Week 13: Michigan for Thanksgiving

We landed back at Larry's sister's house in Clarkston, Michigan on Monday night and spent a relaxing week there resting and eating and visiting with family. Larry's sister loves to cook and spoiled us throughout the week. I enjoyed getting to know her better and to meet and chat with her son, Colt. We were excited to get some snow on Thanksgiving. It put us in the holiday spirit. We also enjoyed hanging out with the family dog, Belle.

My grandmother and uncle live in Detroit, so we spent the day with my grandmother on Friday and then picked my uncle up for dinner. Both my grandmother and uncle have many challenges, so it was good to get them out and to be able to treat them to a nice dinner.

My grandmother

Though there was much about Detroit I would've liked to have seen, we didn't know it well enough to really go exploring, as random wandering of Detroit seemed unsafe. We also really needed the rest and relaxation. I can't tell you how great it was to have just a normal day with Larry--on Saturday, he dropped me off so I could get a mani-pedi and then we ran errands after I was done. I just miss the normal things--like going to Costco and through the carwash. I told Larry I thought the carwash was very romantic. I'm really craving normal time.

On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Davison, Michigan and checked into a Best Western. I slept off the week during the afternoon, and then Larry roused me to take me to the town where he went to high school, Yale, Michigan. I saw the houses where he lived, the Catholic Church where he was an altar boy, the school--now very changed and bigger, and the graves of his parents. Yale is beautiful, very rural and agricultural.

Around 5 PM, we went to the house of one of his old friends, Kathy, who Larry hasn't seen since the early 80s. They caught up a little and then we met another couple of friends, Joe and Joyce, at the Yale Hotel, which Larry remembered as a rowdy drinking bar, but which was quiet on this Sunday night after Thanksgiving. We had a simple dinner while Larry and his friends caught up on each other's lives and talked about old friends and what they are up to now. So many people have stayed in Yale or the surrounding areas. I was really glad to see this part of the country and to see many of the places Larry talks about when he speaks about his high school days. We drove the country roads back to the motel.

The next day, we pulled off the road in Flint--and saw many buildings probably abandoned for a couple of decades.

We ultimately decided to stop for lunch in Lansing. Though downtown Lansing was clean and pretty, with just a few closed storefronts, it still seemed pretty dead for a Monday lunchtime.

Then, I slept while Larry took us to the place we have the privilege of rooting for a month: Chicago.