Monday 27 June 2011

Hols in Michigan–Part 2

Bay City and St Stan’s Festival

DSC07067_640x480Bay City was where Amy grew up and so she knows it well. We went there to see not only her father, the boys grandfather, but also to go to the St Stan’s festival - it is a Polish festival with Kielbasa and Polka dancing. To kick off the festival on the Thursday night there is a 5km run that Amy, one of her friends and I entered. The race was meant to start at 5:30pm but the registration, even for those of pre-registered was horribly organised – one person doing all the work and about 10 standing around not knowing what way was up! So that delayed the start of the race but in hind sight that was good as am enormous rain shower came throDSC07072_640x480ugh at 5:30pm. We managed to hind under the tent and stay dry but many others weren’t so lucky. Conor had a wonderful time playing in the waterfall coming off the tent roof only to complain that he was wet and cold afterwards – tough lesson! So at 6:30pm the race started and it was now dry with some big puddles to jump if you wanted to keep your feet dry. I was around in 26 minutes and it was nice to have the exercise. Unfortunately Stuart and John were standing in the wrong place so missed us all finish!! We all stood proudly for a photo at the end with our medals on.

We went back to the festival on the Saturday night when it was in full swing. There was a fairground, but we weren’t interested in that we headed straight for the beer tent where the polka dancing was taking place. To Stuart’s disappointment the only beer being served was Bud Light, and that doesn’t even class as beer. Because we had done the run we got free vouchers so at least we didn’t need to pay for the coloured water!! Stuart and I decided to give this Polka thing a go as it just looked like a barn dance and it looked like there was no particular way you had to get around the dance floor. Well Stuart set off at pace spinning us both around by the end we were both very dizzy and hot – good thing for the Bud Light hey!

DSC07255_640x480

DSC07256_640x480Brother & Sister Resemblance?!

DSC07258_640x480 DSC07257_640x480

That evening we finished up at the Bell Bar – owned by Amy’s Uncle. It was a lively little place. We played some pool while Stu enjoyed some real beer! We had a laugh at a guy who was a little worse for wear but considered himself as a bit of a pool shark. Before he took a shot he had to steady himself with one hand on the table before bending over to line up! The finale to his performance was when he was playing Stuart and another chap for our group and this boy runs towards the door doing a five finger spread on the way (i.e. being sick while covering ones mouth with your hand!) – I have never seen Stuart move so fast out of his way!

DSC07085_640x480

DSC07260_640x480Opps! Caught on camera with the whisky in hand!

DSC07268_640x480

DSC07266_640x480
Normal dress for a Saturday night in Bay City?!

By the time we finished up the evening at 3am we were ready for bed!

Cool Barns in Michigan

I became obsessed with trying to get a photo of one of the barns as they looked pretty to me. Frannie ended up taking me out on a special barn scoping trip in her mini – thank you. So here is my collection.

DSC07274_640x480
Red one!
DSC07273_640x480
One almost good enough to be a house!
DSC07278_640x480Falling down one! DSC07279_640x480Flat green farm land nr Frankenmuth

Hell, Michigan

We couldn’t leave before visiting Hell! However, as you might expect there isn't much in Hell, it is just the name. But they do sell some nice ice cream in homemade waffle cones!

No comments:

Post a Comment