Work Outing - West Michigan Style

Several weeks ago, when the weather was actually decent, we got to have an off campus work outing. This may not seem like a big deal, but since I am an enginerd and not in finance, sales, or accounting, our work outings are very few and far between. So, I was uber excited to find out that one of the guys we work with was willing to take us hooligans out on his boat on the big lake for an afternoon of fun and refreshments.

Mackinac Weekend Trip

A few weeks ago, we decided to go on a mini-trip up north to Mackinac Island. On the way up there, we detoured into Traverse City to check out this old state asylum from the early 1900s that is now being renovated for commercial and residential use. The place was incredible, and we were able to wander around the grounds for a while checking out the buildings and such....

This is 'Building 52'. It was the main hospital building and now houses apartments, restaurants, and small shops.

This was one of the more independent living homes which they have turned into assisted living for the elderly....

The place was so huge, they had their own little fire department, which is now a bakery.

In building 52, each store occupies one or more of what used to be the patient's room. This room hasn't been rented out yet, but they left the old iron door intact. Creepy.....

This is where you would check in to see your crazy loved ones apparently....

Another half-way house for patients that now is for assisted living or condos.

Some of the buildings are not yet renovated. Below are a few of those buildings. I'm sure they aren't haunted at all...

View down the hallway of one of the unrenovated loony bin buildings....

Here I am checking out one of the buildings where I would have probably been put had this place still been open today.

How come huge, menacing, Gothic, early 20th century buildings are always associated with state asylums??

This place held around 4000 patients in it's hay-day and was completely self sufficient. They even had their own mini power plant. Also, they farmed the surrounding land to create their own food supplies. There were 3 barns like this on the property that housed farm animals such as milking cows and pigs.

After our little side trip to the loony bin, we headed up to Mackinaw City to spend the night before heading over to the island. Here is our little cabin that we stayed in. It was super cute!

After we settled in, we headed over to the beach to gawk at the bridge. oooohhh!

The old lighthouse in Mackinac City....

The next morning we got our stuff around and hopped the boat over to the island. Here we are approaching the island and that is the Grand Hotel in the distance.

Below is the place where we stayed at on the island.

We rode our bikes around the island to various tourist sites. I think everyone who lives in Michigan has this picture.....but it was still cool to see in person.



We checked out the cemetery on the island. This part of it was specifically for the solders who fought in the war. There were a lot of 'unknown' graves.

Our first night there we partied it up downtown along w/ this crazy bachelorette group....

We checked out the Grand Hotel. Since we were mere peons, they would only let us get so close to it unless we were staying there or we threw money at the staff.

This gazebo wasn't at the Grand Hotel, but at another resort on the island. Very pretty.

Overall, we had a fun time biking and gorging on fudge. Next time we will just have to make sure our bikes are equip with fenders in case it rains again. :)

Rotary Wedding in St. Johns

August 8th my friend from high school, Brandon Rotary got married back in St.Johns and I was lucky enough to be invited to the grand festivities. These are just some pictures from the days events. Probably the most amazing thing is the fact that I actually wore a skirt (which was my sister's since I don't even own one) and I had my hair done up all fancy (which I had done at a salon since my idea of an 'up-do' is putting my hair in a ponytail).

Here we are all dressed up and ready to impress.

After the wedding we naturally had some time until the reception, so we met up with some people at the new SJ restaurant called 'The Mint'. It used to be a bank, and it was pretty cool inside because they still had all the vaults and lock boxes from when the bank was there.

The vault behind the bar stored all the liquor and the bar is made around the old lock boxes.

Me and Kate Livingston at The Mint

The reception was outdoors in this huge white tent set-up in the Rotary's back yard. Here the wedding party is arriving. I'm not sure how Brandon didn't drop Becky because I'm pretty sure he was already 3-sheets to the wind by this point.
Dad and groomsmen giving speeches.

Kate and her b/f Andy

Me and the blushing groom (well, more like bright red groom! lol)

Destiny and Tom


Brandon getting his groove on to Usher's "Yeah", while getting ready to pull off Becky's garter w/ his teeth!

Somehow the garter became giant green granny-panties instead.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the tent was really pretty at night all lit up by Christmas lights.