Michigan August 09

Every year in August (usually) the family gets together in Michigan to visit and vacation. We went up to Boyne this year for a few days and then spent the rest of the week down in Metro-Detroit.

Boyne was really fun. My Nana and Pops were there as well as my Aunt Happy along with my Mom, Dad, and brother. Geeta is still in Aspen so I missed her all week.
We spent a day in Petoskey and I found a few Petoskey stones! I don't remember if I've EVER found one before and I came home with a bunch! ( click here if you don't know what a Petoskey stone is)
We also made sure to eat at the BRI (boyne river inn) for fish-fry night and go to a movie as a family. We went and saw Julie and Julia together and it was fabulous. We were saying "booon appetitttt!" and laughing our heads off for the rest of the trip.

The last night I was there I took the old two person chairlift up Hemlock (they had it open till 10pm every night) at about 9:50pm and got to see the lights from Boyne Falls as well as the Polish festival they were having. I'd been up there at night skiing before but I'd never been up there at night during the summer. Usually when we hike up the hills it's during the day. The lights were beautiful and the full moon was hot pink! Instead of riding the chair down I decided to hike down South Boyne. As I walked down I reminisced about the first time I'd snowboarded down South Boyne and how proud I was of myself for sailing it without falling. Since then it was always one of my favorite routs to the 6 chair (as long as it wasn't too icy). Walking down it in the dark was fun... there were lights periodically but the light only lasts soo far out there. The entire mountain was alive with sound and movement- deer, grasshoppers, bugs, whatever. Once it flattened out a little I started running. I haven't run down a huge hill in so long... it's like your legs don't need you to power them anymore- they just go on their own. The whole experience made me laugh like crazy. Some people taking the lift down who saw me through the trees yelled "What are you doing?!" I replied "Staying young!" I felt like Frauline Maria.

After my epic run down South Boyne I went by myself to the Polish festival down town and watched people ride the ferris wheel. Once things dyed down I followed the music to the beer then and joined the hundreds of people inside. They don't call it the Polish Festival for nothing. Everyone and their mom was polkaing and, much to my surprise, the polka isn't really that lame. I thought it was going to be tottally lame but there are a bunch of different kinds and some people can make it look quite beautiful. Everyone was doing it (except me). It was super fun to watch and an interesting feeling to be surrounded by people of a similar ethnicity to me. I swear about every other person in that tent looked like they could have been part of my family. It might be because my dad's 100% Polish and my mom's 60%. haha.

Drove home the next day and hung out with Kev (sushi!!!) then with Mitch, Ryan, and Aaron: my old neighborhood bro's. I miss 'em all like heck. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the UFC fight. Ryan taught me so much about the fight that I actually ended up enjoying it! No mafia this time around but I'll have to make sure to get a game in next time I'm in town.
The next day I got a chance to catch up with Lynette. Later that night we went to go see a concert at the Cro's Foot in Pontiac (mitch hooked up the tickets) and I discovered an awesome band from Ann Arbor. It was such a treat and free! Lynette loved them too. The last band, though, thought they were nickleback ad they sucked so we left early.The next day I got a chance to catch up with Theresa over a quick cup of coffee and laughs, and then Mitch and I went on an epic adventure.

I ended up in Ann Arbor the next day visiting Stepppphhhhh and she showed me all around her life there. (on the drive I went to Detroit Bagel to get a maple-walnut bagel but they were out!!!! I only go once a year and they were out!)



Yea that's the Ann Arbor gum wall haha
Steppppph and I got Indian food in Ann Arbor, planned a documentary we might be shooting later this year, and did some shopping downtown. I miss Ann Arbor. Kate, I went by your condo!!!!! She also took me to the new church she was working at in Ypsilanti and I got to meet a bunch of cool people. After a jam-packed morning I headed back to Detroit and had dinner with My aunt Mari and her family. My two little cousins Lilly and Emma are getting so grown up!

Detroit sewers STILL smoke. why is that?
I only stayed there for an hour and a half because I had to head down to Detroit proper to hit up the community bike shop: The Hub.
THIS PLACE WAS SOOOOOO WAY COOL.









Turns out they are doing some Open Sprints so we all got along right away. They all knew Jonathan from the SLCBC so we were only separated by one degree. I had to fix up a few things on the bike I'd built my sister last September (she brought it home to Michigan for summer vacation) so I wanted to do it there and also to see what kind of an operation they were running. As it turned out, it was their WOMEN'S NIGHT!!!! How freakin' cool is that??!?! Even crazier, girl who started the women's night at the Hub lives at the Trumble Plex!! It was way cool to hear that the Trumble Plex is still going strong! I made some awesome friends and will be keeping up with them next time I'm in town. I was promised a complete bike-tour of downtown Detroit when I get back. It was totally serendipity.. divine.

Came home after that and just chilled. My last day, I didn't have to leave until about 5pm, so my brother Mike and I met my mom for lunch at Leo's Coney Island.



Salt Lake City really needs a Coney Island. period. I had my fav chicken fingers peta and enjoyed every bit of it. Afterwards mom and I went over to see my grandpa and grandma on her side for an hour or so then left for the airport. What a jam-packed visit... like usual.

My flight ended up getting cancled. We were all seated and ready to go when they told us that the fuel tank pumps weren't working and that they were trying to fix it. 30 minutes later they kicked us all off of the plane. I had gotten off earlier to get some food (can't not eat... yay bloodsugar problems) so by the time I got back everyone was getting off. I went back onto the airplane to grab my bag that I'd left there and someone had taken my book! I'm actually writing this blog entry waiting for the next flight which won't leave for another two hours or so. Who the heck would steal my book? At least that's all they took... maybe it just droppend and slid down the isle? Who knows. Anyway, it will be good to be home... kinda. It will be good to see Tyler and a few other people anyway and to be back at my own little apartment. As for Utah, I'll write an entry about that after I go find another book to read.

My trip back was safe and sound after finally getting an airplane that works.
Until next time Michigan! See you this winter...

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan July 2008

It's not that I hate to admit it... It's just that... well... YES. I'm one of them.






The Babbish family have long been great contributors to the world of sports- specifically Golf. My grandpa "Pops" was a world class golfer and he knew many famous people because of the sport. He golfed with President Eisenhower, Bing Crosby, and even Chuck Taylor (used to get 2 pairs of Chucks in the mail for free every year). Now, even, at 93 or something years old, my Pops still golfs 3 times a week. Don't get me wrong, I love sports and I think that athleticism runs in my blood BUT I have never once golfed. My immediate family golfs once in a while but, lately, we have decided to contribute to the world of Croquet and, like I said, YES i'm one of them.


















There was a better shot of this last one but for some reason I liked the blurry one better. Anyway, finally getting a chance to go back to the BFH was nice. I didn't stay long but got a chance to see almost everyone that I wanted to. I felt pretty good (not PERFECTLY on top of my game but ok) and had a great time. I'll be back again in November if all goes well. Woo! It's nice to be able to travel again and not be so freaked out that I'm going to be sick and freaking out. Thank the Lord.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Oh Michigan!

Thanksgiving with my family in Michigan was pretty cool. I never DID get to go to any cider mills but I'm confident I will find one sometime during my travels and it will open the floodgates of past memories. I'll enjoy that experience when I get to it.
Anyway, there was something like 15 people for dinner this year. Not so bad. Two Utahans came, including one who we all haven't seen in many years. It was good to have him there. Nothing like family sometimes you know?

I got a chance to catch up with a lot of people I had been meaning to catch up with for a long time. I also got the chance to miss out on catching up with a lot of people I have been meaning to catch up with for a long time. I broke yet another cell phone and, although I can send and receive calls, I can't see the screen of my phone so I can't retrieve people's numbers or get missed calls or text messages. This stank because it meant I had no way of getting into touch with two people I would have loved to see while I was in town before I moved out West. I can only hope that the Lord can make it good somehow in the near future. I do miss my girls in Michigan.

Spent some time in Ann Arbor and Keego Harbor. Got to play MAFIA with Mitch and that whole side of the "family" as well as get lunch/dinner/coffee/breakfast with many others. I feel like Paul... take that as you will.

Bought a new car. This worked out really well because I drove my old jeep upnorth and my dad bought it off of me and gave it to my brother to take to college with him for the winter. The timing worked out perfectly because his jeep that he had been driving for the past month or so decided to just shed it's drive shaft right in the middle of the road. The thing was on it's last mile anyway. So I picked up my new (used) Subaru wagon in Michigan and drove it back to Georgia a few days later. I absolutely love it... especially the part where it gets twice the gas mileage as the cherokee. ugh. Oh yeah, I guess Alaska approves as well. She seems to be more relaxed in the wagon than she was in the Cherokee. She's great in the car regardless, which is somewhat strange for a house cat, but I think the fact that the Wagon is a little quieter and smoother than the Jeep plays a big part in it. This is great for those of us cat owners that drive for days at a time just as often.

So, yea, that was my quick update on Michigan. I miss it dearly and I miss everyone there twice as much. Currently I am stuck in the gosh darn South again trying to get out of this apartment and get my gear together to move out West. Prayers are greatly appreciated...

Knoxville, TN

So I've never actually been to Knoxville...
Until yesterday (and today technically) that is-

After the week of horrific emotional, mental, and sometimes even physical pain that accompanied the completion of my course work for my degree as of Wednesday, I somehow conned myself into packing up some clothes, hard drives, and Alaska and pointing my tires North. Yes, folks, I actually decided to attempt the drive to Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with my family.
Originally the plan was to leave at 4am on Wednesday after finishing school Tuesday BUT, due to Tuesday's all-nighter, I decided that sticking to that plan would probably result in some sort of death and destruction of either me, or my car, or both. I decided to instead sleep Tuesday night and Wednesday morning and then finish a million and a half things that needed to get done :get car fixed, help move Angela out of the apartment, see some friends I won't see in a long time after I leave, etc... By 6pm Wednesday I was finally on the road home. By Knoxville, TN, I felt like I was going to pass out so I stopped and stayed the night with a newer friend of mine Jen V.

Let me tell you right now that Jen, although I know her mostly through my friend Tyler, is one of the coolest girls I have ever met. She rules. Her and Tyler were waiting for me at like 1am and let me crash on her couch. Even better, she didn't care if Alaska ran around all night.. this was AWESOME for me because Alaska did JUST that and then was tuckered out all day for the drive today. Awesome!

Anyway I got to see Knoxville a little, at night and in the morning. I don't know why but I wasn't expecting it to be so hilly! The entire place was just up and down and up and down. It was actually quite lovely and I'm glad I got a chance to stop.

I left Jen's at 7:30 am and drove for a half hour before I had to stop to eat... my stomach was killing me. I have NOT been eating right these past few weeks- so I decided to treat myself to a Thanksgiving breakfast at Shooneys! I had an awesome omelet there and potato wedges. mm. After that it was pretty-much smooth sailing back to michigan. The only traffic that I hit was outside of Cincinnati and between Detroit and Troy, Michigan... even then, though, even though it was bumper to bumper nobody was going under 60mph.

I made it home in about 9 hours counting my half hour Shooney's stop and right in time for Thanksgiving dinner. A highlight of this year? My Uncle Chris is in town and nobody EVER sees him... I haven't seen him in 3 years and my family hasn't seen him in probably more like 5 or 6. It was so awesome having him. I think we had 15 people in all this year... not too bad- smaller than I'd like but so awesome.

I stole my brother for a bit after dinner and went for a ride with him into Pontiac to see if we could find this car stereo place I heard about on the radio on my ride up today. On our little mini-trip we saw this doughnut place that was open. We were like huh? Open on thanksgiving?! So we stopped in and it turns out that we discovered a 24 hour pizza, doughnut, coffee, and stuff place on Telegraph on the way to Pontiac. AWESEOMeST THING EVER! AND on top of that it looks like a triangle-roof mountain diner and has sweet low round diner bar stools. The whole place is so chill... best part? The guy gave us both free doughnuts! We were mad full but we took them home anyway- looks like breakfast tomorrow won't be turkey thank GOD.
(pix will be added soon)

I miss Michigan a lot. I'm only staying here until Sunday night or Monday. I have so many people to see before then. I'm so excited to be back for a little bit. mmmmmmmmMIchigan. OMGOSH tomorrow I think I'm going to be able to go to the Cider Mill.. more on that later!

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea