Eastern Orthodox Wedding - Coptic

The initial reason for the trip to MI was to attend the long awaited wedding of the daughter of a long time friend in Ann Arbor, MI. I won't use names here for privacy but I'll post a couple of photos for those of you who wanted to see a glimpse of the festivities. I don't yet understand what the "Coptic" part is but was told that it was the language used in early Egypt (where the groom was born). I plan to google for some details. The wedding was delayed for over an hour because one of the priests was caught in a traffic jam coming into U.S. from Canada at Windsor (maybe the new requirement for using passports caused the delay - or maybe an accident, we didn't find out). The priest had been to a funeral in Canada and was quite rushed when he arrived!

Other than that delay the wedding and reception went off without any glitch. The food was delicious and served quickly, the band was great and the bride and groom were glowing!

If you can't have something go wrong on your wedding day, what stories will you have to tell the grandchildren? I'm glad I was invited.

More Snow From MI

Hello All;
Our good luck on the MI trip has continued...we woke up to 2 inches of fresh snow on the tree tops, cars and lawns this AM. It was picture postcard beautiful! After 10 years of being away in the winter, I couldn't have planned any better. The big storms predicted went somewhere south of us but we got the beauty of the storm.

After we allowed for the residents to get to work (we didn't want to clog the roads in the peak driving time!) we drove to the south side of Lake Macatawa (remember where L. Frank Baum did some of his writing?) and walked towards Lake MI. We ignored the "STOP - PRIVATE PROPERTY" signs because, well, because we could - no persons were sitting in the little guard shacks and I've always followed so many rules, I just wanted to see the lighthouse - which should be publicly accessible by law anyway!

Then we drove 20 miles to the Grand Haven State Park and made a very quick stop to see that lighthouse - mercy mercy it was cold! The wind was whipping across the lake so as to make us glad we don't have to go there every day. And then we stopped in town for hot soup and tea to warm us up and support our American economy - we have done our part to stop the recession on this trip!

Enjoy - and those of you who are in FL missing this - too bad because the scenery is spectacular!

Holland, MI Snow & Ice

Friends;

From FL to Hawaii to MI - what a change! This bookseller is enjoying the time away from 10 years in the FL sun, however. This photo of the frozen lake shows just one example of why - a frozen Lake Michigan. I haven't seen this in at least 10 years and I'm loving it.

Today I went to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park and walked a couple of miles- an awsome experience in a snow storm, even though I didn't have my skiis. The solitude and view from the dunes is as great as I remembered.

I'll be back to the books in FL on Thursday - assuming the prediction of the additional snow tonight and tomorrow is as light as predicted in Detroit. Madlyn