More Coffee, More Scrabble

I awoke this morning to the aroma of fresh coffee. That drew me to the kitchen for sure. We were greeted with, not only coffee, but fixings for omelets. There was bacon, ham, peppers, onions, mushrooms and cheese. I opted for all of the above except mushrooms!! Earla had hers loaded. There were, also, parfaits with yogurt, granola, fresh blueberries and strawberries. A slice of toast topped off breakfast and we were quite content.

We loaded the car with Craig's help and were on our way about 9:20. We followed Anita and she took us by the lake. It was overcast, but it was beautiful. Anita lead us out of town a little ways and pointed the way. We headed east on highway 46. It was not long before the sun was shining.

I looked for cows, horses and white fences. Earla looked for fields and clotheslines. There were no clotheslines today, but we saw the rest along with some very nice country houses and barns and many shades of red, orange, brown and green on the trees. The trees are truly beautiful this fall in Michigan.

We were having trouble staying awake so we nibbled on sandwiches, cookies and grapes that Anita sent. We stopped for coffee. We stopped to shop. We stopped mainly to get out and walk around in the cool air. We did stop one place that was a day care center / petting zoo / roller rink / restaurant / gift shop. It was really quite colorful with clowns painted everywhere and lots of red and white on the buildings. We bought coffee and donuts and were on our way again.

We managed to get to Detroit with little hassle. Craig had helped Earla map out our route and it worked well. We drove into Mark and Courtney's right about 4:00.

Courtney greeted us with wonderful enthusiasm, even me whom she had not met before. We were taken on a tour of their beautiful home, given something to drink, and Courtney went off to gather their three year old twins, Aiden and Luke, from school. Earla and I started a game of Scrabble so we would be out of the way. The boys are terrific. Almost immediately Luke asked if we wanted to see something downstairs. He was eager to be host and did a mighty fine job.

Courtney started dinner and we kept her company while we finished our Scrabble game and started a new one. About midway through, we had a delicious lasagna, green beans and hot apple crisp with ice cream. YUMO!

We finished the second game while having a nice conversation. Earla, by the way, won both games today. This is not good.

The conversation was good, though. It was a wonderful getting acquainted / getting caught up time. Mark came home later and joined us. This is such a warm, welcoming, relaxing place to be. We'll take it slow and easy tomorrow and be on our way again on Friday.