Celebrating Freedom and Friends

Hope you all had a happy Independence Day! In the past two weeks we've had some exceptional times visiting friends. First we traveled about 250 miles north of Indianapolis to meet my old friend, Karen, at her daughter's in Fenton, Michigan. It was nice to have some time to share with Karen and to see the local area with much hospitable input from her family. Here's Karen with her grandaughter, Ellen, building-a-bear at the balloon festival in Howell, Michigan, a picturesque town about 50 miles northwest of Detroit. The little towns in this area, north of Detroit and south of Flint, would probably not have been on our normal path, but for this invitation. We were glad to have the chance to explore a part of Holly, Howell, Fenton and Hartland, and mostly, to do it with special people.

We were on our way back to Indianapolis from the trip to Michigan when we stopped in Marion, Indiana, to visit some other friends. Our 4th of July was a slice of a joyful all-American experience. Mike and Suzanne took us downtown to the street fair. We shot photos as their children, Lauren and Sean, took rides on the horses and jumped in the huge blowup tiger. Then we all decided not to wait in line to ride the fire truck, shopped for corn on the cob at the farmers' market, ate yummy fried catfish and just watched people. As dusk drew near we pulled out our folding chairs, found a good spot in the parking lot to listen to the local symphony play patriotic music and watched the spectacular fire works.

It don't get much better than that!