Currently in Houghton MI (Low 54 Mostly Sunny High 78)
As far as we are concerned they can never make too many movies featuring Jason Bourne. We recently saw the latest incarnation, "Jason Bourne".
Providing more of the backstory the movie of how Jason came to be what he is. Of course the movie had a lot of action. If you have seen and liked the earlier movies you will like this one. Of course they set it up for another sequel at the end. The only question will be when Matt Damon becomes too old, much like the Star Trek actors, what will they do.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 56 Mostly Sunny High 75)
We attended Mass yesterday at St. Josephs in Lake Linden Michigan near Houghton.
Another beautiful church in the UP which was built of rough sandstone blocks. The church is front-gabled with round arched windows, with two steeples with domed caps frame the roof line. The church was built in 1871 in the French Canadian tradition to serve the growing French Canadian population of the area that were in the area to work in the copper mines.
Here is the view facing the altar
Towards the choir loft
The main altar
Closeup of the two altars
Above the altars
Since it is an old church the elevated pulpit is still present. Some old churches have removed the pulpits.
The side altar on the left side
On the right side
There was beautiful stained glass
Some of the most beautiful Stations of the Cross we have ever seen.
We cannot believe how blessed we are to tour this great country and when we go to Mass it is at an historical site.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 64 Storms High 85)
When life gives you lemons, we eat out :-)
Between dealing with our Bigfoot automatic leveling system and the door ding from the lawn mower we were incredibly busy during our stay in Elkhart. We checked our list for the area and settled on Gramma's House of Pancakes in Elkhart.
We are big breakfast eaters so the fact that Gramma's House of Pancakes serves breakfast all day works in our favor. Jo had the Jr. Apple Pancakes which is a baked pancake concoction that is half pancake, half bread pudding, part apple pie. Bob had the Spartan Omelet with potatoes and a side of biscuits and gravy. Here is the entire meal.
Here is the Jr. Apple Pancakes up close. Keep in mind this is the Jr. or the smaller version. We had enough leftovers for multiple meals.
Everything was wonderful, we'll have to visit again the next time we are in town.
We also ate at The Flippin' Cow when the door ding was being painted and the burgers were excellent. It was waterside so the view and food are also worth repeating the next time we are in town. Sorry no pictures for the Flippin' Cow. We also didn't take the pictures of the Elkhart Campground where we were staying so no review.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 64 Storms High 79)
Catching up on a park we stayed at earlier this year - Hickory Hollow Campground in North Utica Illinois.
Except for the lawnmower throwing the rock and dinging the front door of our RV we still kinda like this park. It is located just off of I-80 but without road noise. Our two GPS devices had no problem getting us there and they agreed on the route, this doesn't always happen.
The office staff was friendly at checkin (and also when the lawnmower incident happened), park roads were gravel but we bonused and got one of the few concrete pull through sites. Hookups were convenient and we got a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front
To the right
To the left
From the rear
While here we drove west to visit Bob's aunt.
Left to right it is Bob's cousin Jim, Bob's sister Mary, Aunt Jean front and center, Bob's sister KB and Bob hiding behind her. The next day we drove east and visited Jo's nephew.
That's Mark on Jo's left side then his wife Julie.
We would probably stay here again, as long as they don't mow or weed eat near us.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 56 Partly Sunny High 78)
Catching up on our recent stay in North Utica Illinois. The day after visiting Bob's aunt and cousins we had a little time since we were meeting Jo's nephew later in the day. We sometimes forget that some people still work. So we took the opportunity to do some unplanned sightseeing.
First of all of course we had to eat. We had heard good things about Nonie's Bakery and Cafe in North Utica Illinois and it turns out we heard right. Jo had the cranberry walnut french toast with bacon. Bob had the biscuits and gravy with eggs and he added sausage. Everything was wonderful. The bread is fresh baked there. The sausage is ground there. Most everything is made there and is fresh. If we ever are in the area we will be back.
About half way thru the meal we decided it was blog worthy so we took a photo.
After we had finished eating we commented that it was a little cooler than the previous days so we thought we would take cousin Jim's advice and see Starved Rock State Park. Here is Starved Rock from across the Illinois River.
We walked around a little in the park and decided we would try to walk to the top of Starved Rock. But for that we would need water, the unplanned nature of this day, which we thought we could buy from one of the vending machines. First the vending machine wouldn't take any of our dollar bills so we went and got quarters. When I told the cashier the vending machine wasn't taking dollars bills she didn't seem that interested. The good news is that the machine took quarters, the bad news is that it took only one and that one jammed.
Since it was getting hotter and we didn't want to walk without water we decided to head to the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center across the river which is where we got the picture above. We found out about the I and M canal that was built in the early 1800s connecting Illinois and Michigan that was a boon to the commerce in that time frame.
We then walked outside and got a picture of the dam
and the lock.
We had just missed a barge going through which would have neat. We were surprised to see white pelicans on the river and flying overhead. We did get a picture of one of them overhead.
Starved Rock State Park is worth another visit as it is full of waterfalls and canyons. Here is an example from the web.
Definitely on our list to see next time in the area when we have water with us, along with Nonie's Bakery and Cafe.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 51 Mostly Sunny High 74)
We plan to see a few movies during our stay in Houghton and "Star Trek: Beyond" was the first we saw.
This is the third movie of the reboot with the younger cast (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, et. al.). It's a good science fiction movie carrying on the Star Trek franchise that began in 1966. Two things stood out to us.
The first was how they treated the death of Leonard Nimoy who's Ambassador Spock character figured heavily into the reboot and the alternate timeline. Commander Spock hears about Ambassador Spock's death and is moved. While going through the Ambassador's personal effects he comes across a picture of the original cast from their movies. A touching moment.
We also liked the tie in to the "Enterprise" TV series with a similar designed ship to the NX-01, the USS Franklin makes an appearance. The USS Franklin was the first Warp 4 starship while the NX-01 Enterprise was the first Warp 5 starship.
Both of those kind of an homage to the past which is always good to us. There also was a reference to a giant hand in space which was also a referral to an original series episode. Like all good "Star Trek" offerings this movie had action, comedy, and Kirk saves the entire galaxy, so what else is new.
One reviewer compared it to "Guardians of the Galaxy" and we could see the similarity but the GOTG was much better. The 4th movie has been announced it will be interesting to see how they deal with the death of the actor who played Chekov.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 61 Partly Sunny High 72)
We never knew that Houghton Michigan was the birthplace of professional hockey.
We toured Dee Stadium and found out the story.
The area around Houghton was known as Copper Country due the vast amount of copper mined in the area. Seeking to provide entertainment to the miners in the winter hockey teams were started in the late 1890s. Mining was booming so in the fall of 1902 a local entrepreneur named James Dee, along with other locals, funded the construction of the Amphidrome, which opened just after Christmas in 1902. The Amphidrome burned to the ground in 1927 so we got this image from the web.
James Dee had bigger plans and worked with a local dentist named John L. 'Doc' Gibson, who was from Canada, to recruit Canadians with the promise of payment, thus the professional International Hockey League was formed. The first league game was played on December 9, 1904 and the league lasted 3 seasons.
A recession hit driving down the price of copper which dried up the funding for the professional league. The Dee Stadium, built the year after Amphridrome burnt down on the same site and named for James Dee and is the museum for the first professional hockey league. There was a great film in the museum, which was free by the way. Along with the film there were display cases. They have a lot of artifacts from that era, we were a little surprised to see skates that had keys like we had when growing up. Here is an example of the display cases which because of the glass are hard to photograph.
Hockey is still popular in the area. A hockey player from the area, Rod Paavola, from nearby Hancock, was on the 1960 USA Hockey Team that won the gold medal in the Olympics.
A historical marker for the Amphidrome sits outside the Dee Stadium.
There is so much history in this area, another great day in the UP.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 61 Mostly Sunny High 78)
After Mass Saturday night at St. Ignatius in Houghton we drove to Calumet Michigan to attend the Blooze Brothers show in the historic Calumet Theatre.
We blogged about the Calumet Theatre and its history before and have seen a show there. Here is a view of the historic theatre from the web.
The Blooze Brothers are a Blue Brothers tribute band that if you believe their website they are "Chicago's most requested and exciting tribute and show band". We don't know if that's true but we do know we had a good time. Here is the 1974 Dodge Monaco bloozemobile parked out front.
They allowed photos to be taken during the show so here are Jake and Elwood Blooze.
They of course played songs from the Blues Brothers movies but also Motown, 60s, 70s, and Chicago bands like "Ides of March" and of course "Chicago". The band was incredible, especially the horn section, which was evident during the Chicago songs especially. The lead singer, Shiela, was great. Here she is with Jake and Elwood.
Although they had some sound problems the first act, a microphone that didn't work and one that had feedback in one area of the stage. The band sound was too loud and the singers sound was too low so it was difficult to understand the words. It was still a great show and they fixed the sound problems so the second act was much better. If you get the chance to see the Blooze Brothers we highly recommend this show because they haven't been caught yet.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Houghton MI (Low 60 Mostly Cloudy High 80)
Lazy Acres RV Park in Center Point Iowa, near Cedar Rapids, is one of our favorite RV parks. That being said both times we have been there it has been for a very short time. We hope to stay longer the next time.
GPS had a very easy time getting us to this park. It is just off of I-380 north of Cedar Rapids Iowa and we were brought right here. Even though we were close to the Interstate the road noise was barely noticeable. The roads and the sites are gravel. We had a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish and the Verizon 4g/cellular signals were strong. Being close to Cedar Rapids means the over the air television signals should have been good but we weren't here long so we just used our DirecTV dish. There is a small pond.
The owners, Myron and Esther Lown, are the nicest people and keep the park immaculately clean.
Here is our Lifestyle from the front.
To the right, we were at the end of a row.
To the left.
From the rear
Since we were at the end of a row here is a photo showing the park.
Myron was a former homebuilder so he is always adding stuff to the park. Here is a play area.
Miniature golf.
He has a four seat ride that he runs around the campground but I never got a good shot of.
We hope to be back.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
