Unable to resist the perfect beach weather earlier this week, Sean, Misha and I headed out to the State Park to nap in the sun and play in the big waves. It was clear and hot out and the water was the warmest it's been all summer.


After a few hours my parents showed up with pizzas for dinner so we met over at the picnic tables by the channel to watch the boats go in and out while we munched in Little Ceasar's Hot and Ready slices.


After dinner, Sean went with his friends to see the demolition derby that the fair was putting on in town and Misha, my parents and I climbed nearby by Mount Pisgah for some awesome views of Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa. The night wasn't complete without a trip to Captain Sundae before heading home. It was a "Pure Michigan" kind of day - love it!

Michigan in the winter can be tough, but Michigan in summer is paradise with loads of different things to do. One of many popular summer activities is picking blueberries and currently it is definitely blueberry season.


So far this week the heat and humidity have melted away and we have been blessed with cool breezes and clear, blue skies - perfect weather to be out picking berries. On Monday morning, Mom, Dad and I headed out to Fennville, a town near Holland, to pick at Earl's, a farm in the country. Once we got there, we tied buckets around our waists and got right to work. The berries were huge and the picking was great - it was a challenge to drop them in the bucket instead of eating them.


Between the three of us we had three full buckets which amounted to about fifteen pounds. We plan to eat some, freeze some and make cobbler out of the rest. At Earls you can also pick other kinds of berries as well as shop at their farm market and bakery and get ice cream. We also picked up some blueberry donuts, homemade peanut butter chunk cookies and some tomatoes.


We finished the morning off right with lunch at one of my favorite places - Crane's orchard. It's also in Fennville and happens to be the place where the dessert for the reception is coming from. At Cranes you can also pick all kinds of fruit, go through the corn maze and enjoy homemade cidersicles outside. If orchards and fruit picking aren't really your thing, you can check out the many wineries in Fennville also known as Fenn Valley. There is some fantastic wine tasting to be had. If you are coming up for the wedding and have a little extra time to spend in the country, Fennville could be a fun choice!

I've been taking a little vacation from blogging not because there isn't anything going on but rather there's too much and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed these days. During the two weeks so far that we have been home we have been seeing a lot of family and friends, working on the wedding, starting premarital counseling, attempting to get in shape for the wilderness leadership program in September and trying to figure out what we will do next in life. I'm looking forward to blogging more about China just to stay sane and have something to think and write about besides the upcoming big event and the stress of having to figure out a future way to earn income.


For the most part, being a bride is really fun. I don't like all of the decision-making, but I do like spending time with my family and Sean's family while we figure out how things are going to go. Another thing I am realizing is that being remembered, loved and supported feels pretty good. One way my college rommates, Carrie and Mary showed this to me was to hold a beautiful and fun bridal shower for me this past Saturday.


Since most of my family lives far away and many of my Holland friends are always busy or out of town, I wasn't sure that anybody would be able to come but I was happy when high school friends Emily and Becky came along with another friend, Misha. We were also joined by my birth grandma and aunt who drove from Grand Rapids.


Carrie and Mary provided an awesome brunch with coffee and punch and later served homemade strawberry shortcake. Everything tasted so good - it was food I had been looking forward to for a long time. After brunch we played some games; one involved a video of Sean talking about our relationship and how well we know each other and other one required feeling "essential objects for the honeymoon" with our feet that were hidden in socks - pretty entertaining!


It was such a nice morning of fun and fellowship and I'm grateful to my college buds who planned and prepared the event for me and for my friends and family who gave up their Saturday morning to encourage me - Thanks!

One of the nicest things about coming home (besides seeing family and friends of course) is eating all the tasty food that I'd been missing for a year. Some of these foods include but are not limited to:

donuts
cottage cheese
pickles
salad
steak on the grill
hot dogs and brats
sheet cake
pie
frosted animal crackers
fruit roll-ups
cheese sticks

This morning I met a friend for donuts and coffee. Holland has a few local donut shops where the delicious rings of friend dough are made fresh every morning. If you ever visit I suggest Donutville (my personal favorite - try the glazed blueberry only made on Friday mornings) and Goodtime Donuts. If you want to try homemade apple cider donuts head to Cranes in the City right on 8th Street.


When I lived in Columbus I thought the donuts at Tim Hortons, Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme were great, don't get me wrong. But it's always special to come home and head to the local doughnut haunts of my childhood. Unfortunately, with a wedding coming up shortly here and the imminent and pressing realization that I have a certain dress to fit into, doughnut sampling is currently not recommended. Returning home salivating for American foods while attempting to maintain a certain weight is a spectacularly dangerous situation. Wish me luck and eat a doughnut for me.

After visiting the monastery for much of the day, Sean and I took a bus back to Shang-ri-la and decided to explore the Old Town. Although it's pretty touristy I thought it was a lot of fun. The cobble stoned streets are narrow and maze like and each corner turned can surprise you with a view of different temples and prayer flags. Seeing locals in brightly-colored traditional costumes and signs written in Tibetan made it feel like we weren't in China anymore.


Every night there is dancing in the square from 7-8pm. This is not a tourist show but rather a nightly common tradition in many Chinese towns. Older locals gather in a pre-determined spot and dance to music with steps and movements that everybody knows. This kind of thing happened in Changzhou as well especially on beautiful spring and summer nights. When I asked students why the older generation loved to get together and dance answers ranged from saying that they weren't allowed to do it before so now they wanted to enjoy it to saying that they just wanted to do it to have fun, be social and get some exercise. In Old Town, however, it has become a popular hangout and everyone gathers around to watch or the more daring simply join in.


Sean and I watched for a few minutes but preferred to walk around and check out some of the local yak products. We sampled spicy yak jerky and aged yak cheese and tried some of the local wines - everything was delicious and fun to try. It felt really good to just walk around in the chilly mountain air and take in the Tibetan-influenced sites. Sleeping that evening in the hostel was the quietest I had experienced for months and was, much to my deep satisfaction, unaccompanied by mosquitoes.

In the midst of continuing to blog about the rest of our trip in southern China, I'm going to pause today and write about Uno. Uno has been our family dog for the past 16 years and today we had to say goodbye. Lately, Uno hasn't been able to get up on his own well and seemed to be in a lot of pain. This morning, Dad and I loaded him up in the jeep for one last car ride. Standing in the parking lot of the vet's office underneath a shady tree Dad held on to our old friend as he peacefully slipped away. I couldn't really keep it together and had to stand to the side trying not to think about anything. I knew this would be hard, but I didn't think it would affect me to the extent that it did. But, after all, Uno was a part of our family for more than half of my life and he is going to be dearly missed.


Last summer, Uno was still pretty spry and Dad and I took him to one of his favorite places - the Saugatuck Dunes State Park for the last time. He had a blast trotting on the trails, sniffing everything and wading in the lake. Every day, if Dad and Uno weren't walking in the woods behind the house they would take their daily walk around the neighborhood in the late afternoon. Around here, everyone knows Uno and people regularly came out to say hi and give him treats.


Uno was a pound puppy - we got him when he was only six months old and he turned out to be a very special dog. Other than the usual dog problems of digging up my mom's bulbs or gnawing on things he shouldn't, Uno was pretty much the perfect dog. He didn't bark, he stayed at home all day without being tied up, he walked next to Dad without a leash, and he was friendly with everyone.


One of my friends asked me this morning if there's going to be a "Dos" and I said probably not. My parents have started to travel more and it's hard to leave a dog at home. But truthfully, the real reason is that in our minds, no dog will ever be able to come close to compare to Uno and for now we're content to live with the happy memories. We'll miss you Uno!

During the last rush of packing, cleaning and preparing to leave China, blogging kind of fell to the wayside. The days were filled with several impromptu goodbye parties and many people stopped over spontaneously to wish us well. The teachers who will come back next year were very eager to check out our loot that we were giving away and leaving behind. Hot items included the bike, the potato masher, the toaster oven and baking supplies, DVDs and the fan. It was ridiculously hard to pack up two years of my life in two bags less than 50 lbs each. I ended up leaving a lot of clothes and books behind.

On Tuesday morning the school's driver picked us up at 10 and we made the drive to Shanghai and arrived at the airport at 1:30 for our 4pm flight to Chicago. Everything went fine and I was so excited to come home that I didn't sleep a wink on the plane. It feels great to be back in Holland and compared to the extreme heat and humidity of Changzhou the weather here feels downright chilly - it's perfect! It seems like there are no people here; the roads appear empty and peaceful and I am loving the quiet that my parents' house provides. Getting back on track time-wise has proven elusive and my first night home I woke up wide awake at 5:30 am ravenous with hunger as it felt like 5:30 pm. I tiptoed downstairs and had a feast of cold hamburgers, peas, coleslaw and banana cake. It's good to be home.