Farewell

The last American blog!
This is our last day in the U.S. Yesterday we flew from Traverse City to Chicago to L.A where Aliza spirited us off to the Yacht Club where Tessa was having sailing lessons and then home for diner. With the three hour time difference we were in bed before Joe got home from work.
We slept well in Joe and Aliza's luxurious King size bed and woke to Joe's special coffee and juice.
Today we will go to the Villa Getty and then cocktails at the Yacht Club an then a family meal at an Indian restaurant near the airport.
This has been an amazing six weeks - full of action, happiness, sadness, tennis and hard work. And lots of cocktails. Too any cocktail. Joe and Aliza are now American citizens and their house looks spectacular. The sun is shining. Life is good!

tom's coffee table

This was a labour of love. Tom had wanted to make a coffee table from the very beginning. He found an old door underneath the Main House. We dusted it off and called in the pro. Gene measured it up and then sawed off the bottom of the door. Tom then climbed up the bluff and found the perfect birch tree. He returned with Phil's new chain saw. He had his legs.

A touch more measuring before the final assemblage.

And then voila! A thing of beauty and totally constructed from recycled materials. Except for the screws which we bought in Petoskey.

 All that was left to do was a bit of sanding, filling the holes with plastic wood filler and then a couple of coats of tung oil. These were my jobs. This is the last piece of furniture for the house this year and our favourite so far.

Jordan River

Yesterday we decided to take a canoe trip down the Jordan River. We drove south from Charlevoix for about twenty minutes and hired a double canoe at East Jordan for $42.00 for three hours. We dropped our car off at our final destination point and then the hire company drove us to our starting point at Graves Crossing Road. Our driver was a very friendly guy who had the distinction of only having one hand. It is an odd feeling to shake hands with a man with no hand.

It was a four mile journey and it took the whole three hours. We had one short break where we went ashore and had a sandwich for lunch. Otherwise it was paddling sometimes slowly and sometimes fast down the river. There were curly bends and small rapids which took us by surprise. There were lots of submerged tree trunks under the water which might have proved hazardous. Tom was constantly barking orders. Some of which occasionally made sense. We were frequently attacked by horseflies. Thank heavens for the toxic insect repellant called Deep Woods which I had intelligently bought along. The can boasted that it gave long lasting protection from mosquitoes, ticks, biting flies, gnats and chiggers. Mercifully we didn't meet up with any chiggers and the spray did manage to keep the horseflies slightly at bay.

Vivid blue dragonflies danced around in the sun as we paddled down the mysterious green river. What was around the next bend? Sometimes we came upon families with rubber rings, kayaks and canoes and other times we were alone in the silent woods. Cooling breezes were a welcome change from the increasingly hot sun. My shoulders were beginning to ache and I was developing blisters on my hands.

And then we arrived! Three hours was the perfect trip for us. Not too short and not too long. Just perfect!

life goes on

After the memorial service for Phil we all got back to work. Busy errands are always a good antidote when dreadful things happen. I made a path joining our house up with Ayrie and Phil's houses. First I shovelled a path and raked it and then I plucked stones from the hill and planted them along the path. 

This is what the path looked like after a couple of hot sweaty hours!

Another life affirming thing to do is have a lady's day out. Julie Borris very kindly invited Maddie and me to join her for the annual Charlevoix flower festival At one very posh house they even provided refreshments. Here are Maddie and Julie enjoying some ice cold water, strawberries and dear little cups of M&Ms.

At another house a small tycoon in the making sold lemonade for 75 cents. Maddie bought a cup and a home made cookie to help him on his path to success.

Some of the gardens weren't as beautiful as others. This ugly toad did have the softest fern hair though. One of the ladies showing us around the gardens said that deer were a problem for the keen gardeners. They love to drop in for a nibble.

The day before Tom and I took a ramble through the woods and found some huge dandelions. Here is Tom making a wish.

And this is what he didn't wish for. Or at least I hope that wasn't what he wished for.

a life interrupted

The saddest thing happened yesterday. Here we all have been living the life with lots of tennis, wine, food and swimming when suddenly tragedy intruded into our idyll.
Lucy came running into our house mid afternoon shouting that there was a dead body floating in the water and that she was on the phone to the poice. Everybody congregated at her cottage as emergency services ran down the hill to the beach where Eagle was giving mouth to mouth to the man.
At first I thought it was somebody that had fallen from a boat and drifted in to shore. And I was sad. That is how immediate death affects you but then it turned closer to home.
The man on the beach was the charming Phil Boal who had only yesterday won the tennis tournament with young Ben Borris.
Nobody knew what was happening. The paramedics refused to tell us the status quo of what was happening on the beach. It was an hour or so before the sheriff formally told us that Phil was dead. His sister Winnie said "this is not happening" and then sat down to put on her socks. She had run from her house in just her shoes. She now wanted to put her socks on to be better prepared for what was to come.
A lot of tears were shed as the huge team of men pulled the body along the beach and up into the ambulance.
The last anyone had seen Phil was earlier in the day. Chris Moore and his kids were playing on the floating trampoline sun-baking when they were rudely splashed with water. It was Phil who had waded out to tease them. They joked around for a bit and then left. That was the last time anyone saw him alive. It is believed that he had a stroke or heart attack and fell into the water and drowned. Apparently he had had a stroke a year or so before.

Here are two pictures of Phil taken the day before he died. In the first he is sitting in our house and in the one above he is drinking from the bubbling spring. He embraced life with a child-like gusto.
He was a smiling, quiet, generous man. I only knew him a couple of days but his death leaves me diminished.

the 100 years walk

On the 5th of July we arranged to walk from one Charlevoix house to another to celebrate the 100 years of cohabitation here. There are ten houses belonging to three family groups. The house above belongs to the Fowle family. Notice the people hidden in the grass which is allowed to grow tall.  The family cut paths through the grass down to the sand dunes and the lake.

Many years ago Tom and Frank Fowle were school friends and they stayed friends to adulthood. Tragically, Frank was randomly murdered by a drug addict who stabbed him to death in a car park outside his motel thirty years ago. The initials carved on this tree are D for Daddy and R for Rachel, Frank's baby daughter. Frank's wife Irene explained that her daughter Rachel always had a fondness for this hand carved valentine and was extremely touched when Rachel's fiance Jesse proposed to her in front of this tree three years ago. She is expecting their first child who would be Frank's first grand child in three week's time.

And then we went on with our walk stopping at houses and pausing to look out at the beautiful views along the way.

And some of us even stopped to play a bit. At each house we would salute the owners and their stories by shouting "one hundred years!" All the houses were different. Some big, some small, some old some new. One was a kit home, another a simple cabin perched on a cliff and other modern mansions with soaring ceilings.  They all had one thing in common, stunning views of Lake Charlevoix.

We had a little pitstop at the bubbling springs where Tom waxed eloquent and then on to our house.

Phil took the opportunity to make yet another speech and present us with two African sculptures that Tom had bought back from his Peace Corps days. And then it was on to the Main house for hot dogs and then on to Lucy's cabin for the after party.

the fourth of july

If you were sitting there biting your nails waiting to find our how the great Carre M performed in the tennis tournament, the wait is over.

My illustrious partner Mel and I lost 6 to 0. But fun was had by all. Tom and Jesse both won their first games and went on to play again. The winner of the competition was a 12 year old boy who played amazingly well assisted ably by a 56 year old.
Afterwards we assembled for the proverbial cocktails and toasted the 100 year history of Charlevoix. It was quite emotional as the older generation shared their memories and the younger ones frolicked in the grass with puppies and dogs.

Here is the conquering hero of the tennis match. Ben Borris quietly contemplates his win.
And then if that wasn't big enough for one day we had dinner and then all assembled on the beach for the big bonfire and fireworks. And then finally all went home and had a well deserved sleep!

the 4th of july tennis tournament

We drove in to Traverse City Airport yesterday to pick up Jesse and Mel. And then it was back home to get ready for Frannie and Dick's cocktail party where the pairings for the great 4th of July tennis match were announced. Carre M, as I have become, was paired with Mel which I found quite a relief. If I had been set up with one of the macho men or wild little boys it would have been quite disastrous.
So here we are on the dawn of the great 4th of July tennis match. It is a fairly grey and dismal day but it will probably burn off. I am the only one awake. Tom, Jesse and Mel are all snoozing in an attempt to get over the side effects of the aforementioned cocktail party.
I hope you are all riveted to this blog for further news of how Carre M goes in the tournament. Stay tuned in.

Scream bloody murder

Chris and Jenno stayed up all night last night planning Maddie's 12th birthday party. A murder mystery which the birthday girl had to solve. And the fun was hilarious.

First Rachel was bathed in ketchup. So now we had a dead body. And then detective Maddie was called in to investigate. Everybody who lived in the Beach House was a suspect and there were lots of them. There were clues by the bucket load - a dollar sign written in the victim's own blood or ketchup, a large foot print which pointed to Chris who has the biggest feet and then quite a few red herrings. Maddie grilled every one of the suspects relentlessly. At first it seemed as though Vinnie was the culprit.

But after some fierce deduction he was eliminated along with Chris despite the fact that one of his shoes fit the footprint. And that left only one true murderer. Shock! Horror!  It turned out to be the detective's true life mother Jenno!

And that was the end of the great detective caper and then it was time for cake.

petoskey

Pieces of history

So I have a new favourite place. This is old Petoskey. A way different cup of tea than the Petoskey of Home Depot and huge shopping barns. This part of town is called gaslight Petoskey and is beautifully restored and crammed full of gorgeous shops with things you "have" to own.  I bought a soft Indian American leather handbag and some drawing materials. We had a cup of coffee at the Roast and Toast. Notice the cups and saucers imbedded over the doorway.

And here are some completely unreconstructed dudes. The five Moore siblings together at Charlevoix for the first time in over fifteen years. From left to right Ayrie, Tom, Phil, Les  and Lucy.

All the mod cons

While there's life, there's hope. Last night we saw a family of racoons and two baby deer.
AND we have a temporary toilet and washing up basin!!!!!

So now we will have a flushing loo and be able to wash up. There will be no hot water but we are hoping that the electrical company will hook the house up this week so that next week we will have electricity and be able to run our fridge and stove. Today we are going in to Home Depot to buy a bed and a few sticks of furniture and plates, pots and pans etc... It's not all too shabby. Last night we dined on the edge of the lake and watched the sun go down as we ate our Canadian salmon and sipped our Californian chardonnay.

I'm just saying "shut the front door".

So far the phrase of the trip is "Shut the front door". We were at the tar pits outside the LACMA Museum in L.A. with Aliza and Lucca staring down at the bubbly bog which holds the bones and fossils of creatures thousands of years old. Beside us was a large African American woman who wondered what the strange smell was and we hypothesised that it was sulphur escaping from the middle of the earth. Her response was an incredulous "Shut the front door". This totally inexplicable phrase seemed to sum up so much and so little at the same time.

We are now in Charlevoix and it is very cold and grey. When we drove from the airport yesterday it was all sparkly sunshine and lush green pastures and trees. Now I'm huddled over the heater looking out on to a grey cold lake. The weather reflects the mood perhaps. We have arrived to a shell of a house. Our plans of living the dream in the new house feel a bit still born. Later on I will post a few pictures of where we are at the moment.
So far our trip has been great fun. We had a lovely time in L.A. and then flew on to spend more family time in Chicago. We walked those mean streets and again found the city architecture breath-taking. There is such a wonderful mix of new and old and sense of adventure and trying to outdo the last great building.

This lovely old metal clad building is a department store. We were told it is very famous and it is called the Sullivan building.

Just across the road was this gorgeous old clock and check out the interior of the next building just a few blocks away.

Every city has its charms but every time I come to Chicago I am knocked out by the grandeur and craftmanship of the buildings.

International travel is truly amazing. Touching down in L.A. three hours earlier on the same day we left Sydney we were  picked up by Aliza and whisked back to Culver City. There was a shower and a cup of Joe's magnificent coffee waiting for us And then we walked down the road to Tessa's school to watch a knuckle-biting series of races. We particularly loved the one where the kids had to run with a leaking cup from one container to another. The fiendish cleverness of watching small children getting drenched as they attempted the impossible. The fun was hilarious and the jet lag was kicking in viciously.

Not only does Joe make a mean coffee, he also specialises in breakfast pancakes!

Joe says he works in digital effects but we know he really runs a trendy little joint called Joe's which makes the best coffee in town.