Maren and Dave arrived yesterday morning. The day before they had driven from Geneva, NY to Bay City, MI. They left Puck, their dog in Geneva, with Maren’s parents. They stopped in Ann Arbor and visited with Harry, before continuing north. Informally in Michigan, Bay City is known as where northern Michigan begins and southern Michigan ends. Although, I doubt that I could find many around here that would agree with that statement. Still, I’ve heard it said. In its defense, it is where I-75 narrows to just two lanes and nowadays it is also where the speed limit jumps up to 75 MPH. Traffic eventually dwindles as you head north so that there can be stretches of road, where you cannot see anyone on the road ahead of you and also no one behind, even during the middle of the day. After they arrived, David and Maren were so anxious to see the beach that we four began walking through the sand and into an incoming thunderstorm. Some rain, more than we have seen in a week and a little thunder, but we were soaked afterwards. It continued to rain throughout the day with wave after wave of storms. By Midwest standards none of these storms were severe, but many of them did go on to explode over Lake Huron. Still, not much of a beach day for the newlyweds on their first day at the cabin. The next day was much better, some mist in the morning that soon gave way to sun. It looked like a beach day, but we first bailed to town to give the weather a little time to warmup. Lunch at Penny’s Kitchen, the original Internet café in town, back before cellphones and data plans, its wi-fi was an oasis of connectivity, in a decidedly nondigital land. Now not so much, but the food is still good there. After lunch, we stopped by the Alberta House, a local art gallery, where we all stocked up on nice and inexpensive art. Next up was tourist row, for a sampling of souvenirs, Meijer’s and then back to the cabin, for what had become a beach day after all. Dinner was at Pickles, a bar on the water that our neighbors frequent on Thursday nights and had invited us along, with outdoor dining and a band. Our day had caught up with us after dinner, leaving us with reading and a fire before bed. A better second day than the first and tomorrow looks grand!