The Wedding

Saturday, the day of the wedding, everyone was so afraid it was going to rain! But we didn’t even have a drop. The wedding was really great I hear. People had so much fun that Papa and Mom were gone for a really long time! And, you know what? Papa conducted the wedding! That’s right! He became certified to legally marry people because Jason had asked him if he would perform the ceremony. I could hear his knees shaking before he left for the ceremony. Mom kept telling him he’d do fine. Maybe that made him more nervous than if she hadn’t said anything. I think she was nervous for him, too.

I wish I could have been “ring dog” and Zoe could have been “flower dog”, but we weren’t asked to participate. I know I’d have done a wonderful job. As you see, there are lots of pictures on this blog. Since I couldn’t be there, I decided I’d share the spotlight with some people that Mom and Dad really love.You see lots of people here whom you have never met before. Of course, you know Papa, but you've never seen him looking like a Rabbi, I bet. He is wearing his gift of a new prayer shawl which has Carolina Blue colors. Erin and Jason gave that to him as a way of thanking him for doing the wedding.

The bride and groom are married under a huppah which symbolizes the home. They are escorted to the huppah by parents. Audrey makes such a beautiful mother of the groom, doesn't she. She likes me lots, too. I think I could have helped them down the aisle. I'd have been really pretty!

This is the huppah and the ceremony. I think they look really happy, too!

Jason has three sisters, too. Halli is the one in the middle of the picture with the three girls and Taylor is on the left and Jamie is on the right. Jason's step-father, Brad, was having a great time with it all! And Mom says he is a really good dancer! Plus, he and Papa listen really well to Audrey - she's connected to the Blueberry Vodka drink in the hand, here.

They didn't get to talk to Halli as much as they wanted to about her travels in Israel, but they hope to talk with her soon. They met Kyle who came with Jamie, and heard about Taylor's football player fiance, Matt. Mom thinks they should all visit us in Chapel Hill. What fun!

One thing that is done in the Jewish ceremony is the breaking of a glass at the end of the marriage ceremony which means that the couple can no longer go back to how they were before the marriage. They will continue through life together and never the way they were before.

After the vows are completed the mothers of both the bride and groom read a blessing to them.

And then the KISS!

Views from the Truck!

Phaedra here, folks: As you know the whole reason for us to be in Michigan at this time is for a wedding. Papa’s grandnephew, Jason, is getting married to Erin. I’ve never met either of them, but I am sure they are great people because they have two dogs! Can’t be bad if you like dogs, right?

So, off we went on Thursday heading north to Elk Rapids, which is close to Traverse City. That’s the area that Erin comes from and Mom and Dad are so excited to go back to a place where they used to ski and camp thirty-seven years ago. As soon as we got to our campground, WE were left alone. I know, I know, you’ve heard this before. But it keeps happening! This time they went to Erin’s home to meet her folks and break bread. They came back raving about how nice everyone was to them. Well, why not? Mom and Papa have two dogs, too. Zoe and ME!!! !

The next day dawned with bright sunshine and we got to go sightseeing! Friday, before the wedding, we went up a small arm of land that runs in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay. We saw vineyards, lighthouses, and crossed the 45^th Parallel. That was cool. Mom said I was halfway between the equator and the North Pole. Zoe and I liked seeing the big lake and all the stones in the water. It's really different from Myrtle Beach. The sand has some pebbles in it, and there are these kind of biggish stones sitting in the water. If it hadn't been so cold, I would have gone swimming!

Then that afternoon there was a run-through of the wedding, (I don’t know where they ran because we weren’t invited, again.). Audrey, Papa’s niece/Jason’s mom, and the rest of her family had arrived for the luncheon and run-through. The place where the wedding is going to be is right at a marina with really cool boats in it. I got to see it from a distance. They didn't want Zoe or me to go with them for the run-through.

The next day, before the wedding, we traveled to up Petoskey along Grand Traverse Bay. Mom wanted to find a Petoskey Stone for her friend Deidre who always brings Maine stones to her. Mom looked and looked and couldn’t find any. I tried to sniff them out, but Zoe and I aren’t as good with our noses as our cousins Franklin and Bean – the beagles. Oh, well! We visited some beaches and saw a couple of lighthouses. We also went by tons of vineyards and apple orchards. Dad and Mom stopped at fruit stands along the way. Zoe loves the Honey Crisp Apples.

We got home and were really tired from walking in the sand and getting in and out of the truck to see the lighthouses. I'm going to sleep well tonight, but I don't think Papa is going to sleep very well. I think he's nervous about conducting the wedding tomorrow. Zoe tries to distract him by throwing him the ball over and over. I don't think it is really working, though. I'll tell you all about the wedding next!

Grand Haven - what a beautiful place.

Zoe here: So, here we are after just an hour on the road. It was hard to leave Holland, but Grand Haven is centered on the harbor that leads directly to Lake Michigan and it has great sand beaches to wrestle on with Phaedra. She's so funny. She'll dig her whole head down into the sand, come up covered from nose to neck with sand, then shake her head back and forth so that sand goes flying everywhere! We don't get lost here, either, because this is where Mom and Dad lived 40 years ago when they first got married! They moved here in 1969 right after they were married. We passed their first apartment building when we entered GH from Holland. They couldn’t believe how much the area has grown and changed. They used to be at the edge of town and now it’s practically in the middle.

Our campground is right on the beach and the channel where boats enter the harbor. There is a great dog walk along the channel that goes from the Grand Haven Lighthouse to the village of Grand Haven. The only trouble is that there are too many people on it. We have lots of fun every morning when Dad walks way out to the end of the pier where the light station is. I almost jumped into the channel the other morning, though, when the loud groan happened. Dad assured me that it is only the fog horn. Mom keeps on saying how much she loves hearing the fog horn in the middle of the night. I wonder why she's awake then, but I don't care really. I'm under the covers between them and not worried about anything!

Mom and Dad have really great friends here in GH, too. They are Mary and Barry. I guess they all traveled together when they were first living in GH. I heard something about Mom seeing the Northern Lights on their trip around Lake Superior together. They were sharing a tent that was 7 feet wide and 14 feet long. They used to hang a sheet down the middle so each couple had a side to themselves. The night Mom saw the Northern Lights. She was so excited that she woke everyone up. They all laughed so hard at her that she almost slept in the car. You see, she was looking at the ceiling of the tent and saw the flicker of a campfire on the inside of the tent. Maybe there had been some wine or something else that helped her see the Northern Lights. Who knows! Anyway, we got to hear all about that when the four of them got together. It is like they started the conversation that began in 1973 without any gap in between. I don’t think Mom and Mary have stopped talking yet!

So far, they played golf, rode bikes, had a picnic with friends from long ago and got to meet Maggie's granddaughter, went to a floral art show called Nature’s Creative Edge, played bridge (whatever that is…) and, of course, went to Panera! All of this is while we stay back in the camper with nothing to do!

The best day we had was the day that Mom and Dad took us for a seven-hour car ride. They drove to a place called Ludington to visit the State Park. We were able to get out and walk around. We saw a beautiful bird that a man there said was a juvenile eagle. It was really a hawk. We hiked by a dam on Hamlin Lake. That was fun. We went from the park south toward Grand Haven. We made many stops along the way. We saw a lighthouse in Ludington, had a picnic in Pentwater, saw another lighthouse on the Lake Michigan beach near Silver Lake and visited one more with a museum in Whitehall. Then we returned to North Muskegon to see their first house. We were all glad to get back to our Grand Haven Beach.

We go to Traverse City on Thursday where Dad will conduct Erin and Jason’s wedding. I think he is nervous. Maybe I’ll volunteer to do the wedding. Phaedra can help.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Heading North to Michigan!

Phaedra here after four days on the road:

We left Chapel Hill on Sunday and drove 540 miles to north of Columbus, OH. Now, that was a great campground.

Van Zanten, Vandenberg, Hoekstra, DeVries, DeLeeuw… Where are we? Did we take a wrong turn and cross the Atlantic Ocean? Oh, yeah, we are in Holland. Michigan, that is. We are on the west coast of Michigan right on the big lake. We came here because our folks have a really nice lady friend who knew them in Germany. They hadn’t seen Karen but one time since she left Frankfurt, Germany in 1978. Mom thinks that Zoe has energy! She has nothing compared to Karen!

We saw Mom and Dad “briefly each day” except for when they took us to Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, South Haven, and Saugatuck for the day. We visited Dad’s sister’s gravesite. We weren’t allowed out of the truck but we did hear them say that Carol would have loved the fact that we were there. I guess she really loved dogs, too. Then we went to visit lighthouses. That was fun – Zoe and I went walking out on the pier when the waves were crashing onto the walkway. Zoe didn’t like it too much, but I am much braver than she is, you know!

As soon as we got back that afternoon, they were off again for dinner downtown in Holland and off to watch Chimney Swifts entering a chimney. They were so excited about seeing 322 Chimney Swifts go down a chimney to sleep. Big Whoop! They could just as easily watched Zoe and me sleep.

The next day they were off to visit an authentic Dutch windmill that was the last one allowed to leave the Netherlands. They said it was really interesting. They told us that a lady in Holland, MI decided she wanted to learn how to make the windmill work. So, she learned Dutch, went to NL and studied under millers on how to put on the wings of the mill, turn the capstone around to catch the wind, ground the grain into the right consistency of flour, and then take a test to become the only certified Dutch Windmill Miller in the US. They loved the visit! Sometimes it makes me want to say blah, blah, blah. But they were really happy to see it. Oh, yeah, they had ANOTHER picnic down at Lake Michigan to watch the sunset over the water - without us! Life isn’t fair sometimes, is it? To top it all off, as we stayed home again, they then went to a preview showing of Ken Burn’s PBS series, The National Parks, and listened to a lecture by rangers. We were home! Again! Alone!

It’s now on to Grand Haven tomorrow. Maybe they’ll rest some and stay home with us!