Detroit Visit

 My dad and Mary Lou came for their yearly visit at the end of September into early October. As usual, we took them to a cider mill and some of the kids' events. 

Erik's ankle had been healing, and he was able to play in his first game since his injury. He played very well and had about five headers that game, so at least his head took a beating and not his ankle! He didn't have a XC meet while they were here since it was a by-week for Discovery. That was actually good so he could rest it more. He got a 5-second PR at his meet the day after they left and his ankle felt great!

We were excited for them to see Austin run in a tri-school meet, but we found out that the coach didn't want his top 8 runners running in that Tuesday meet. He wanted to save them for the Saturday qualifying meet for States, so they didn't get to see him run. (FYI: Austin got a 19-second PR on Saturday, coming in 19th out of 213 and second on our varsity with a time of 16:39. So good call Coach!)

The top 7. The 8th wasn't feeling well.

We all enjoyed visiting with them and getting our cinnamon donuts and cider. Kade got to bring his friend Isa along for that.

Cheers!

Big kids on the little cider mill toys!

For something different this time, I took my dad and Mary Lou to Detroit one day after work. We had to do what all Detroiters do and tested the Coney Dogs at Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island. The two were opened by brothers, right next door to each other in 1917 and 1924. The coney dogs are slightly different and depending on who you talk to, everyone has a strong opinion on which is better. A coney dog is a hot dog with a special chili on it, then mustard, followed by diced onions. You can order a few other options off the menu, but we opted to split two coney dogs at each place to see what we liked best, which was American. The mustard was less spicy, which I didn't mind, but my dad and Mary Lou didn't like it as much. The onions weren't as strong either, which is the reason I liked it better at American. There are other differences in the chili and dogs themselves, but I couldn't really tell. It was a fun experiment.

We walked over to the Detroit River afterward. That reminded me that I never posted the pics of our Stake activity in Detroit over Labor Day weekend. (We got a private cruise on the river on the Diamond Belle and the guide pointed out some landmarks and history on both the American and Canadian sides. Most of which I have forgotten, except that the only floating US post office in the country is on that river with its own zip code. It delivers mail traveling the Great Lakes that come through the Detroit River port.)

We're glad Grandpa and Grandma Anderson came to visit!

The cats had fun too!

Notice the 2 cats watching Grandma make sandwiches...

(Photo dump from the river cruise over Labor Day).

Detroit

Bridge to Canada

Cobo Center

Detroit

Canadian side

The floating USPS!