Susan is here!!!!!!

Susan is a very dear friend from New Zealand. She arrived here in Michigan on June 2!!! It was so exciting to pick her up from the airport!!! I first met this great girl when I was in New Zealand with Trina, over 3 years ago! But that is another story, to read it you have to go to our blog here. 

We have had lots of adventures in the two weeks that Susan has been here. We started small, our first stop was Dow Gardens. 

 

Such a beautiful place to walk around and enjoy God's creation. Every year they do a different theme and this year was Dr. Seuss. 

There were statues of his characters all over the gardens and it was fun to find all the different ones. Milo and Eddie took some pictures with them. 

We decided to go into the Midland Center for the Arts after walking in the gardens and it turns out there is a museum in there. We enjoyed that for a bit and even sang some karaoke. They had some original drawings from Theodor Seuss Geisel himself, pretty interesting to see. Turns out he drew more than the Cat in the Hat and Horton. We walked around downtown Midland, ate some Cherry Berry, and walked around by the Tridge, a three-way bridge.

Sadly, the next few days I had to work so, poor Susan, was stuck at home with my parents all day. She is a trooper though. Thanks, Susan, for putting up with last week! 

We were able to hang out and explore the area after I got out of work. We explored Bay City one day and I introduced Susan to garlic knots from Brooklyn Boyz. If you've never had these garlic knots, you are really missing out. The pizza is great too, but the garlic knots are definitely the reason I keep going back. We walked down by the river and saw the beautiful sunset through the Ring of Friendship and we tried to memorize the flags to the different countries that are included in this friendship. 

We also went to Frankenmuth. Of course, I took her to Bronner's and we walked around reveling in the Christmas spirit. Apparently, Christmas is not as big in New Zealand as it is here in America so Susan was amazed at all of the different ornaments, trees, and other decorations. Then we walked around downtown and had to try some fudge and visit the Cheese Haus. 

My parents are very sweet and they offered to take us to Cedar Point or Mackinac Island. Susan chose the island and it turned out to be an amazing choice. We were blessed with amazing weather and minimal bugs. We took the ferry to the island from St. Ignace so we had to cross the Mackinac Bridge first. 

This day just so happened to be the last day of the Lilac Festival on the island, and while we were waiting for our ferry, we heard a bagpipe band walking down the road to where we were. It turned out that they were headed to the island too, for the parade that was going to happen later that day.  

Susan really loves how patriotic we are here in America, so I had to get a picture of the bridge with the American flag.

The water was a little choppy on our way to the island but we were still able to take the ferry underneath the bridge. The experience is definitely worth it if you ever take the ferry to the island. 

We walked around for a bit and then decided to check out the fort. It was pretty cool because they do demonstrations all day long, we were able to be there to see them shoot the cannon and a couple of rifles the soldiers used back in the 1800's. Still walking around we found what we were told, is the largest lilac tree on the island. It was so tall that in the picture we took with it you can't even see the top or any of the flowers! 

We walked around by the Grand Hotel but were not going to pay the $10 it cost to go on the porch, the gardens were pretty enough. For lunch, we went to this little place called the Chuck Wagon, my mom used to work on the island when she was in her teens and she told us she used to eat breakfast there all the time. This place had amazing burgers on pretzel buns and the service was almost better than the food. We sat down, ordered, and the waitress brought our food in less than 5 minutes, for all 4 of us! Incredible! After lunch we walked around some more and ended up sitting in the green listening to a few different bands play before the parade began. After the parade we rented bikes and biked the 8 miles around the island, stopping to climb up the 207 steps to Arch Rock. It was definitely worth the climb, although my legs were like Jell-O at the top. 

The water was beautiful that day and our bike ride was amazing. We were even able to help a little baby squirrel cross the road. So cute! 

Before we left for the mainland, we had to get some fudge, so we stopped at May's, where my mom used to work, and got a few slices of fudge. Mackinac Island fudge is the best! 

That night we tented at the Straits State Park. After setting up our tents and changing into warmer clothes, we decided to walk to the lake. We never made it, we ended up finding a really great lookout over the bridge and headed back to the campsite to go to bed, it was a long day. 

 

The next day we headed back south. Stopping at Mama Mia's Pizzeria and Mackinac Bridge Museum to show Susan how the bridge was built back in the 1950's. My father, of course, had to get some pizza for the road because it smelled so good. The next town was Petoskey, where we toured the Kilwin's Chocolate Factory, got to wear hairnets, and eat some delicious samples. 

Then on to Traverse City, Cherry Republic and Susan and I were having coffee withdrawals so we stopped to get our fix. 

Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes was next on the agenda, we stopped there to hike up the dunes and run back down. Such a cool view from the top. We didn't make it all the way to Lake Michigan because it's a 2-3 mile hike through loose sand and we were definitely not prepared for that! But we did drive through the Sleeping Bear Dunes Park, and even saw some wildlife, deer and a raccoon. Such a good time! 

We have also been hanging out closer to home. On Tuesday night, the young adults group that I attend at church had our first block party of the season and Susan and I went. It was a great time of fellowship, playing volleyball and bubble soccer, and eating. I am going to miss all you great people from Aftershock this summer! 

Tonight my parents took us to a Loon's baseball game in Midland. It was Susan's first experience with baseball. They lost the game, but it was still pretty fun. We just so happened to go on family night as well, they had $1 hot dogs, chips, pop, and ice cream sandwiches, we are cheap dates. The sunset was beautiful and the weather couldn't have been much better. 

I am really looking forward to exploring the rest of America with Susan. I know God will bless our time together. I hope you all love reading about our experiences and come along with us on our journey.