Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Lovely Lake Michigan

Just as fast as we could settle in our place and find some subletters, we headed to the Paces' home in Michigan for some summer fun. Noah and I always travel in autumn, so we tend to hoard our vacation time in anticipation of fall travel. Thanks to my firm's summer days (gah-lor-ious!) and Noah's ability to work from the road, we enjoyed one of the first summer vacations we've had in years.

Our band of merry travelers made our way north to Lake Michigan and the lovely lakeside town of Hollis. We rode bikes to the beach, jumped off the pier, ate soft-serve apricot ice cream and made s'mores in the fire pit in back. When we weren't doing those things, we were berry picking (straight from the beach to the berry patch), failing to keep up on morning runs with Ashley, exploring farmers' markets and wandering through street fairs.


Upon our return to Ann Arbor, we were treated to a tour of the Big House at University of Michigan. Noah was in heaven getting to see a Heisman trophy and walk on the field. Hayden was a little, "yeah, whatevs." It's gonna take more than the largest college football stadium to impress this four year old.


  
One hazard of traveling with Ashley Pace, photographer extraordinaire, is that I tend to take very, very few pictures. For a better photo documentary (and frankly, wittier prose), I recommend her account.

As fall blusters away outside my window, I'm just going to revel a few more moments in this:



Frankenstorm (Or, the one where I finally update the blog because of Frankenstorm)

Faithful readers of the blog may recall it took Snowmageddon of 2010 in order for me to get around to taking pictures of our last apartment. True to form, we've been in our new digs for almost 4 months and thanks to another natural disaster, I finally took pictures of the place. I hear you, National Weather Service. I will be much more diligent about posting apartment pictures in the future.

On the hottest day on record, we cleared out of our Battery Park studio and moved on up to the east west side, to a de-lux cozy one bedroom apartment in the sky on the fifth floor of a walk-up. With the help of dear friends and family, we moved miscellaneous items up on Saturday afternoon. And with the help of dear movers, we moved boxes and furniture on Sunday afternoon. And on Sunday afternoon, Noah and I, along with our houseguests - the wonderful Bradshaw cousins - nearly passed out in the heat of a fifth floor apartment with a broken A/C while boxes, bins and bubble wrap overtook the apartment. There is no sense in sugar coating it. It was one crappy night and our Duane Reade fans could not keep up. Bradshaws, we are so sorry.

Now that the temperature has chilled, and there is a place for everything and everything in its place, we are really loving this little haven of ours. The 1970s tile and the one-bum kitchen are even growing on us. It's on a great tree-lined street of brownstones and walk-ups that makes me deliriously happy, and the tall trees out our back windows give a sense of privacy (though, indeed, the police precinct is only a short stone's throw through said trees).

You'll be shocked to know all these pictures were taken at the same time of day. I evidently don't adjust well for backlight. But ah, well - here's the place:

The living room: 



I had grand plans of making that loft a guest loft. And though some guests have braved it, I get a little nervous that someone will sit up too quickly one night and bang their head on the ceiling. When it came time to pack away summer clothes, fans and golf clubs, I finally gave in to the fact this could be a storage loft. And actually, the joy I feel when I open closets and things don't fall on my head is worth it.

The office and bedroom loft:



We opted to ditch our sleigh bed and put our bed up in this loft, in order to have an office and extra space down below. This loft is what really sold us on the place. Going from a studio to a bedroom and then some -- I almost haven't known what to do with myself. Sometimes I open and shut the bedroom door just because  it exists.

The bathroom:

Yeah, it's a bathroom. Not much more to report.

I seem to have missed the kitchen? It's nothing to write home about (and yet, here I am writing "home" about it), but it does the trick. We have yet to starve under its watchful care.

Hope this inspires a visit! We are currently hosting guests #213 and 214 (hunkering down in the storm), and #215 has your name on it.