More Vacation!

Yesterday, we went canoeing down the Platte River to Lake Michigan in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It was a shallow, sandy-bottomed river that wound through the pines through a lake to end up at Lake Michigan. Despite having to navigate around floating cities of tube-riding water buffalos, we managed to avoid capsizing and incurring any serious marital struggles. It was a beautiful ride, and really reminded me of paddling through Kibble Lake up in Canada. It made me remember a lot of the trips that I took as a young child up to Northern Ontario, where we spent most of the time in a canoe, or in the water in one way or another.

On Tuesday, we took my nephew, Adam out to a par-3 course down the street. He was really excited to be able to play on a REAL course, and actually didn't do too bad. He shot a 56 for nine, which was very respectable!

Today, we played the golf course down the street, Mistwood, which was surprisingly very nice and well manicured. There were a lot of tough approach shots, narrow greens and bunkered fairways. We picked up the "after 1PM" rate, and played 18 holes. I scored very well - 44 on the front, and a not so hot 51 on the back, but I was pretty pleased with my playing because the course was so challenging. It's not often that I break 100 on an easy course! I would've scored a 41 on the front, but I four-putted the green on the 9th hole. Frustrating! The back nine was a series of bad second shots, coupled with 20+kt winds. They were really a factor when you were pitching towards the hole - changed many a shot from bad to good and good to bad. My new driver, a Cleveland HiBore driver, which was my birthday present from my golf-crazy parental units, performed quite nicely, putting out a couple of nice 270yd drives. I can't believe that I've been playing with persimmon woods for so long! It was a really nice course, and a wonderful day to be outside playing.

Beth enjoying the brisk breezes by the shores of the West Grand Traverse Bay