My week: June 26 ed.

This vacation week in the US's theme was LAZY. It was so sluggish that it could be pronounced lay-zee. Seriously, except for a few bursts of activity, I was sloth-like. After my spring, I needed it.

I did attend a foraging wild foods class with my brothers in another town. Last year, I started learning about wild foods, mostly because I like the idea of enjoying foods that don't come in a package at the grocery store, but I'm too lazy and gone too often to have my own garden. Foraging is great because nature does the gardening for you.

We learned about plantain (not to be confused with the banana-like thingies), willow bark, and my favorite of the evening, mulberries. I'd only known of it from the song Pop Goes the Weasel ("all around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel") so it was surreal to find out that we actually have them in my home state, and just growing out in a public park, no less. I had never eaten them before. They're tasty and very sweet; the white ones are especially sweet. Even better yet, I later found a bush of them on my parent's road.

After the foraging, we dined and (the brothers) drank at a brew pub in town. One of my very good friends is from this town and I remember how it used to be hardly anything. If her family needed anything major beyond groceries, they usually had to drive 45 minutes to an hour to the bigger cities (my hometown included). Now the town has a brew pub. Wonders never cease.

During the weekdays, I did a lot of lounging around the house with some shopping trips and lunches out with my family. We introduced my aunt to a Thai restaurant that we used to visit when I was completing a practicum in college.

On Friday, my brother drove the two of us up north and we camped in Boyne City. Ah, had I missed lakes! We watched the sun set and the next day, ate (GOOD) diner food, which is one thing I miss from the US. [One can have jelly or a pat of butter and there's no charge for it nor is it one made to feel as if one has received a rare gift, unlike in Deutschland.]

As we walked around Boyne City and visited the silly tourist stores, I realized then (and later on during the vacation) just how Michigan people are obsessed with our mitten-shaped state. My favorite t-shirt is the one that says "Great Lakes: unsalted, shark free." I like that very much as I prefer to swim somewhere that does not have animals that want to kill people and where I don't have to slick salt off my skin later.

The next day, my brother took us out jet skiing. I also had missed that very much as it combines time spent on the lake in an exhilarating manner. Younger brother and I used to take several trips a summer to jet ski and it's some pleasant sibling time.

On Sunday, we drove back home and we stopped at his favorite Mexican restaurant, Herradura's Bar & Grill, in Cadillac. I'm always game for Mexican food and was happy to eat some that didn't include the sugar/curry combination that's popular where I live in Germany.