Buck | July 23, 2012
This weekend was Historicon 2012. This year Historicon was held in Fredericksburg, VA. This was the first time in the new venue. While there were good and bad points to the new venue, in general, I think it was fine. I ran seven games at the convention: Northwest Frontier by GASLIGHT (Thursday evening) Austrians vs. [...]
Buck | July 15, 2012
We planned for our last day at the lake to do nothing but relax before our long drive home. We slept as late as we wanted, played in the water, and generally lounged around our cabin and the “beach.” We all played ladder ball for a while. In this game, you throw a bolo-like object [...]
Buck | July 13, 2012
We had intended to spend this day driving to Dearborn to visit Greenfield Village. We decided that we really wouldn’t enjoy six hours of driving to spend five hours at The Village. Instead we decided to hit some of the souvenir stands up and down “the main drag” of Houghton Lake. Acting on advice from [...]
Buck | July 12, 2012
We began day 11 in a leisurely manner, hanging around the cabin, playing in the lake, playing catch with a baseball, etc. About 2:30 we linked up with Barb and Leonard Natkowski, college friends of my dad. They have a house on a canal leading into Houghton Lake. This was an opportunity to catch up [...]
Buck | July 10, 2012
Days 9 and 10 were spent at Houghton Lake, mostly relaxing. We slept in the first day at the lake and had a leisurely day. Houghton Lake is unique in that it is shallow (less than 10 feet) across most of its area. The shallowness of the lake gave the kids an opportunity wade over [...]
Buck | July 9, 2012
Day eight began with a short drive to the Mackinac bridge. At one time this was the longest suspension bridge in the world. The island, straights, and bridge are named “Mackinac,” with the French spelling. The fort and the city in the lower peninsula are named “Mackinaw,” with the English spelling. The bridge marks the [...]
Buck | July 7, 2012
Day 6 was largely a travel day. We slept in a little and got on the road a little later than planned. We drove seven hours (MapQuest predicted 6, Google Maps predicted 7, and the built-in GPS in Candy’s car predicted 9) to Munising, MI. Munising is in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, on the [...]
Buck | July 5, 2012
What is a ‘dell?’ According to the dictionary: dell |del| noun literary a small valley, usually among trees: lush green valleys and wooded dells. As we were planning this trip, when people heard we were going to The Wisconsin Dells, they would either nod in agreement or say that it was too touristy and that we should stay away. Both were [...]
Buck | July 4, 2012
Happy birthday, United States of America. The Star Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key O say can you see by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And [...]
Buck | July 4, 2012
Day four of our trip was dedicated to seeing the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I remember visiting this museum as a kid, and I hoped that time hadn’t over romanticized my memories of the place. I have to say that it was better than I remember and that I could have spent [...]
