RAPID GROWTH

Over the past couple of weeks a few important things have happened here: 1) spring came to Michigan, and 2) we found out that we will be staying here for at least another year. Number 2 is because I (C) didn’t get the job at the University of New Mexico, which is a bit of a disappointment, but the sting is tempered by Number 1 and what it has reminded us.
A few months ago we were listening to Simon and Garfunkle’s “America” and realized that it talks (sings) about Michigan: “Michigan seems like a dream to me now. It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw…” Spring comes late to Michigan, but when it comes, it’s beautiful. It happened quickly at the beginning of May. Outside our front door there is a shrub that has become home to a family of birds. The first sign we had was a bright blue egg that had fallen out of the nest and onto our front lawn. It was so bright that we mistook it for a candy Easter egg. Then we found the nest and started checking the family’s progress daily. Here is how it went:

One of the best surprises about spring was Lily of the Valley growing in our front yard.  The smell in the evening is perfect.  Since you can’t smell online, here’s a picture.

Tulips in our yard (which we certainly didn’t plant) burst open in bright colors and they’re everywhere here. And this isn’t even Holland, MI, where they have the tulip festival every year, with 5 million tulips in one small city near the Lake Michigan shore. We drove out to see it, but were deterred by traffic, so we decided to go to the lake shore.
There were no other cars in the parking lot when we pulled in, and we didn’t see the beach, just a mountain of sand in front of us. To get to the beach, we had to climb about seven flights of stairs to get to the top of the dune, and then go down about ten more to get to the beach.

This is a panoramic view from near the top of the stairs.

But it was worth the climb to have the beach all to ourselves on a perfect spring day.

Felix wrestling the driftwood

We already knew that we liked Michigan, but after having seen the possibility of moving somewhere else and not gotten it, this spring has reminded us that Michigan is such a good fit for us (not to mention that it’s May 17th and didn’t get above 60 degrees. Who could ask for more?)

Our last bit of news after years of deliberation, reminders from family members, etc., is that we bought a kitchen table.