School days are here again ! James arose a few minutes before 7 AM and got ready for school. Mommy supervised as he dressed in a new pair of shoes, a new shirt, and new shorts and socks. Last year, James and Mommy watched Curious George together while waiting for the bus. This morning, he was too excited to watch.

At approximately quarter after seven, the bus pulled up and Mommy walked with him to meet the bus for the first time. James, of course, carried his new Toy Story 3 backpack. Barb is the new school bus driver. Pearl is the attendant. James and Pearl are well-acquainted since Pearl was the attendant on the bus that he rode last year. A little boy from our block will be riding the bus with James for the first time this year. Unfortunately, the child attends a different school than James.

James is once again attending Hoover Elementary in Lincoln Park. Mr. Elia will be James’ teacher for the second year in a row. As always, Dad documents James’ milestones with photographs. Share James’ excitement and nervousness by looking at Dad’s photo gallery.

When her birthday actually came, James helped decorate the house with balloons (not one did he blow up). We took Mary to her favorite outlet mall in Birch Run, then took a quick trip to Bronners Christmas store in Frankenmuth. It began to rain so we headed back and Mary had one of her favorite meals of all time, barbecued ribs and chicken from the Boneyard restaurant.

Thanks to all who sent cards, gifts, and well wishes.

The cost for going through the deer ranch is $5 per person plus carrots and crackers (we got a dollars worth which was plenty) so for a relatively low cost James had a lot of fun. About the time he finished, the first drops of rain were hitting St. Ignace so we got out of there just in time.

Something new we found was a Haunted Mackinaw Island Tour, which we did not go on but we put on the schedule for next year. James did very well this day and was rewarded with a couple toys, a megaphone that changes your voice (It reminded me of one his Grandpa had in Michigan), and a mouse game where you “bop” the mouse with a rubber mallet and the computer tells you how well you did.

We stopped at the little rest area which is North of the Grand Hotel as we were exiting the State Park. James always gets an ice cream and Mary has a chance to check out some of the souvenir shops there. In the center is the collection of horse drawn vehicles including the hearse (which they still use when someone dies).

The key to a successful day at Mackinaw Island is to get there early, before the crowds. This year we did very well at avoiding the crowds and the weather held off for us till we were finished. The boat ride home is when the weather made a turn for the worse but our day was already complete by then.

One fascinating bit of history is the Military Post Cemetery. It is one of only 5 locations where the American flag is flown at half mast every day. The other 4 places you may have heard about, they are Arlington, Pearl Harbor, Gettysburg, and Normundy France.

A bit creepy we admit, but an annual stop on our visit to Mackinaw Island State Park.

Each year the boat ride is a little different and this year was no exception. High winds created waves 5-8′ high and the boat was bouncing around like a carnival ride. James loved every minute of it, especially the high water splattering on the windows of the boat.

The weather forecast for the next few days called for rain on and off, but we were very lucky because whenever we were inside it seemed to rain, whenever we were outside the weather was fine. Mom found a bunch of good deals on t shirts (Mom no longer fit into her older Mackinaw T shirts so Dad inherited them). As usual we spent a good amount of time at the Mackinaw Crossings which is fast becoming a sort of board walk for tourist with fun houses, movie theatres, and some virtual rides along with about fifty or so souvenir and specialty shops (aka Tourist Traps).

The last night of our trip the winds were so strong they knocked out the power in the hotel and half the city, the final couple pics were taken in gale like winds.

On the way down to Nashville this year we stopped off at Dinosaur World but only went into the souvenir shop and picked up some dinosaur toys for James. We told him if he was good on the way home we would take him through the park. One of the nights at the hotel we even watched a dinosaur documentary which everyone enjoyed called “The End of the Dinosaurs” (or something similar in name) which detailed how and why the dinosaurs went extinct when a meteor hit the earth.

Well, for the most part James was very good on this trip, especially in the restaurants. Yes, he did pour his bubbles into the fountain at the nursing home and Yes, he did shoot a rocket off down the hall of the nursing home and Yes, Uncle Bills new Lazy Boy chair got a bit of a workout, but for the most part he was very well behaved and a good boy so on the way home James got rewarded by a walk through Dinosaur World.

Mom got Dad a wallet which was very much needed. Of special note was the gift that James picked out at Cracker Barrel which was a toy dog. The evening before we visited Uncle Bills home and he has 3 dogs which James got to play with, could James be sending us a hint?