Leaving Angola, we headed north for Lansing to pick up Randy's cousin Cheryl (Mike and Carol's daughter), the plan being to have dinner together at yet another place from Randy's childhood memories, to eat Coney Island Dogs and then hit "The Parlour" for amazing ice cream sundaes... however the family had apparently changed their plans and gone the night before while we were having Chinese with Aunt Carol in Angola, so we had to postpone that and participate in the barbecue at Uncle Bernie's house. Which was also good, don't get me wrong, but for me this trip was about making Randy happy and he was craving his Coneys...
It was very nice for me to see Uncle Bernie and family again though, they had visited the family here and although we didn't get much time together I enjoyed them. Their 3 kids are almost grown now, the youngest about to get her driver's license, but all of them still wonderful to hang out with! And I got a quick tour of "The Morgan Farm" where Randy spent so much time visiting in the summers growing up.
This morning it was up and off to breakfast, had to laugh because Uncle Bernie picked... BOB'S BIG BOY! YUM...
Back home we helped Robyn finish setting up for Grandma's birthday party, then ran Randy over to "Island Park" downtown {yes Eaton Rapids has a downtown!} for pictures with the two parrot guns (cannons) which are monuments in the park. He spent a lot of time pointing out different features, took tons of pictures for him and even a video... {sigh} WHY WHY WHY didn't National find the camera?????????
Leaving the park, he strolled over to the gazebo and had words with 3 teens who were carving their names into the picnic table... invited them to leave the park or he was calling the police, their choice. Well they went but not very quickly, and not very far, and once they felt safe they were yelling epithets... Randy's reply: "If you think you can take me, bring it on!" in response to which they shuffled a little further off {meanwhile I am frantically urging him to leave, the last thing we need is a FIGHT right before Grandma's birthday party {eyes rolling here}
Anyway they didn't leave, just stood on the bridge connecting the park to the city (Island Park, remember?) so he DID call the cops... never heard anything further despite leaving his number for ID purposes.
Grandma's party was a blast, there were 102 people in attendance {thankfully not all at once}, we DEMOLISHED four whole cakes! I just LOVE Randy's Grandma... she is the sweetest lady! I got to meet a ton of Randy's more distant relatives and of course I can't remember any of them, but that's ok, he did well even with that many people, stayed to the side and was able to reconnect with quite a few people he hadn't see for a long time. Grandma was surprised and seemed quite please... did I mention she is another one of Randy's family that I really LOVE??? Unfortunately with so many people she was quite busy so thankfully we have tomorrow morning reserved for private time before we have to head home... Once things started dying down we snagged Cheryl and the 3 of us went and picked up Stacy, a long-time friend, and off we went to satisfy Randy's craving...
So ok I am not really a hot dog gal, they were ok but I sure wouldn't have driven more than half an hour just for them... but Randy was happy and that was good enough for me. The Parlour however definitely made the whole trip worthwhile!!! Talk about ice cream heaven... I asked but they do NOT bottle and sell their stuff like some places, however the assistant manager was kind enough to come give us the "secret" recipe for the peanut butter sauce since we live so far away and can't come back for more. And Randy said... "I can make that" {huge grin here!}
MORE TOMORROW!
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