Saturday up north...........

On Saturday it was a beautiful day. Probably one of the few left. So at 10am Gerry, Tristen and myself went and picked up Reina. Laura had to work so we were watching her for the day. Once she heard we were going to East Jordan she got all excited and wanted to go back to Raven's Hill. So we set out with a few stops in mind. First off was Guntzviller's Taxidermy and Museum. There is a shop selling touristy things and furs (yeuk) and moccassins etc. I would not normally go to such a place but they do have an interesting museum. It covers all North American (Michigan) wildlife and also Native American items. Big displays of arrow heads etc. Worth the stop. I had to laugh though because the lady was standing in for the owners and didn't know how to open the cash register so that saved me some money.

They enjoyed it but it didn't really hold their attention for very long.

So we moved on. The next stop was at the Twisted Fish Gallery. That stop was for me. They have a sculpure garden and art galleries. Lots of things to buy for the garden. Tristen was having a rather naughty episode resulting in a cuff from me and he had to sit in the car howling while Reina and I went and looked at the art. She enjoyed it and didn't have to be told not to touch. Tristen has his fits or temper or whatever but he does get over it quickly.

In summer the gardens themselves are worth stopping for and the sculptures are all for sale.

The next stop was Elk Rapids, let them loose at the park and I went off to take pictures. They loved that.


After we had wandered around and the kids had worked off some energy and were hungry, the next stop was Friske orchards. There I bought us some awesome pizza and a donut for after. They were doing orchard tours. I had concidered that but we had a mission. I was not sure I could find Ravens Hill again.


We didn't linger too long, the had a look at the goats and did the usual fun things they enjoy there and we were off headed to East Jordan. We stopped at the Glass Blowing studio. I bought a lovely white pumpkin.

This time around Tristen was very interested. Last time it was "boring". Then again, last time was mid July and stifling in there. This time it was pleasant and he really got into watching and asking questions.


I even had the sense to ask directions to Raven's Hill..........and we made it there with no trouble. This was the highlight of their day. We saw a few things we missed last time. We went to the main house first and Tristen got going on the drums, all of the drums, very loudly. We were waiting to go into the animal exhibit.

Reina was still not into the snakes. The spider stayed in his cage


The school house is popular and this time we found the tree house. I don't know how we missed it.

We did go so I could take pictures of the colours, I had expected it closer to peak than it was, but it was pretty.


They wanted to know if they were real dinasaur bones


Gerry took a few pictures. "Stand under the tree he said" it was facing the sun, so he didn't know why the kids could not pose haha.

Well it was a great day out and fun was had by all. Tristens first bad mood was gone and he enjoyed the rest of his day.
It was a quiet trip home


Linking with Outdoor Wednesday