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| John and JoAnna at John's Childhood Home - Howell |
This was the second of our childhood appreciation tours, going to Howell, Michigan to see where John became the man that he is today! The first trip was to Philly last year to see where JoAnna grew up.
Keith and Shawna arrived on Thursday evening and stayed at a Hyatt Place in Wyoming, Michigan, about 20 minutes from the Grand Rapids Airport. On Friday, Keith went to one of Aimco's properties to do some work while Shawna worked from the hotel room. John and JoAnna were able to get an earlier connecting flight so Shawna went to pick them up in the styling, white mini-van that we rented and then picked up Keith at the property to kick off the weekend festivities.
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| Dawn, Fernando, JoAnna, John and Keith - John's Elementary School |
We started out by having a quick lunch on our way to Howell at Peppino's - an Italian sports bar. Keith and Shawna split a salad and sandwich. When we arrived in Howell, we first stopped at John's parents' house where he grew up. They live in a nice, large ranch style house on a large property with a barn and garden in the back. His family was not home yet so we grabbed a beer, toured the house and read John's diary from fourth grade - it was quite hilarious, especially the day he lost his tooth, didn't tell mom and the tooth fairy did not come!! His family arrived and we briefly said our hellos before heading to the Holiday Inn to check-in. Keith had to do a conference call so JoAnna and Shawna went to the outlet stores next door while John relaxed.
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| John's Middle School |
We picked up John's sister, Dawn, and her boyfriend Fernando who were also in town for the weekend to celebrate her birthday. We toured around Howell, visiting the elementary, middle and high schools that John attended, the lake where John learned to swim (and cried), and the downtown area (which is quite cute). We also drove around searching for Melissa Gilbert's house who had recently moved to the area and was renting a green, Victorian home - the only problem is that there were four green homes on the street so we didn't figure out which was hers.
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| John's High School |
Before meeting up with John's parents for dinner, we had a goblet of wine (the pour was quite generous) at Howell's Main Street Winery, where they make their own wine. We all had dinner at Mr. B's Rustic Tavern where we shared some appetizers for the table and then Keith and Shawna shared the fajitas for an entree. John's friend, Jim, also met us for dinner. We ended the night with a few beers at Cleary's Pub where we learned that Keith had 'emceed' a Texas high school game when he was in high school - he didn't know any of the calls so he sat there all night not saying anything - one person even commented that he thought Keith's microphone was broken!
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| Howell's Main Street Winery |
On Saturday, we had an early breakfast at John's parents' house - yummy eggs, biscuits and gravy. Larry, another of John's friends, met us there with his fiancee. We then drove over to Michigan State in Lansing to join Larry and several of their other friends to tailgate before the football game. The weather was quite nasty but we stayed dry and warm drinking beer under a tent. We did not go to the game but instead watched part of it at Dublin Square where we had burgers for lunch.
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| The Douglas Clan at Mr. B's Rustic Tavern |
We returned to the hotel for a nap and more shopping and then went back to John's parents' house for a bonfire / birthday celebration for Dawn. John's mom had surprised John by calling some of this friends from high school to come so John got to catch up and reminisce about old times. We had a great time meeting his friends and his sister's friends, drinking beer and staying warm by the fire. His mom also made some awesome chili and mac-n-cheese - perfect comfort food for the weather!
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| Michigan State Tailgate |
We all had flights at noon so we got up on Sunday and packed up to drive back to Grand Rapids. While it was a short trip, it was packed with activity and fun childhood memories!
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| Bonfire |
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