UPDATE: We’re back up, we’re rollin.’ David and I returned early from our weekend trip to Michigan to see what was wrong. I posted this at Razzberry Vinaigrette.

Since Blogula Rasa is down until we get home, this one is going to have to do for the moment. We’re heading back home a day early because the system that our blogs run on also runs some other sites that David considers critical, including the archives for his discussion lists.

We’re currently in Grand Haven, MI – we stayed last night at our second choice hotel, a Best Western that’s had a makeover, but stlll shows its blue-collar roots. The room was a “Jacuzzi suite,” but at some time in the past, it was an ordinary motel room.

Dinner was as good as or better than lunch; we walked around downtown and ended up at the Grand, a former movie house bar that’s been turned into an elegant sidewalk cafe. The movie house itself has been turned into condos – almost the entire downtown area is new condos, and the local paper was surprised to note that most of the buyers so far are locals and not people from Chicago and Detroit.

Grand Haven is another “summer cottage” town that was on a rail line – this one is on an abandoned passenger line, unlike St Joseph farther to the south, where we stayed the first night. While we were wandering around St Joseph, we noticed that the Amtrak station doubles as a very busy pizza restaurant; train buffs could sit on their large covered terrace trackside and watch trains come and go.

As I say, we’re driving home today instead of wandering farther to the north, but it’s been a very pleasant and relaxing trip. I’m sorry not to get a chance of availing myself of the local spa’s services – they do a hot stone number, and the place is called “Red’s.” We’ll probably return, though – there’s plenty to see and do, and the local restaurants all seem to be pretty high quality, not like typically tacky tourist places at all. The meal we had last night would have been perfectly acceptable in a high-end Maui restaurant specializing in Pan Pacific “queeezeene”

Speaking of queeezeeene, just as David was falling asleep last night, Iron Chef America came on for an episode they called “Battle Pork.” They noted with some concern that the ice cream machine (“ice cream machiiiiiine!) had been switched on, and that a pork-based frozen dessert was the likely outcome. The Chairmain nodded and smiled ruefully, knowing that his fate was sealed. I turned it off before the guest judges were introduced; TiVo will have it when we get home.

We both took plenty of photos of a few lighthouses on the way, so those will be added later. Michigan seems to be all about the lighthouses and the fishing.

One funny thing from yesterday that I meant to blog – we were watching boats coming in along the channel at the Grand Haven light, and one boat still had lines in the water. Suddenly, one guy got a big bite and excitedly yelled at his captain to turn aside a bit while he dealt with it, while he frantically waved off boats following them to keep them from fouling his line. The boat immediately behind objected with a blast from their airhorn and a shout from their captain complaining about their lack of attention
to details nautical: “….you’re in the friggin’ channel!”

There was a pause from the first boat, obviously due to the distraction from their avid fishing fan in their stern, still trying to land his fish, and then their captain’s half-sarcastic reply: “…okay… thank you.”

They may have had a nice big salmon on the line – we saw one guy trying to put his catch in a 5 gallon bucket, and couldn’t get them in at all. He’d caught several big salmon and a mess of perch, just fishing off the jetty. So I guess the guy in the boat couldn’t be faulted for trying to land his fish.