Episode 60: July-September 2012

Highlights of the quarter:

• Summer vacation in Frankfort, Michigan;
• Weekend in Detroit;
• Home improvements;
• Labor Day holiday in Oklahoma;
• Weekend in New York;
• Neal (finally) rides the MS-150;
• The return of Adventure Sunday!

This year’s summer was gorgeous and everything we’ve come to look forward to living in Michigan – a state that comes alive with people enjoying the outdoors, the lakes, the warm, consistent temperatures, and the long, sunlit days.

On the heels of Carol coming to spend a few days with us, Stephanie and Luis, our friends who now live in Brazil, arrived for a three-week vacation in northern Michigan.  We joined them up north in the beautiful little town of Frankfurt which is located on Lake Michigan, along the state’s west coast.  The town has the feel of a sleepy surfing village, with a few stores and restaurants.  But the major highlight of the town is its access to the expansive coastline and gorgeous sandy beaches.  Fortunately for us, the Lake Michigan waters had warmed up to the mid-70s Fahrenheit (low-20s Celsius) thanks to all the weeks of warm weather leading up to our vacation.  Each day started with the men heading off on a long bike ride and the ladies heading off to the gym for a morning workout (with Stephanie teaching), followed by some combination of lunch, heading to the beach for an afternoon of swimming and reading, a home-cooked dinner, and then a round or two of cards and a few glasses of wine before bed.  Stephanie was responsible for setting up the accommodations, and the little cottage she rented was perfect, centrally located a few blocks off the beach and one block away from the town’s main street.  The cottage was packed with all the amenities that we could possibly need, including an outdoor shower to avoid tracking sand into the house and a fantastic front porch that was perfect for late night chill-axing and people watching.  Besides a few day trips to see the shoreline bluffs and some of the surrounding beaches, we were happy to spend all of our time exploring what Frankfort had to offer.

Neal and I returned home after a week’s stay, while Stephanie and Luis remained in Frankfort for another week and then joined us in Midland for a week before heading back to Brazil.  For her last weekend in Michigan, Stephanie had pre-planned a weekend dance retreat with many of her NIA students and fellow instructors.  One instructor travelled from Sweden to join us for a weekend of dancing and togetherness.

Soon after our vacation, Neal participated in the Midland Country Club’s Member-Guest Invitational Golf Tournament, which unfortunately did not run quite as planned given some uncooperative weather.  Basically, it was rainy and cold the entire tournament, which left Neal soaking wet and frustrated with his golf game every day.  Nevertheless, it was a fun weekend of golf and the rain did not prevent us from enjoying the tournament after-parties.

This quarter marked the beginning of some fairly significant home improvement projects.  We finally decided to get some help with decorating the inside of the house and getting the backyard landscaping upgraded.  Given these decisions, the house was in disarray for a good part of September, so we conveniently spent some time outside of the house.  As we like to do, we spent a few weekends away from Midland.  One of the weekends was spent in Birmingham, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit) for a quiet weekend to find some furniture for our interior decorating project and enjoy some great food.  While there, we decided to trade in my car, Effie the Eos, for a new car – we are now the proud owners of Lexy, a black Lexus convertible.  Although the transaction seemed a little impulsive, it was something we had talked about for the last few months.  When we found that the dealer had the exact car we were looking for, we decided to act.

In early September, we traveled to Oklahoma to spend the Labor Day long weekend with Neal’s family.  We had a great day exploring some of the sights in Oklahoma City, including a revisit to the memorial site of the tragic Oklahoma City bombings, which happened in 1995, as well as the very cool neighborhood of Brick Town.  Neal’s parents organized a lovely dinner party at their house with family friends that we do not often get to catch see during our short visits.  Being summer in Oklahoma, the days were sunny and the temperatures were scorching.  So, we tried our best to enjoy the outdoors, but stayed in the shade!  For the rest of our trip we mostly relaxed, ate a lot of food, and spent as much time with Neal’s grandparents as we could.

When I lived in Melbourne, a few girlfriends and I (you know who you are) started a tradition we called “Adventure Sundays”.  Once a month on a Sunday, we would make plans to be a tourist in our own town and do something we would not otherwise do.  While catching up with a few girlfriends for drinks one night here in Midland, I brought up the idea, and we decided we would bring this back to life.  Our first Adventure Sunday was spent taking photos of ourselves posing in front of some of the town’s main tourist attractions.  We started at our house – where the bobcat and tools that the landscapers had in the backyard served as a great landscape for some crazy photos – before hitting some of the sites around town.  We ended Adventure Sunday with a pedicure.  It was fabulous – I cannot wait for our next adventure!

The final weekend away for us this quarter was to New York City with Ed and Michelle.  We had planned this trip almost a year ago when Neal and I bid on – and won – the trip at a charity auction.  The trip included flights, hotel, dinner, and tickets to a Broadway show.  Given the Noacks’ equal love for food and adventure, there was a lot of research that went into which culinary experiences we were going to have while there.  Our first stop was for lunch at the Spotted Pig in Greenwich Village.  The Spotted Pig is a British-style gastropub co-owned by Bono, Jay-Z, and Mario Batali among others.  It is a small place with some very cute and eclectic décor, and more importantly, solid pub food elevated a notch.  We spent the remainder of our first day exploring the city on foot.  That evening, we ended up at the French restaurant, Le Veau D'or, which is a place that Ed got interested in after it was featured on a television show.  This restaurant has been a staple in New York City’s Upper East Side, dating back to 1937, and the food did not disappoint.

The following day we rented bikes and spent a leisurely morning riding through Central Park before washing up and heading to a matinee showing of the Broadway show, “The Book of Mormon”.  The show was written by the creators of the television show, “South Park”, and it was every bit as crass as one would expect.  It was, in our opinion, a very funny parody of religion, and definitely worthy of all the accolades it has been getting.  We highly recommend it, but prepare to be offended in some way!  Our dinner that evening was at a fabulous Mexican cantina called La Esquina.  You walk into an unassuming street-side taqueria, only to be ushered into a secret door, down a set of stairs, through the kitchen, and into an underground cave that is buzzing with people and activity.  The food and cocktails were delicious.  The final day in the city, we headed out to explore lower Manhattan, with the goal of getting to one of my favorite places, the Australian bakery called the Tuck Shop.  We found out that a branch of the Tuck Shop is located in the famous Chelsea Market, so we wandered through the city and eventually got to the market in time for a lunch of meat pies, sausage rolls, and lamingtons.  After that, we continued further south and walked through The High Line, a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side.  From there, we headed back to our hotels, picked up our bags, and made our way to the airport.  In my case, I had a business meeting in Washington D.C. the next day, so I made my way there by train before flying back to Midland a day later.

The final highlight of the quarter was Neal (finally) completing the MS-150, a 150-mile charity bike ride over a weekend.  As some of you may remember, Neal had a false start in June when he regrettably had to pull out of the ride due to a partially torn hamstring.  After weeks of rehab on his leg, he decided that he was in good enough shape to do the last MS-150 ride of the year, which started and ended in Frankenmuth, a small town about 45 minutes south of Midland.  Typically, most people break up the ride into two 75-mile routes, one on Saturday and the second on Sunday.  The whole ride is well-organized, with road markings showing the routes and plenty of volunteers manning the rest stops along the way with food and drinks.  Thanks to a wrong turn, Neal and the group he was riding with ended up riding 100 miles on the first day.  Although unexpected (that was the first 100-mile ride for Neal), Neal was amazed that he was in good enough shape to knock out 100 miles in a day.  The following day, Neal finished up the ride by completing the remaining 50 miles.  Although the Frankenmuth ride was not as pretty as the ride he was supposed to do in June, Neal was very glad that he did it.  And thanks to the support from many of you, he was able to raise $2,410 for the MS Society – a tremendous cause, indeed.

And so with tired legs (at least for Neal), we closed another action-packed quarter for the Shorgs.  Until next time, take care!