travels downstate (Michigan)

After our TOO SHORT time in Alpena, we traveled downstate to Kalamazoo for my cousin's wedding.  I wanted to stop at some locations from my childhood -- my hometowns and also MSU.  Being farthest north, MSU was first!

On the banks of the Red Cedar... feeding
the ducks near the stadium

My boys had the worst of the Norovirus
at this time...they couldn't even walk 100 yards.

The able-bodied were rewarded with a trip
to the dairy store! 

Celeste was fading fast -- too much activity

Next stop was Leslie, Michigan.  I lived in this house from about age 2 to 4th grade.  It's got to be over 150 years old by now. (Wait, no, it's not that I'M that old! The house was already over 100 when I was there!)  It was a beautiful old farmhouse in the country, but now it's looking a little worse for the wear.  :o(  It's so sad to see the house like that.  I remember the landscaping, and picking flowers from a little bush when Erica was born, and I remember galavanting all around the property.

Walker Road house

This house is just down the road, and we lived there until I was a junior in high school.  The old barn in the background was where we kept our dog, Pepsi.  This was an older house, too, but it was completely remodeled so it seemed very large and luxurious.  There was once a huge weeping willow up front, to the left.

Baseline Road house

On the road again, to Albion next.

 I didn't spend a lot of time in Albion--senior year of high school, and all 4 years of college...and for each of those years I went to school away from home.  But Marcus and I did get married there!

The church where we got married
(decommissioned now -- part of Albion College)

 It was a long trip but I am very glad we were able to visit all these places and that the kids were able to see some of my history.  :o) 

We arrived in Kalamazoo by dinnertime and got settled in our Residence Inn suite.  We were all doing "OK" and we thought we were on the mend, until Gemma finally got sick: