A Trip Home (sort of)

A couple weekends ago, I got a chance to return to my home turf (sort of). One of my high school friends got married in Michigan, on the west side of the state. Not quite "home", but close enough. Dinner on Friday night was with another high school friend. While she had been able to attend the wedding, we hadn't gotten to chat much. So this was a nice opportunity to catch up properly.

Apparently I picked the right hotel to stay at for the weekend. I arrived after my nice dinner to find my friend's family chatting in the hall (just down from my room). This afforded us a great opportunity to chat all weekend. Later, I found out that several others that I knew from growing up were all staying at the same hotel too. So I got to see lots of familiar faces.

The wedding was lovely. Holly was a beautiful bride, and JC a dashing groom. The reception was amazing to say the least. Despite my gd, I was able to enjoy most of the food, and even some cake.

Of course I couldn't pass up the chance to see some of the west side of Michigan. Believe it or not, in the 15 odd years I lived there we never traveled that far west to visit. Just down the road from the hotel was the winery of one of my favorite wine makers, St Julians. I just couldn't say no to a free tour of the facility. Too bad I couldn't do the wine tasting portion :( However, I did come home with a bottle of their latest product: Grey Heron Vodka. To be sampled after Ada comes of course. Interestingly enough, it's vodka made from grapes.

On Sunday, to kill time before my flight left, I headed to the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids. I'm a sucker for zoos, plus it gets me out and walking around (which is good). Several of the animals were already put up for the season, but I still got to see a good variety. Plus it gave me another chance to play with one of my birthday presents: the 55-275 mm lens for our camera.

All in all, it was a great trip back "home".