Island Get Away

As full fledged "fudgies" we had to stop by the many fudge shops on the island. We broke down and bought a few pieces and have been enjoying them each night after a homemade dinner.


Mackinac Island is famous for not having any motor vehicles (the only highway in the USA that has never had a car accident). We were riding our bikes to our condo and saw this. It is a horse drawn street sweeper. We are always amazed at the lack of horse dung on the trails and roads, so this explains how they clean it up so fast.


This is a view from the back of our condo. It overlooked the Straits of Mackinac which joins Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. We had some great sunsets!


Here Megan stands with roots in front of the Grand Hotel. By far the most well known and expensive place to stay on the island. It cost $12 just to stand on the porch! Needless to say we did not stay there or even go on the porch. We did walk around and enjoy the gardens from a distance.


The leaves are changing all over the island. It was so beautiful to ride on the trails that twist through and around the island. Despite it being fall we enjoyed sunny warm weather most of the trip (except at night when it dropped into the 40's, good thing we had a fireplace!).

"Crema" Italian Pasta

My brother-in-law (Ian) served his mission in Italy and has learned to make some very tasty pasta. Here is an easy one that is one of my favorites. He doesn't have a recipe...so I'm just guessing on the amounts from when I’ve made it; you could play with them a little bit to your liking.

2 T Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic-minced
3 t Chicken Base
1 T Fresh Basil (or 1 tsp dried)
1/2 tsp Sugar
Red Pepper Flakes or Ground Cayenne Pepper-season to taste
2 (14.5oz) Cans diced tomatoes
½ C Table Cream (such as Cacique Crema Mexicana)

Heat oil in pan-Add Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes--sauté garlic until browned. Add Chicken Base, Basil and Sugar. Pour in Juice from tomatoes. Let simmer about 10 minutes. Add tomatoes. Continue to simmer to cook off moisture about 10 more minutes.
Turn off heat and stir in Crema. Serve over Penne Pasta. Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

If you happen to have free time...

I have one of my book groups tomorrow, and have really enjoyed reading this book. It is about the KKK in Florida set in the 1950s. It is advertised as being similar to "To Kill a Mockingbird"--I think I actually like this one better.

Roots and Broken Roots

These are two pictures that Ster took of Roots last week. Megan had just spent a few hours at JC Penny trying to just get them to take a few pictures and not rip her off (no joke, they press a button on the computer to change it to black and white picture and charge $8 more for it because it is "enhanced"). Ster came home and took some real beauties. These are just a few of them.



Below is a picture in our backyard. I was just coming home with Roots after being on a bike ride at the park and I heard a loud snap. I looked up just in time to see a tree fall. The roots had rotted away so it fell in a light breeze. Luckily the garage was spared and there was just damage to the rain gutter and a part of the fence. We had some wonderful friends of ours come and help get it chopped up and cleared out.

Frog Attack

I took this video tonight and could not resist posting it. I hope that Roots forgives me for posting a video of her in the nude. She has a pet frog and as you will see she will attack it when it comes near.

Akron Fun

This weekend we went to Akron Ohio to visit our Grandparents (and Rooters Great Grandparents). It was a great way to spend the last weekend of summer. Roots got her 8th state as we crossed over the border.



While in Akron we visited the zoo. Gram and Gramp had not been there since Megan was a little girl so many things had changed. It was a very nice little zoo. Megan and Roots are seen here with a Jaguar. Roots wasn't fazed by the huge cat.



Here is a picture of the gang under a waterfall at the zoo.


This is a picture of Roots that was taken out on our bike ride in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The river trail follows the old canal that ran between different cities in the east to transport goods. We saw turtles, deer, cranes and other creatures on our 14 mile ride with Rooter in the bike trailer.



Here is a quick family picture along the bike trail.

Here we are in front of the restaurant we at ate. I guess Brielle didn't like it so much. Too bad, the food was good.

We're not in Utah anymore

The skyline from Navy Pier on our anniversary.

TIMBER!

This is one of the many trees we saw knocked over during the rain storm. We heard on the news that night that there was a tornado warning for Chicago but since it never touched down, they didn't sound the alarm. We heard reports of 2700 tree incidents. At least this wasn't covering the road!

Who is this?

This Hagrid is made entirely of Legos! He "lives" at Navy Pier.

View from the Top

This is the northeast view from the Sears Tower. We're glad we went this day, because the day before it was cloudy and they told us visibility was only 2 miles.