2016 summer vacation, part 2: Michigan

Isn't it curious how cousins can make you do crazy things?  But I'm getting ahead of myself...  The second week of our summer 2016 vacation was spent in Michigan, visiting Hope's family.  One of the traditions we have upon arrival at Hope's dad's house is a tour of the grounds, to see how things have changed.  Below, Hope and Kenny help Rick with his frog inspections:

Rick has really thrown himself into his garden this year, with everything responding quite nicely, even with a modest drought in the area:

The big event was the family get-together on July 4 that Rick hosted.  Below, Rick operates the grill under the "supervision" of his brother Dave and Hope:

The turnout was quite good, given that it was a Monday.  Below, the crowd starts to gather:

This year's celebration was somewhat incomplete, with both Ann Pruden and Brenda Pruden both having passed since the previous fall.  A big attraction for all attendees was Rick's raspberry patch in the backyard:

As you can see in the picture below, it was a bumper crop!  It seems that just about every day I had eaten my weight in raspberries--before lunch!!

Below, Beth and her cousin Alexandria enjoy cookies and watermelon during the festivities:

Stephen really enjoyed the drone, being flown by his great uncle Kevin (and joined by his cousins Billy (holding drone) and Chris) Pruden:

There was a new addition to the family, with infant Blake being held by his great-grandfather Don Pruden (with his mom Michele in the background):

We managed to find the time to do another Michigan tradition--cherry picking!  The sweet cherries had just ripened in northwestern Michigan (the Lower Peninsula, that is), and we journeyed several hours to one of Rick's "secret" cherry picking places:

All the trees were covered with cherries like that!  We picked way more than we needed to--even Stephen proved masterful at picking--and then ate them fresh for days on end:

While we were that far up, we decided to go to the Lake Michigan coast to hunt for Petosky stones along the beach:

Petosky stones are actually a type of coral fossil commonly found in that area, and when washed as a cobble along the beach, they turn very pretty.  We also took advantage of our time in the Ann Arbor area to eat at a number of interesting restaurants and visit some cool museums, including the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (https://lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/) on the University of Michigan campus:

After an enjoyable visit filled with too many memories to recount here, Bragg Family South wearily returned back to Arkansas to our own beds--and a hay crop for me to mow!  We're already looking forward to our next visit, though!