Thanksgiving In Manistee

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. It's one of my favorite holidays. Just hang out, eat food, and watch football. Way better than X-mas. WAAAY Better...


Megan at the Nummerdor Cabin up in Manistee, Michigan.


Brian, Nick and Andrew plotting a fire


Karli giving the gang sign for the Van Buren Boys Gang (Seinfeld reference).


Karli sporting her new watch.


Gathering around the fire




Brian, Katie, Andrew, and Karli


Anyone who knows the Nummerdor Cabin knows the Kozy Kitchen. I like the two egg meal with meat and potatos for $5.65


The description above describes it all...


Looks like a normal house, right?


Just a thousand or so bottles stacked on their side makiing up the walls of the house.


A totem pole of a man with a beaver on his head outside of the bottle house.


Andrew and Nick inside the Bottle House/Kaleva Historic Museum reviewing every class that has ever graduated from Kaleva High School.


Here's a creepy student that model of "Gary," which it what a student at Kaleva High School would have looked like.


Tennessee in his hunting gear at the Cabin


Campfire with Tennessee in foreground


Brian and Nick


Cliff on the hog


Hiking in the Manistee National Forest. The trail we're on runs from Delaware to Montana (if I remember correctly).








Megan of the Northern Woods.






So, we bought frozen pizza and then there was no gas for the stove. Hmmm. So, Tyler helped rig up a hobo grill and baked some good pizza. Somehow it worked and the pizza was great. Otherwise, it was going to be Wheat Thins for dinner...


Jared, Tyler, and Mike Nummerdor at the campfire. We spent a lot of time at the campfire.


Karli and Tennessee keeping warm in the cabin.


Mike Nummerdor looks like a wizard from Harry Potter. He's melting a milk jug.


Now the wizard is lighting off bottle rockets.


Nick finally caught Tennessee so we can get breakfast.


Brian, Katie, and Andrew on Dale's log


Andrew and Steve shooting pool.


Brian on some kind of scientific expedition.


Brian shooting a potato gun full of a bag of sand.


Katie, Andrew, and Nick on the side of Big M. This hill use to be a ski hill, but now it's a part of the Manistee National Forest.


Karli reaching the summit of Big M.


Mike Nummerdor posing for a monument to be dedicated to him in the future.


Megan with the vast expanse of Michigan behind her.


Megan


Mike Nummerdor gazing at the Northern Woods








Megan scaling down Big M


Brian taking a break after coming down Big M


This is Ian. He greeted us at Zeppi's Pizza in Brethren, Michigan. He was a pretty funny kid. He liked my keys and tried to steal them from me.


Nick, Katie, Matt, and Tyler at the final campfire before going home...


The Booty Hunter prepares to head back to Chicago...

It was a great Thanksgiving and a HUGE thanks to Nick and Mike Nummerdor for the invite to the cabin!!!

xoxo,
Mike

FLORIDA VACATION: Part I - Miami

I have divided up the pictures to make viewing a bit more easy since we took WAY too many. So, here you go.

Thanks a lot to Johnny Duff and Ruth for letting us stay at your place. You guys were awesome and it was nice having some locals tell us what's good and what's not. Thanks again and don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything.


Nothing like waking up at 5am to catch a flight to MIAMI!!!


The first thing we did getting off the plane was to head to Le Tub for some 1 lbs. burgers. They are monsters! It's a cool bar/grille that is covered in real junk (no Applebee's junk). The only complaint is the bird that shit in our fries...


The view of the Intercoastal Waterway from Le Tub.






DURBIN!!! Ruth's rescued dog. He currently has a mohawk. I wish he were mine...


Durbin, Me, and Lilly the cat. The friendliest pets on earth...


Playing a card game. This is Noah (my 11 year old cousin) with Johnny (my 28 year old cousin) and Ruth (not a cousin). Jordan (my other 11 year old cousin) is at the fridge trying to figure out his hand...


John and Ruth's neighbor have the best light post in town.


What would a Megan and Mike vacation be if we didn't happen to find a car show?


Millennium Park in Hollywood (northern suburb of Miami). These are amazing trees and a sidewalk goes right through the middle.


Not sure what kinda catapiller this is. But, this may have been the one that almost killed Johnny a few weeks back. Check his blog for details. He's in my top friends under "Duff"


Johnny and Ruth at "Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House- Once a favorite of Sinatra and the Rat Pack, this Miami Beach favorite is unfortunately on the list of destruction to make way for a new set of condo's along the beach. Since 1954 over 6.7 million stuffed cabbages, 750,000 chickens and 26.5 million pickles have been consumed by over 100 million diners. I'm happy to say that my very first date with Ruth, we ate at the Rascal House!" -reprinted from Johnny's blog


This is a guy's house. Apparently, the former owner of Windjammer (?) boats had this place until he ran off with the company assets. When designing this place, I guess he had a realization that he was a pirate because he dated 20 year old women, sailed the seas, liked rum, and so on. So, he built a pirate castle complete with a shark infested moat. For reals...


I wonder how much this is on the market for?


It's like living at Medieval Times!


Lincoln Street (Miami's Michigan Avenue) near Ruth's studio


Old Spanish Church right downtown. Megan met a drunk bum here.
"I need to talk to someone about my drinkin'." says the bum
"I'm sure someone can talk to you in the church." Megan replies.
"I'll blow the fuckin' church up!" he said somehow intensely and lethargically. Megan comes up to Johnny and I and prodded us to leave. "Hey girl. Come talk to me! I'm going to kick those guys in the back" talking about Johnny and I.
"I've never had so many run ins with bums as I do with you..." say Johnny.
"I attract oddities" says I...


I was disappointed later to discover this was an artist installation. I was hoping this was some guy's business because he would be very successful with all the lipo, botox, and implants in South Beach Miami...


I didn't even notice the Burger King to the left until I edited the photos. Miami has some of the greatest architecture!


South Beach!


Megan and Johnny at South Beach.
















I guess this is where Versace was murdered.


A house made of coral!


The World Erotic Art Museum. Unfortunately, the only weird place we saw that we didn't go into...


VW bus truck...


Biker rally!


Here's Miami Ink. Ask me about my tattoo!


Spanish Alley? A cool little European influenced plaza.


Johnny buying cigars. No Cubans. You have to go to Little Havana for those. Maybe Big Havana...


Nothing like going to the cemetery while on vacation...


The inscription says "and away we go!"


It's Jackie Gleason's grave. It seemed a lot more strange and interesting on the Roadside America website. It was just depressing and not at all like the description. But, I can now say I've been to his grave...


THIS IS AMAZING! I want to get all pets Lasik now!!!


Matheson Hammock Park Beach at Biscayne Bay. It's awesome. But, make sure you swim at the lagoon because Crocs nest at the other surrounding beaches. Seriously...


I'm not depressed. I'm reading about this rock being given to Miami by it's Sister City in the Canary Islands...


Let me introduce you to my friend. This is my hat, Panama Jackass. He was the second thing I did in Florida. I bought him for $4 after a Le Tub burger...


Marina at Matheson. Look at the posts. These are floating docks for when the tides or hurricanes come around.


Miami from Matheson.


The swimming lagoon!






Me and Megan at the lagoon


Tropical paradise!


MONKEY JUNGLE: Where the humans are caged and the monkeys run WILD!!!


What are you, little guy?


Momma and baby monkey chilling on top on the walkway.


Huge iguanas


This parrot says "hey guys" when you walk by.


OH MY GOD! IT'S A MONKEY! These are the famous enclosed monkey walkways at Monkey Jungle.








I've never been this close to monkeys in my life. IT WAS AMAZING!!!
















Megan showing off on of the monkey walkways. Don't walk directly under a sitting monkey because they can piss on you. We did have it happen to us, but some funny women did get pissed on when we were there...


Close up




begging monkey


I'm Jack Hanna!






Spider Monkeys! In the walkways, they have chains dangling down with little bowls. You can buy raisins and fruit to put in the bowls. The monkey then pull the chains up and eat out of the dish. These clang around the whole time as monkeys eat and beg. These spider monkeys were insane and swarmed food. It was out of a scary movie...






This Orangatang signed the words "I love you." Not with me though. I think she hated me. I guess a few years ago, many of the monkey were dressed as cowboys and astronauts, but PETA didn't like it...


One of many gorilla's I've seen on this vacation. Apparently, there are only about 80 in capitivity? I've seen about 10 in south Florida...






This is the gorilla showing us his dance moves. He seriously knew how to do an ass shake dance. I love his face in the third segment. Such a hooch...


Red assed baboon


Satisfied Monkey Jungle customers!


This is a captive hot air balloon ride. They had one of these at the Chicago 1893 Columbian Exhibition.


Bank of America or Bank of France? USA! USA! USA!


Public art!


Miami skyline


American Airlines Arena. I like it when my Pistons win here...


Miami architects know how to use color. Chicago architects only know blacks, grays, and whites...


Caesar Pelli's Performing Arts Center. It looks like vines are going to grow over the sides of the edges and make it look like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.


Another section of the Performing Arts Center. This section is the headquarters for Ducque (sp?) rum in the TV show Cane.


Fountain at Performing Arts Center


Art museum in downtown Miami. I wish I had a daytime image of it.


The Rainbo Cafe. Nice little place. There's an older women who goes there everyday that sings her own lyric about lost love in Florida to the tunes on the radio. Beautiful...


This is actually in the front patio dining area. The Rainbo Cafe use to be a casino restaurant that Al Capone hung out at. They also shot a scene of Cape Fear here.


Hollywood beach


Mike (in the wooly wife beater & Panama Jackass hat) and Megan (in the fish hat).








Wecome... To Jurassic Park...


Beach Hottie.


Isn't this a couple you'd want to party with?








So we drank about a gallon of margarittas on the beach. We forgot the bring salt, but luckily the ocean (which was 75 degrees) provided some for us on our lips...




relaxed...


Our gallon of margarittas pointing toward the old man in a banana hammock. Beautiful...




What's a vacation without a romantic fling?


Paragliding at Hollywood Beach.


LaCarretta Restaurant in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami. It had great food of beef, pork, chicken in all kinds of sauces. Plantains. The works!

Thanks to Ruth and Johnny for letting us interrupt their lives so we can have fun in Miami! It was great guys and let me know when you'll be in Chicago!!!

BLOG CONTINUED IN: Florida Vacation:Part II - Orlando...