Katrin's Visit

This is Katrin, everyone. On one of her first days here, she rented a bike and checked out some parks in the area (one of the pluses of this town).

Later that day, we introduced her to the game of baseball by taking her to the batting cages, a favorite stop when we have Germans visit. Some of you may have already heard about my theory that Alex is going to bring baseball to Germany, one person at a time. So far, so good. All three of his friends from home that have visited have ended up liking it. Here she is in her swing stance.

That night, we had Mongolian grill for dinner -delicious!- which was a first for our foreign guest. The next night was fun at Comerica Park for the Tigers-Indians game. We had bratwurst at the park and stayed afterward to enjoy the fireworks, which the Tigers do after every Friday home game. I hadn't seen fireworks since New Years in Germany and I forget how much I love them (I am my mother's daughter!). Sadly, our decision to stay had consequences: our first encounter with severe rain and thunderstorms of the weekend occurred on the way to the car.

It was like movie rain, the kind that starts from nowhere and that the unwitting characters get caught up in. Yeah, that was us.

We went from this during the game...

...to this after the game (a little graphic, I know, but I really think you need to see this to appreciate how wet things were).

There were thunderstorm warnings throughout Michigan over the weekend, so we tried to hedge our bets and see some nice spots along the shores without getting dumped too early in the game. On Saturday, we went to Port Huron (little piece of trivia for you, that's the birthplace of Buttercup!), which was the first time for all of us to Lake Huron. It was such a nice spot: nice beach, not too crowded. We wandered farther north afterward and found the cutest little town, Lexington, thus reaffirming my belief that you find the best places when you aren't looking for them.

Here is the lovely beach at Port Huron and Alex and I enjoying it:

Here is the adorable town of Lexington:

On Sunday, we had planned to go to this great spot on Lake Michigan (St. Joseph), but there was over a fifty percent chance of rain pretty much throughout the state, so we decided to go to a metropark 25 minutes away so that we would be able to maximize our time before the storm hit. It was so hot out and the water wasn't that cold so I actually got to go swimming! So did Buttercup and man, did she enjoy the water. Eventually, the forecast caught up with us and we had to dash for cover. When the rain slowed, we packed up the car and went home, but it was a very relaxing afternoon (and weekend in general).

Look at how cute my girl is in the water!















I love this shot of Alex having a smoke and a laugh after we were forced to the covered area.









The next day, Katrin's last, she and I went shopping. She really wanted to get a sweatshirt from "the Aberfitch Crombie" (I tried correcting her, but not as hard as I could have cuz it was just too cute!). As it has become a traditional way of bidding German visitors auf wiedersehen, we went to the Crab Shack for snow crab that evening. As always, it's hard to believe it when our guests have to go. Even when they stay for two weeks, the time just flies. It's always a little sad for a while afterward as well, even for me, because it reminds us how few people we know here and how much we miss our friends.