"A Couple of Unrelated Things....."

Before I continue with more of our Traverse City, MI vacation, I wanted to post a couple of other things......

First, Don and I went on our "maiden voyages" with his new birthday kayak and my solo canoe. His kayak fit perfectly and he loves it! That is the good news........my experience with the solo canoe was totally different. I felt I was going to tip over ALL THE TIME and never was too far from the shore. And that was on a perfectly calm lake with barely any wind at all. This adventure with the solo canoe was not to be. We loaded up the boats, took Don's home, and then drove back to Rutabaga's to see if I had some better options for a boat. They did, and I now have a Native Ultimate, 14' 7" Hybrid. It is 2' 7" longer than my canoe so it displaces more water and is more stable, plus the design of the bottom of the hybrid is much different than a canoe, too. It almost has a pontoon effect (as you can easily see if you double click the photo), which also gives the boat more stability. I was able to try it out on the lagoon behind the shop so I know it works for me. YEA!!!!! I'm now back to boating! My "can-ak", as a guy at the shop called it, is a blue instead of the red shown in the photo.

Secondly, I wanted to post this photo from yesterday afternoon/evening. Rob had come around between his and our house, so we went out and wished him a Happy Cinco de Mayo. We'd just come back from going out to dinner at Cactus Ranch, which we would highly recommend for you to try if you are in the Madison, WI area.

Around this time, it began to sprinkle. At this same time, Erica, who lives on the next street down the hill form us, came along on a "run". Yes, she had good intentions about going for a run, but when she saw us and waved/said hello, Don asked her up on the deck to have a beer. Such charisma he has......she decided to stop and forget the run. ;) So, long story short, we were joined by Lonny, Charlie, and Griffin for awhile, until the rain became coming down in earnest. They went home but Don went in and got umbrellas, plus a poncho for himself (I stayed under our small porch roof). We had some serious rain and then it let up and finally stopped completely, so we were able to stay out and enjoy the day, with the sun coming out a bit later. Later, Erica's boyfriend Dan, also came up to visit for a few minutes, too. We had a great time! All this was due to going out to say hi to a neighbor.....go figure, eh? ;)

We hope you had a Happy Cinco de Mayo, too!!!