Our first planned activity for our summer in the States was to spend several days "Up North" in Benjamin's Uncle Carl's house in Whittemore, Michigan. Benjamin's family often traveled there for long weekends when he was young, and they continue to do so. It is a relaxing rural community within very short distance of the beach. We went with Benjamin’s brother Mark, his wife Jackie, and their two children, John and Therese. The original idea was for our two families to go camping. Not being the camping type, I told Benjamin to have fun. Then the boys suggested sleeping in tents outdoors at Uncle Carl’s house to get the feel of camping without the necessity of outhouses. Now call me crazy, but I don't really get the concept of choosing to sleep on the ground when there is a large selection of fine mattresses only a few hundred yards away. Finally what happened is that we put up a tent for the fun of it. None of us actually slept in it, but it was something to do.
The trip was fairly eventful, including both a visit to the county fair and Lake Huron. Seth had a lot of fun at the fair; he especially enjoyed going on the train ride and, of course, seeing all the animals. After looking at the exhibits we caught the end of a show on reptiles and the beginning of a magic show. The next day we headed to the beach. The weather was hot, hot, hot, but the water was still quite chilly. None of the kids lasted very long, but we still had a nice time, playing both on the beach and on a nearby jungle gym. After lunch in Tawas we walked along Main Street and enjoyed the quaint little seaside shops. The kids all played together fairly well, both when we were out and about and at "home," and it was easy to see that John and Seth had become best buds by the time we left to return to my parents' house on Friday afternoon.
