Labor Dabor

We had a pretty elaborate Labor Day weekend. The festivities started on Thursday – Scout and I dropped Carrie off at her office, and then we went to my parents’ house where I worked remotely during the day (taking breaks every 20 minutes to take Scout outside and throw the ball for him). After work, we picked Carrie up and headed to Holland, where we spent the night with Angie and Brian, and their new beagle puppy Maggie. Scout was very tolerant of her, and we had a great time watching the dogs play together.

Friday morning we packed up, and after playing with Maggie some more, we drove the rest of the way up to Elk Lake (with a breakfast stop-over at Rosie’s Diner, which I photoblogged about a few days ago). On the way to Elk Lake, we drove past about 500 cyclists, who were apparently on a long ride from Lansing to the UP (530 miles or so). Pretty nutty!

On Saturday morning, Carrie and I went into Traverse City to browse the shops and visit the farmers’ market. There are about 5,434 shops in Traverse City that sell cherry-related products. We sample cherry jam, cherry soda, cherry BBQ sauce, cherry salsa, cherry rack of lamb…okay, that last one was a joke. But seriously, they like their cherries up there.

My father-in-law let us borrow his Honda S2000, and we had lunch at a drive-in called “Don’s” in Traverse City. It was a really delicious burger (we ate inside, not in the car, because, well, we didn’t think Dad F would appreciate us eating greasy burgers in his fancy ragtop).

After lunch, we went out for a “sea cruise” (as Mom F refers to it) out on Elk Lake. Scout very much enjoys riding in the boat. As you can see, he’s quite the natural. He runs back and forth from the bow to the stern, barking his head off. He is not a water dog, however – he will go in the water, but only when he can touch the bottom. He’s definitely not a swimmer. However, when we are swimming off the dock, he runs down to the end of the dock and barks like crazy, because he’s VERY UPSET that we are in the water. We think one of these days he’s going to just jump in – he gets close, putting his paws over the side, but he hasn’t made the jump yet.

Saturday night we went to see the Lovin’ Spoonful perform at the Grand Traverse resort. Becky (my sister-in-law) made the comment that maybe 20 years from now she’ll be bringing HER daughter to a concert to see the Backstreet Boys, and “maybe N*Sync.

“But definitely not 98 Degrees.”

Sunday was a VERY rough day out, so we didn’t take the boat out, but Carrie and I did a little bit of swimming. I had managed to convince the family to join me at a Traverse City Beach Bums baseball game that night. We got great seats right behind home plate, and I think everyone had a good time cheering for the home team (who was getting rocked by a team from the South Side of Chicago) and watching the nutty antics that happen in between innings in a minor league game. We did leave after a few hours, since it was only the bottom of the fifth. We spent the evening eating blueberry pie to celebrated Dad F’s birthday.

Monday was “cram everything into the last few hours of summer” day. We helped Dad F with some end of season chores (packing up the Sunfish, mowing the lawn, packing up chairs, etc), and then took the boat out so that Carrie could water-ski (as Dad F pointed out – if she hadn’t gone skiing that day, it would have been the first time in 55 years that someone didn’t water-ski during a Flechter summer at Elk Lake). After Carrie went for a few runs, we parked the boat (I mean we “anchored” it, except we didn’t) and Carrie, Becky, and I went diving off of the side of the boat (and Scout almost jumped in himself). I never learned how to dive, so Carrie spent this weekend trying to teach me. I almost have it – I still belly-flop a lot, but I’ve come close to a passable dive a few times.

After the boat trip, I jumped off at the dock and took a couple shots of the family in the boat as they drove (is that the right word?) past. Carrie, Becky, and I went for one last swim off the dock, and then we all went back into the house to pack up for the drive home.

We left Elk Lake around 3 PM, and had a stopover in Rockford at Brian’s parents’ cottage where we let Scout play with Maggie, ate some delicious pork chops, and waited out the traffic for a bit.

We got back to Lincoln Square around 10 PM, and proceeded to crash and sleep like babies. Or puppies.

The rest of our Labor Day 2007 photos here.