Merkel Hat Trick

July 30-31; our last days in Michigan — We left one Merkel home (Aunt Carolyn & Uncle Bob) in Harrisville in the morning, and arrived at another Merkel home some four hours away in Monroe in the afternoon.  That makes visits with all three of the Merkel families – lucky us!

We really enjoyed our overnight with my cousin, Dave, and his family.  As good timing would have it, we pulled in right around happy hour, so the adult boys imbibed in the local brew from Great Lakes Brewing Company while Renee & I enjoyed a couple of vodka tonics.

With a three-son family, baseball is the number one pastime, so all of the boys played some catch and it was some good livin’!  Renee set up an incredible taco bar for dinner, and cousin Bruce and his daughter, Bronte, joined us for the yummy feast.  Following dinner we all celebrated Ike’s 11th birthday – cake and ice cream for all!  Following the birthday celebration, we all watched the movie RV – apropos for the evening.  [If you haven’t seen this movie, do yourself the favor and rent/download/stream it – it’s classic Robin Williams funny – great for the whole family!]

Thursday the 31st is Ike’s actual birthday, and we celebrated with morning presents, then blueberry pancakes with strawberries and an entire of can of ReddiWip on the three boy’s pancakes.  Some more mid-morning catch & a game of Pickle, a little Charley clean-up, then a fine lunch at Taco Bell (yes, two taco meals in a row… guess whose idea that was?!?) before we took off for Ohio and our next National Park – Cuyahoga Valley.

We love you, Dave, Renee, Noah, Ike & Ben – thanks for hosting us!