At this moment I am blogging from Michigan, more specifically the thumb. The Big Cheese moved out this way last year and this is my first opportunity to come and check it out. It's also his 58th birthday!!
As he likes to say, "it might not be the end of the world but you can see it from here."
This is a small town, lots of farms, no hills and scant tree coverage that allows you to see forever into the distance. Being from New England I tend to find this a bit unsettling.
Don't get me wrong, it certainly is pretty out here but I also feel like I've been transported back in time a few decades.
The view from my bedroom window with a lovely shot of a wind farm in the distance. I am obsessed with wind farms I could stare at the turbines for hours completely mesmerized.
Much like back home winter hasn't relented it's icy gripe quite yet so many of the big cheese's Christmas decorations are still frozen into the ground. Happy st. Patricks day!
In the back yard there's a clothes line followed by farm land that goes on forever. The view from the front of the house isn't ant different which of course brings to mind the children of the corn.
There is something to be said about the simplicity and tranquility of it though. I'd like to experience it in the summer.
It's hard to know what you're looking at here but that pathetic little plant is actually a grape vine I bought my father almost a decade ago and it survived the journey out here, absolutely amazing.
The cheese was thrilled to show off the local (nothing is really local out here in the sense of the world I'm familiar with) sights which included Bronners Christmas wonderland which bills itself as the worlds largest Christmas store and I believe it. Upon entering they hand you a map and my head just about exploded. I walked around for a good hour in a daze with my mouth hanging open. If you're ever out this way and if you happen to not be a complete grinch I highly recommend checking it out.
On sight they also have the silent night memorial chapel (I forgot to take a picture the one from the brochure will just have to do). This a full scale replica of the chapel in Oberndorf, Austria where silent night "Austria's gift to the world" was first performed on guitar because the organ was broken, on Christmas Eve in 1818.
The cheese explained to me that Frankenmuth was settled by a group of German Lutherans and from there it was just kind of expected that I would love it. It's a little Bavarian tourist trap so of course I did. Besides there was bratwurst for lunch so what's not to love?
And the I found the clock company and for the second time that day my head exploded. As we learned from my trip to ikea I have a hereditary clock obsession. I just had to peek inside.
Needless to say I was not disappointed. If my current cuckoo clock didn't have so muh sentimental value I might have replaced it on the spot. Well, if I'd ever be able to pick just one to bring home.
There's a lot of driving to get to anywhere thankfully I find the wind farms bountiful and soothing.
Otherwise this is pretty much your view the entire time.
Isn't this just so much better to look at?
My step brother has a 40 minute drive to school each way which I find hard to wrap my head around. There seems to be more churches than people and an inexplicable number of oil change places. Also you need one satalite dish for cable and a seperate one for Internet out in the sticks.
But you can get a heck of a view of the stars out here, watch a spectacular sun or moon rise and now it's where my daddy lives so who am I kidding? I can't help but love it.
I went light on pictures this trip in favor of being more in the moment but I did manage to catch this gem of the cheese photo bombing my brother while he skyped his girlfriend. This was after he crept along the living room and then jumped up while shouting "I'm photo bombing you!"
Too short a trip as always, heading home tomorrow and hoping to bring along with me some of the simplicity I've been surrounded with out here.
Speaking of simplicity, I gave up Facebook, Twitter & Instagram for lent and it has been the absolute best decision ever. Unplugging was not as painful as I imagined it to be and I highly recommend it.
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