oooooo aaaaaahhhh, little one

My high opinion of children has been restored, folks. It's a glorious thing.

Lindsey, Jess, & I walked down to Bryant Park to watch the end-o-festival fireworks. Unfortunately, they weren't so great... at all. But sitting right next to us was a dad and two of his kids. One of those kids was a toddler, 2-3 years old. According to dad, he didn't know how to oooo-aaaahh... and the little one was much more interested in watching three very enthusiastic young women be completely goofy. So, we set out to turn this wee one into a oooo-aaahhhing aficionado.

"Look, look!" We would exclaim. He'd follow our fingers just in time to see a firework errupt. We three would I all "ooooo" then "aaaahh." The first few times he'd look back at us like we were insane or a couple fries short of his happy meal, but we persevered....

And quite randomly our little buddy shouted out (and nevermind that there wasn't a firework in the sky at that moment), "ooooooooooo" Jess, Linds, and errupted in cheers. The dad about died laughing at us. (nevermind the lack of timing, we worked on that)

By the time the show was over we had an ooo-ahhhing expert on our hands. It was amazing. I'm so proud.

Taking pictures of fireworks is difficult. Not sure if any of mine shall turn out.

Just Some Pics

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We went down to the festival today to get some good ole' fashioned carnival food. And like the absent minded Asher I tend to be, I forgot my camera @ the Well. So np super-sweet images of the rides and the carnies... maybe tomorrow...

But, my seriously talented friend, Lindsey, got creative and was using M&Ms and espresso grinds as the coloring agents for her "watercolor" artwork she was working on at the Well. I snapped several shots. Here are a sample.

(a word about the lighting in Jacob's Well: the walls are an amazing burnt orange/red color and the lighting relatively dim for the setting of the environment. Using my little point n shoot digital with the flash on totally leaves the people looking washed out and glossy... so I'm learning how to use the lack of light to my advantage. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks!)

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So, in this first pic Lindsey is painting my boss @ the Well, Ebeth (aka Elizabeth). You can see all her tools. Including the M&Ms. To be clear: she was taking water and rubbing it on the shells of the M&Ms to create the color she needed. For brown she used Espresso ground. Sheer genius.


Lindsey painting me.

...And the Natives Flee...

(warning: this post contains lots of pictures)

Wee, it's official! The 2007 National Cherry Festival has begun! YAY!

With all the fudgies causing mayhem, Joe, Alex, & I headed north for Leelanau County. Our destination: the open road.

:-p

With no real destination in mind we stopped at various fruit stands and hole-in-the-wall markets to support the very happy people and the all-natural goodness they sell. We also went to a couple Vineyards, the first being Blackstar Farms where I did my very first first wine tasting. I didn't sample anything there that was horrible (except for one at the other winery we went to), but my favorite was their 2004 A Capella Riesling Ice Wine. But no, I didn't buy any. It's $90/bottle. Yikes! I also liked their Sirius Cherry Dessert Wine and their 2006 Arcturos Late Harvest Riesling. Woot for new and fun experiences!

I had mentioned when we first left that I had my camera and wanted to stop and take pics somewhere. So, quite randomly, Al stops the car, and says, "Is this good for pictures?" It was absolutely gorgeous. And my subjects were pretty great, too...


This is the road we were driving down. I love this picture. We were on a hill and you can see two hills in the distance.

A better shot of the house in the first pic. I love old farm houses. And, I love how the road comes towards you out of the right side of the picture!

The hill across the road from where I took the first two. The weeds and such were so tall. I was seated on the ground for this pic.

Pretty yellow flowers! Up close! I love how it stands out against the brown fieldness.

The horizon. Absolutely gorgeous. The color/distance contrast is amazing. It was beautiful out there!

Alex & Joe. Two very great guys. Al's on the left, Joe is on the right.

I asked them to pose. This is what I got. :-p

Pose #2.

This is a great pic. I'm lovin' it! The lighting was perfect.Look at the sky! And Al pretty much uprooted the enire thing to chew on.

And now Joe. :)

My shadow. I was playing around and it actually turned out!

West GT Bay (aka Lake Michigan). This is another one of those instances where Al discovered that I was trying to take pictures through my window, so he pulled over. This is the best of the two of the bay that I took, but it's still not that great. It doesn't do the bay justice. But the traffic was too heavy for me to trapse across the highway.
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You'll notice that the only picture of me is my shadow. Well, that's intentional. I woke up this AM with my neck bugging me again and could barely do my hair. Just putting it in a ponytail was very painful. Al asked if I wanted any pics of me and I said no, thanks, and explained why. Both he and Joe scoffed at me and explained that my hair's so beautiful that it doesn't matter how I fix it....

Awwww....

Anyway. I blushed, declined, and moved on.

The day's conclusion: 1) I still have a few good friends. 2) We need to go on random adventures that only cost $10 total.

What's a Fudgie?

In the coming days and weeks and for the duration of the summer, you may hear me refer to "fudgies."

What is a fudgie?

Fudg-ee: Noun. A tourist; foriegner, especially during summer months. One who travels to the Traverse City area on vacation and buys fudge.
Used in a sentence: "Asher knew the car in front of her contained fudgies as they attempted to make a left-hand turn from the right-hand turn lane."

In general, I like fudgies. They keep my beautiful hometown afloat as their presence brings in over half (near 3/4s) of all business for local business owners between June and August. What draws them? Well, aside from the beautiful scenary:



There's the Cherries. We like our Cherries. So much so that we have ourselves a festival every summer celebrating them.
(that makes us sound like a bunch of polytheists, lol)




According to census, there were 14532 residents in Traverse City in 2000. It's grown rapidly since then, and keep in mind, there are a few thousand more who commute in from bedroom communities, ever day. We more than double our occupancy in the summer time, especially for the weeks directly surrounding the National Cherry Festival.

So, my fudgie friends! Thanks for coming! Really, we appreciate it. Please be curteous of the locals, though. We love our bays year-round, and when you dump your garbage into the marina, it makes me/us sad.
Stay safe; don't leave the beer tent in your car.
Be patient. fitting 40,000+ people in a town that's already bursting at its seems slows things down a bit, and while you're on vacation, we locals must go to work and serve you!

PS- Fudgies, I know you're confused and overwhelmed, but perhaps making a left hand turn out of the right hand turn lane in the 2nd busiest intersection in the city, isn't the safest idea. Please... don't do it. Death and carnage aren't our friends. Avoid whenever possible.