Dewey and Aunt Donna's

Today I left Marquette for a small town outside of Escanaba called Flat Rock. My great-aunt Donna lives with her husband Dale in a house there. My dad's father grew up on a farm with his 7 other siblings (which includes Donna) not too far down the road from where she lives today. After attending a mass in honor of my grandpa who died three years ago this Wednesday, my family and my dad's relatives that are still in the U.P. went back to Donna's house for a Mother's Day lunch.

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Dawna's house

First, what makes Aunt Donna's so special is the location. It's out in the middle of lazy hills and fields next to farms and country homes. Next door to their house is the old farmhouse Dale grew up in with the barn and everything in tact. They renovated it a few years ago with their daughter and rent it out as The Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast (although they haven't done so the last couple of summers). In the Richer house they have an indoor pool, which blew my little mind when I was younger and I  always made sure I brought my swimsuit. The house sits on acres of land that allows travel by four wheeler. His latest project the past few years has been making maple syrup from the many maples on his land. This is one reason among many that makes spring my favorite season to visit them! Donna always pulls out the stops when it comes to food and after loads of ham, egg, potato, fruit, sweets, Bloody Marys, cinnamon rolls, and on and on, I'm always guaranteed a few pounds gained by the end of my visit. What's also nice about their place is they have a huge table that sits easily 12 people so you can visit with everyone while you eat.

The Farmhouse B&B tree lined driveway

Full view with barn

The family all at one table; Dawna and Dale are front right

This year's topic over lunch was my grandpa Al, or Dewey as they all call him. My grandmother and his sister's shared stories growing up on a farm with him. He was the mischievous older brother that always took advantage of the fact they'd believe any word he said. My favorite is when he told them if they peed on this rock daily that it'd grow. So being young and trusting, his younger sisters peed religiously on the rock daily. In order to keep the hoax going my grandpa would switch out the rock to a bigger one everyday until they finally caught onto what he was doing. With no cable and the seclusion he had to have his fun somehow!

All this talk of my grandpa made me appreciate the time I have with my family though and made me realize that times change and move on until you're finally sitting at the table with your children and grandchildren reflecting on stories. The generation of adults that grew up with my grandpa is extraordinary and I will be sad when we will no longer be able to all sit at the table together. Fortunately though I still have the time to be with everyone and I hope to take advantage of that. Family comes first, and they really are what matters at the end of the day.

The Diner, Drive-in, and Dive of Skandia: the A&M Cafe

Here I am in Marquette, a city in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, (the top mitten for those people) spending my last summer of college. There are a few things I squared off right away: sweet design internship (check), new swimsuit (check), Netflix account (check). Although all of these are important for a successful summer, I want to do something bigger, better, and more memorable than any other summer since this may be the last summer I'll have to live the vagabond life. I want to explore all the U.P. has to offer from the beautiful cliffs of Pictured Rocks, to hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Gene, my boyfriend, got us camping gear for our anniversary so camping will be the most likely form of shelter on these adventures (which I'm really looking forward to minus the no shower and bug factor). I'm sure there will be many stories to come based on these experiences. Besides exploring the U.P., I hope to visit Anna, my sister who's saving the world, in Nicaragua and take a family trip in June.

So... where to start? I thought I'd go the foodie route first since I will be taking off tomorrow for a week. There is this diner called the A&M cafe out in Skandia on the way to my Grandma's cabin. For basically being in the middle of nowheresville and from the looks of the outside remodeled from an old gas station, the A&M Cafe makes incredible food (especially cinnamon rolls). So this morning I drove Gene out to good ole A&M Cafe for a hearty breakfast. It's a no frills kinda place, generic brown chairs and tables, beige walls, incredibly random wall decor, but its clean and the window to the kitchen proves all of the food is homemade. Unfortunately they were out of cinnamon rolls this morning (craappp) BUT they did have mammoth sized homemade muffins that worked just as well. After barely making a dent in my 5 lb plate of potatoes, eggs, and hash, we left stuffed and smiling. Thank you A&M Cafe for the delicious food, I will be back :)