Issue #26   A quick look at our trip back "home".

 during July.  We took a flight from Phoenix to Chicago Midway Airport on our favorite Southwest Airlines, and from there we were off  to Michigan.  Somehow we ended up in NORWAY!  The old country for sure, you betcha!  Well, not right a way, and not the country of Norway......  Darn......

Here I am in Norway, MI.  This little town is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  If there ever were Norwegians in the area, they seem to have all disappeared. I went around to several people I found along the two block downtown district, and asked "Con du snaka norske?" (not the correct spelling -- it's a phonic wording I used to ask if they spoke Norwegian.) I got a lot of blank stares back.  I guess the iron ore country which brought in a lot of Norsemen in the 1870's also drew a lot of other nationalities.  My final clue to my thesis was when I bought a high school t-shirt which read Norway Knights.  Olaf theViking they know not of  -- in the town of Norway, MI.

While visiting my Michigan daughters,  we spent some time site-seeing old familiar places, like the Meijer Gardens.

I also was given an impromptu birthday party by my daughters and grandchildren.  It was wonderful seeing everyone, but we were short on time this year so we only got to see them for a day or two.  We'll try to return next summer, after Nancy finishes her schooling in Houston.  I also hope to see my brother in Georgia for the first time in 12 years!

Nancy wanted to see what the UP was like, so we drove up to the Mackinaw bridge.  We also spend a short visit on the island, as we had to check out the fudge there.  You see, in Sedona we have fudge makers saying they were using the old, original formula of Mackinaw Island Fudge, and we needed to check out if they were telling the truth or not.  We were in for a surprise.....We discovered that Murdick's Fudge -- supposedly the oldest fudge on the island, wasn't as good as our Sedona manufacturers.  The island fudge tasted like they were using a butter or sugar substitutes. Not a good idea to us....  Perhaps we didn't get the "original" fudge store, but for our way of thinking, we prefer the sweeter tasting fudge we get in downtown Sedona!

Otherwise, Mackinaw Island is a nice place to visit.  The only way over to the island is by ferry, and there are no cars or other vehicles allowed on the island.  It was interesting seeing all the horse drawn wagons and bicycles traveling around the place.  There were also a lot of people walking around as well!

We had a fine lunch at the Seabiscuit Cafe before heading back for our boat ride to the mainland. We traveled onward across the UP (where we found Norway), and then continued down into Wisconsin and Green Bay. 

Nancy has been a big Packers fan for years and just had to get into lock step with the rest of the cheese-heads!  Good thing it was off season or she might have wanted to try out for the team!  HA!

We love taking road trips, as you never know what you might run into!  This sign caught our eye and so we took a little 10 mile detour to see what a bloomfest was all about. 

What we found was a very nice family farm and nursery with lots of beautiful flowers and plants all over a large landscaped yard.  (More like a field!) We bought a plant as it made a wonderful gift for my aunt (our next stop on our journey). We were happy we decided to take a little time and effort to see what the signs were telling us!

We continued down the road to my aunts home, and then on to Nancy's sister and brother in laws place in Evanston.  We went to a concert which Gus participated in with his fiddle; spent a morning at the Museum of Science and Industry, and dashed to the airport to return to the sunny Southwest!

We took many more family pictures and did get in some quality time with everyone.  However, those pictures and stories are more of a personal thing and best left for our family albums and memories!