There's No Place Lke Home!

Getting away from the grind and stress of daily life is great. Going to new places, seeing new things, it's all good. But coming home, even after you've been away having the time of your life, well, it's the best.


Vacation is over and I'm back to my regular life. It ws great fun while it lasted but it's good to be home.


I spent my vacation time in the great state of Michigan, in a little beach town named Ludington which sits on on the shores of Lake Michigan. It's where I almost always go when I have an opportunity to get away.


The first time I went to Ludington was when I was sixteen years old. Prior to my father's first (in a series of) heart attack we went on vacation every single summer. My father enjoyed Canada, the Bruce Peninsula of Ontario to be exact, maybe a dozen or so miles outside of the town of Wiarton. We would rent a cabin/cottage at either Stokes Bay or Old Womans River and spend a week. My father had a boat we would tow behind our car and he loved to go fishing. My mother would lather up with some sort of wild and crazy guaranteed to tan but not burn you homemade suntan goop (baby oil,iodine and who knows what else) and spend hours laying on the beach. Me, I'd wander around, play in the water, make friends with any other kids staying in the vicinity. That happened every single summer until the year I was a freshman in high school. After my father's heart attack(s) we never went on vacation again.


That's when my best friend, Linda, and her family took me under their wing one summer and brought me along to Ludington with them. I immediately fell in love with the town and every chance I had I'd try to get back there.


Ludington is maybe three and a half hours from here. You go west on I96 until it runs out at Muskegon, then head north to Ludington on 31.


This summer, for the first time in years, I stayed at a place other than my usual motel. I was at Naders Lakeshore Lodge www.nadersmotel.com which sits on North Lakeshore Drive, just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. All of the rooms and suites have sliding glass doorwalls that open onto either a private balcony (if you're upstairs) or a paved patio. There are chairs on each rooms patio, rocking chairs on each balcony. There's a swimming pool, shuffleboard court, basketball hoop, as well as grills and picnic tables. It's a pretty nice place, clean, very wholesome and family oriented.


I ate my meals out at local restaurants. When I had leftovers, which was rare, I kept them in the small fridge in my room, then heated them in my rooms microwave.


Because Ludington is a tourist town there are restaurants up the gazoo. Most of them are great, at least one of them is horrendous.


Handsdown, Mancinos is the best place for pizza, grinders, salads, etc. The portions are huge. In all the years I've been going there I have never, never ever had a bad meal at Mancinos. Kuntry Kitchen Kupboard is also an outstanding place to eat. The food is moderately priced and wonderful, and the waitresses are the best I've seen anywhere. Lots of locals eat there.


The worst place to eat is Luciano's Ristoranti. www.lucianosristoranti.com I think it's the only Italian restaurant in town and maybe that's why it's so bad--no one has anything else to compare their food to. I had chicken piccata and it was awful. A couple sitting near to me had veal parmesan and needed a sharp steak knife to cut the veal. The salads were warm (?), the bread basket was paltry and service was pitiful.


I spent most of my time at the beach. There is a large free public beach at the end of the main street. The sand is clean, the water is clear and I came home brown as a nut! I've always loved laying in the sun, particularly at a beach. The sun bakes whatever is ailing you right up on out of you



I had an opprtunity to do some reading on the beach---The Warden Wore Pink by Tekla Miller (she was a warden here in Michigan), Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King, and I'll Fly Away: Further Testimonials From The Women Of York Prison, edited and introduced by Wally Lamb.


My friend Tallulah gave me the Warden Wore Pink. She ran in to it at a library book sale in Marquette and knew I'd enjoy it. Same Sweet Girls, an oversized paperback, I bought at DollarTree for $1. Same way with the Wally Lamb book, brand new and $1 at DollarTree. I enjoyed all three of the books immensely.


The vacation did just what I'd hoped it would---it made me feel like the old me again, not that fragile post heart attack woman.


If you have the opportunity, get away from home for awhile. A couple days away is enough to give you a whole new perspective on everything.


Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.

hugs, Tawny
248-615-1300

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