The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2008-05-25 05:04 pm
thewhitelily) wrote2008-05-25 05:04 pm
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USA Day 3: More Michigan
So today’s big plan was to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rchevalier, who’s also in Michigan.
First of all, though, we went to the farmers’ market just over the creek from iviolinist’s, which was small but fun. We came away a jar of apple butter richer, so we have some apple produce from Michigan. Hurrah! (Although rchevalier was disappointed to learn later that we hadn’t establish the variety of apples from which it was made.) Still, now I can look up the recipe I came across a couple of months ago which insisted that while you could substitute other things for apple butter, there was really no comparison. Then I looked up what was involved in making it and decided... substitution will just have to do for now. :)
Squirrel spotting on the way back from the market – the top one looks like it might be a silhouette, but it’s actually a black squirrel. Expect more squirrel-spam to come – they're most exciting to us poor deprived Aussies.
Iviolinist kindly drove us up to our second meet-up of the trip (I suspect in part because she’d heard the stories of our driving from the previous day) and...
Meeting rchevalier was fabulous, not only for the white feather quill she gave me (which I'm really hoping will come back through customs okay), but was heaps of fun just keeping up as she bounded around showing us points of interest. We walked around a loop trail from the park we’d met and I got a botany lesson in distinguishing the various oaks and maples we came across (and identifying poison ivy, which is significantly less distinctive than I’d imagined), and lessons in whistling on an oak cap. (Which I tried again later on when I found another one, and discovered I could even still do it without tuition! Woot!) For the record, sugar maple has smaller leaves, red maple has larger leaves, and silver maple has elongated leaves. Unfortunately, I failed my oak quiz at the end of the trek and still can't remember how to distinguish red from white, so I should probably avoid providing further lessons to the general public. :P
After waving goodbye to her, we headed on towards the coast of Lake Michigan to meet up with iviolinist’s awesome boyfriend, who definitely has the seal of approval from us. They took us on the grand tour of Grand Haven, corn dogs, and the pier at the lakeshore (a beach with surprisingly excellent glacier-ground sand, even to snobby Australian tastes), and finally the local bowling alley where I even managed to win the second game. :)
rchevalier, who’s also in Michigan. First of all, though, we went to the farmers’ market just over the creek from iviolinist’s, which was small but fun. We came away a jar of apple butter richer, so we have some apple produce from Michigan. Hurrah! (Although rchevalier was disappointed to learn later that we hadn’t establish the variety of apples from which it was made.) Still, now I can look up the recipe I came across a couple of months ago which insisted that while you could substitute other things for apple butter, there was really no comparison. Then I looked up what was involved in making it and decided... substitution will just have to do for now. :)
Squirrel spotting on the way back from the market – the top one looks like it might be a silhouette, but it’s actually a black squirrel. Expect more squirrel-spam to come – they're most exciting to us poor deprived Aussies.
Iviolinist kindly drove us up to our second meet-up of the trip (I suspect in part because she’d heard the stories of our driving from the previous day) and...
Meeting rchevalier was fabulous, not only for the white feather quill she gave me (which I'm really hoping will come back through customs okay), but was heaps of fun just keeping up as she bounded around showing us points of interest. We walked around a loop trail from the park we’d met and I got a botany lesson in distinguishing the various oaks and maples we came across (and identifying poison ivy, which is significantly less distinctive than I’d imagined), and lessons in whistling on an oak cap. (Which I tried again later on when I found another one, and discovered I could even still do it without tuition! Woot!) For the record, sugar maple has smaller leaves, red maple has larger leaves, and silver maple has elongated leaves. Unfortunately, I failed my oak quiz at the end of the trek and still can't remember how to distinguish red from white, so I should probably avoid providing further lessons to the general public. :P
After waving goodbye to her, we headed on towards the coast of Lake Michigan to meet up with iviolinist’s awesome boyfriend, who definitely has the seal of approval from us. They took us on the grand tour of Grand Haven, corn dogs, and the pier at the lakeshore (a beach with surprisingly excellent glacier-ground sand, even to snobby Australian tastes), and finally the local bowling alley where I even managed to win the second game. :)
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Ah, Grand Haven... home of the snobbiest nerds imaginable... did you happen to run any over while driving on the wrong side of the road? [/hopeful]
I don't suppose you jumped the pier. All the cool kids jump the pier. :D
The quill should be fine in customs - it's from some random seagull in Alaska, if I recall correctly. Seagulls are most definitely not endangered. :P
Bet you can't remember the Latin names of the trees...
or at least the ones that I remembered.Red is pointier, because red is a more belligerent color. White is rounder, because it's a calmer color. Remember that, maybe?
I "bound"? *squints*
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I am total sage on squirrels.
Wait, have you gotten any of the tourist!chipmunks yet? The sort that pose? GH has a few, I know.(That one-chipmunk-pic I have on DA is an example of this phenomenon on the west coast. 'tis very widespread.) You probably have tourist!wallabies or something in Aussieland. *giggle*
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Before you get out of this country... get yourself something mapley. Either maple syrup or maple candies. *should have maybe brought you some, seeing that she actually has some homemade stuff in the fridge* *kicks self*
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The reason I worry about customs is not so much that the bird might be protected, but getting it into Australia - it might be on the list of things to confiscate in case it's carrying mites/foot and beak/bird flu/assorted pestilence. Quarantine into Australia is quite strict. Still, here's hoping. *crosses fingers*
I identified an oak today. :) Whether it's a heretofore unmentioned variety and thus incorrectly identified, I have no idea, but I did remember! And Latin names? Pharugh!
Yep. Bound.
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There was this one time where a squirrel came up to me and tried to nibble on my shoe. It ran away. Obviously, my shoe doesn't taste very good.Oh, and (not sure if you'll see this), but a bit of bad news concerning the weather. Weather in Ontario tomorrow will suck. Thunderstorms. :(
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I keep being glad of my zoom lens - they freak out when I point a camera at them, so I have to stay well back. Maybe I should invest in tasty shoes...no subject
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Black squirrels aren't too common around here. As in, I haven't even seen a black squirrel before.
But I probably just phail at observation.Ours are primarily brown. *nodnod*no subject
I think most places with non-brown squirrels are pretty proud of them - certainly it's one of the things in the tourist guides for a number of the places we've seen them. *has been stalking brown squirrels, too*
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Don't touch them, they have the plague (I learned that at uni. Go drama degree!)
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Hurrah for drama! Saving more people from the plague than ever before!
Enjoying the US edition
(Anonymous) 2008-05-26 03:16 am (UTC)(link)TPWFL
Re: Enjoying the US edition
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::hopes you still have net connection:: OK, so on Wednesday the 28th, we can meet up at around 2pm instead of 5 (or later, whenever's cool!), so I can drag you around to museums and strange stores and stuff. I'll be the short, chubby Asian girl with thick-rimmed glasses, a red/pinkish shirt thing, and shoes with golden dollar signs on them. If all else fails, just look for the sexiest person in the lobby. I'll try to hang around the door--the lobby floor is pretty big...and crowded with you damn tourists.
If you don't have net access, it's okay; I'll be there at 5 instead. Can't wait! :D (Also: I love your shirt, too. And Alde's hat. :D)
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Must go, Hubby's finished his cappuccino, so we're back on the road. Niagara to NYC in one day... what were we thinking?!