving goodbye to her, we headed on towards the coast of Lake Michigan to meet up with iviolinist’s awesome boyfriend, who definitely has the seal of approval from us. They took us on the grand tour of Grand Haven, corn dogs, and the pier at the lakeshore (a beach with surprisingly excellent glacier-ground sand, even to snobby Australian tastes), and finally the local bowling alley where I even managed to win the second game. :)