A Wedding In the Woods

CONGRATS TO MIKE AND ROSE!  You're married and Megan and I are so honored to have been there to see it!

First things first.  Getting re-baptized in Muskegon Lake

 Boat entering Muskegon Lake from the canal connecting to Lake Michigan 

Catamarans along the beach

Lighthouse on Lake Michigan at Pere Marquette Beach Park

Looking toward the Coast Guard station

 

Life size graffiti. 

Lake Express car ferry heading back to Milwaukee

Burcos Tacos (http://www.burcostacos.com/) in the old K-Mart plaza in Norton Shores.  I really liked the Thai and Old School tacos.  Dirt cheap.  Might have to buy the franchise rights and put one in down the street from me.

old acrylic painting from high school of the street I stayed on in Heidelburg, Germany

A pastel of some guy I did for some project.  Hope that helps...

Lake Harbor Park beach.  

Sunset 

The ladies watching the sun set

 A couple of the restored buildings on Western Avenue in downtown Muskegon.  Some nice little shops in the Century Building and the most hand crafted coffee I've ever had from Drink Drop Drink Coffee

Muskegon Proud mural 

An explanation of the history of snowboarding in Muskegon for the pics below

The Turning Point sculpture

The original Snurfer at the museum down on Western Avenue.

"Muskegon; Together Rising" a.k.a. "the can opener" 

Buster Keaton sculpture

Hackley Library 

Glass floor in the Hackley Library

 windows in the Hackley Library

The Hackley & Hume Home Museum (http://www.muskegonmuseum.org/hackley_hume.html).  Megan and I had some time to kill between errands and decided to check it out.  Charles Hackley (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Hackley) is pretty much the reason why Muskegon, Michigan exists at all and Thomas Hume was his partner.

Thomas Hume's Home

The barn they shared

awesome coat tree.  The next batch of photos is the interior of the Hackley House.

 

Living room

Pretty amazing stenciling on the ceiling of the entire house.

not a bad dining room buffet

The modern kitchen.

This is just the hallway...

I guess if you are a lumber baron, it's not a bad idea to have everything in the house carved in wood.

And now for the interior of the Hume Home

Brunswick pool table made in Muskegon.  Kinda sad to see since I saw they just tore down the old Brunswick factory.

 

Monet Garden 

Little Lily Pond

Frauenthal Theatre 

 

 Megan trying her first Wet Burrito at the Station (http://www.stationgrill.com/)

Downtown Manistee waiting for our hotel room and getting ready for the wedding. 

CAMPING WEDDING!!!

Mike waiting for his bride

Here comes the bride: Rose!

 TIME TO PARTY!

Now that is a steak

food and reception tent

Post-wedding ride on the bike

Nate 

Alice and I 

Andrew watching Matt and Nick 

Dustin and Cliff 

This was only the start 

TENNESSEE!!!  You're no longer a puppy...

Shots on the dance floor 

Frances and I in our obligatory "ugly shot."

Angela and Noah

Detroit-style pizza from Jet's (http://jetspizza.com/).  Thanks Lisa 

Niagara Falls.  A great place to stretch your legs between Muskegon MI,  and Rochester, NY.  This is the Horseshoe Falls.

Lots of mist

American and Bridal Veil Falls

Lots of tourists with the city in the background.

Horseshoe falls with a suspicious lady.

Maid of the Mist looking for trouble.

Well, it's been a very busy week and a half.  It was good going to a couple of wedding.  Seeing tons of my friends.  Seeing lots of my family.  Visiting all my favorite old haunts and all that that's changed back home over the years.  THANKS AGAIN and I hope to be back soon and see everyone again!

Labor Day Weekend Wedding!

CONGRATS SHANNON AND BOGI ON YOUR WEDDING! 

(photo: Erin Tabone Bell) 

Apparently, if you attend a service or wedding at St. Ambrose's Church, it must be followed up with donuts at Donuts Delite (http://www.SalvatoresDonutsDelite.com/).

PARTY!

Sorry

Sorry

Sorry

We tried...

Bogi: "Look at what Mike can do with his face!"  

Years of practice, my friend

Bogi, from now on, Dick will be asking to drink wine out of you crunk cup...

Closing out summer at Marge's (http://margeslakesideinn.com/) in Irondequoit.  

Jumbo Shrimp (http://www.jumboshrimpmusic.com/) putting on one hell of a show

Next stop, the Manistee National Forest for Rose and Mike's wedding!  It will be a great time and hope you see you in Muskegon!

HAVE A GREAT LABOR DAY!

Mr. Gorbachev, Paint Over This Beige Wall!

Another room being painted!  Here's Megan painting the master bedroom buttercup (yellow) from beige

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Yeah for new bedroom.  That was a fun couple of weekends.  If you want to see what we did to the living room, you can visit: http://mikekraus.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-battle-against-beige-tyranny.html

How do you celebrate a newly painted bedroom?  A bonfire of course!

Whoops, I guess I made the fire a little too big...  Exciting day yesterday.  A guy driving by my house had a gas leak in his car and it caught fire.  It's not in this picture, but you can imagine what 2,000 lbs of charcoal with a Chevy bowtie looks like...

Ruby Shoes playing in the parking lot of the main street (Commercial Street) in East Rochester.  For some reason, they played all the songs from Grease.  That reason is probably that people love it.

Rachel showing off her swimming ability.

Foot

And, what would my blog be without my baby deers update?  

This is by far the closest the fawn have been to us.  Curious little fellas and they still have their spots.  Pretty soon, they'll be moving in the house and paying rent.

That's about it.  Lots of stuff coming up over the next couple of weeks...

7 Things To Make Up For Last Weekend...

We met another one of our fine neighbors.  This is Kiki the Yorkie.  She was barking in the middle of the road.  Megan crouched down and said "Here puppy" and she ran over and lept into her lap.  Fierce guard dog.  She's back home with her loving family.

 Kiki likes laps

Kiki does like the grass

Thanks to Jen, we went to a Western New York Flash (http://www.wnyflash.com/) game.  This is outside at Sahlen Stadium 

Pretty good seats! 

CORNER KICK!

Abby Wambach penalty kick.  Did not go, but we did see her head in another goal earlier in the game.

Baby deer update:  They are all good.  Had a little bit of a scare last Saturday finding a fawn hit by a car on Five Mile Line Road.

Megan at Irondequoit Creek in Linear Park

Me at the same place

That is a really red sweatshirt...

Sgoh-Sa-Is-Thah.  Saw this sign on the other side of Irondequoit Creek when we were wandering around finding new paths.

 Moving!  Not us again (thank god).  Dave and Alison got a new place and we helped them move.

Megan in "Mom's Attic" resting once everything was unloaded.

 Stella seems to like the new house

Stella's also tired from a long day of moving...

Yotini's finally opened up near us (just northwest of the intersection of Penfield (441) and Five Mile Line Road at Liberty Street).  Haven't tried it yet.  Lots of yogurt shops going in lately.

And, you know what this means.  The Battle Against Beige Tyranny continues at the Bell/Kraus household.  The first coat is up and we'll finish it up this weekend.  

Put Down That Cocoon!

So, what is this nonsense?  It's allegedly a UFO visiting a pool in Naples Florida.  At first, I thought it was the pool I was in when I was down there a couple of times last year.  Not so sure now, but here's the story from CNN:  
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/08/09/dnt-ufo-in-florida-pool.wbbh.html
Does this remind anyone else of the Ron Howard movie Cocoon starring Wilford Brimley?  I think it's coming true...

What have I learned from this?  There's an organization called Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) dedicated to UFO research: http://www.mufon.com/

That's all I really have this week.  Megan's been sick, so we've been just hanging around the house.  Thanks to Sarah and Pete for hosting a party when Jarrett was in town.