So, now it is the middle of August. My bride and I both celebrated our 66th birthdays. We did so in places many miles apart! We had been invited to go to a hoe-down at Corrie’s brother’s house in Jenison, Michigan. This was scheduled to take place on August 13. We decided to go a few days early so we could celebrate Corrie’s birthday in Michigan on August 12.
For my birthday on August 5,
we went to Hickory Park in Ames for dinner and visited White Oaks winery on the way home. The dinner consisted of a mixed platter of barbequed food, chicken, pork, and including some of the best ribs in the state. The desert menu was our place-mat, so we ate with dessert in mind.
After this great experience off to the winery. 
They have a life band at the White Oak winery on Friday nights. When we got there they were playing “our” music; so we got to dance. Monique and I even did a twist... I used some muscles which I did not know I had. They were aching on Saturday, so I must have really had a good work-out. Not too bad for 66, but I had to work of some of the calories, didn’t I ? We had
planned to ride our motorbikes, but because there was a solid rain coming down, we had to go on four wheels. 
We hope to make up for this on this coming weekend. We plan to do a similar trip as last year. (See my blog of August 13, 2010)
For Corrie’s birthday we were in Michigan visiting with family. She celebrated in a nice restaurant in Ionia surrounded by brothers and sisters (and in-laws as well...)
We had to hold the hoe down inside, because there were storms in the weather forecast. Most every liked the air-conditioned gym better; no mosquitos to contend with either. 
On Saturday morning Corrie’s sister, who has been a life-long beautician, “lowlighted” her hair. It turned out really great. She looks younger than her age. 
We visited some very nice lake side properties visiting with relatives. On Monday we went to Ludington to visit with my cousin and his wife. We had not seen each other for about 45 years. We took a nice boat ride and enjoyed a scrumptious dinner.
Because we were in Ludington we planned to cross the lake (Lake Michigan) to Wisconsin, rather than drive back to Chicago and fight the traffic there. It was a long day! The boat trip on the SS Badger was great. Sunshiny day with little wind. We stayed on deck the entire crossing, which lasted about 4 ½ hours. 
Getting there early and waiting for the car to get off-loaded added about another hour or so to this part of the trip. Then driving home, another 8 hours with a stop for pizza on the way. After we unpacked and relaxed we needed to prepare for our motor-bike weekend trip with our kids.
