Like everywhere in the US it has been hot here lately but overall it is much cooler than last summer. The humidity can get to you from time to time but you get used to it especially with no AC. The thunderstorms here are really amazing and are larger than have ever seen anywhere else. When we get heat lightening sometimes it is so low that it makes the inside of our apartment flash which is really weird and unexpected.
We took a day trip to the Saugatuck Dunes which was a blast. The dunes aren’t really dunes like we are used to. It was mainly trees with sand and plants until we got near the beach where there was a lot of sand. To get to the lake we had to hike in. They had several different hikes to choose from, we chose the longest one because fewer people would choose to go that far to get to the beach. Total I think we hiked about 5-6 miles. We walked in Lake Michigan and watched some of the sailboats. We didn’t stay on the water very long since we ended up getting attacked by flying beetles. I killed a bunch of them and we ran away from some others but they just kept coming back at you.
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| Saugatuck and Lake Michigan |
4th of July is a lot bigger event in Ann Arbor than Spokane. Fireworks are allowed here but I think you have to purchase a license to do them. We ended up driving down to the same neighborhood that we went to last year. The locals firework display went on for 2 hours as all of the neighbors lit off the massive supply that everyone bought. Even if you are just driving around you will see fireworks going off all over the city. As many of you know mosquitos love Arielle and she got bit about 20 times. I also got bit quite a bit but only on the side where Arielle was sitting. After about twenty to thirty minutes we moved to the car to watch the rest of the fireworks.
As for an animal and plant update, we have a ton of deer and there are some fawns which are pretty cute. We have also discovered the wide variety of wasps, horse flies as long as your thumb, and crawdads. I remember I have googled if blue raspberry is a real thing and it says they aren’t. Well google lied, they have wild raspberries here which are blue and sweeter than a regular raspberry. Basically they taste like the blue raspberry flavor of candy. Arielle’s advisor Bev served them at a wedding shower for the PhD student (Do Kyeong) that Arielle works for. Bev as had a few parties for the kinesiology students and they always have really good food.
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| A mom deer and three fawns. |
I have been working full time as usual and Arielle has been working quite a few hours in the Developmental Neuromotor Control lab. She has taken over visiting a lot of the babies for the smaller at home visits and is being trained to do the larger visits for when Do Kyeong leaves. A baby just recently graduated from the study so they are now down to 4 babies with the last one graduating in March. One of the other kinesiology PhD students is working fNIRS (functional near infrared spectroscopy) and I got to be a participant. They attached some head gear and then had me do basic movements such as grabbing toys and walking. Basically they are watching oxygen flow in the motor control portions of my brain. They are testing it on adults now and in the future will be using it on babies with disabilities.
Arielle’s cousin Jessica is getting married in August so we are going to Seattle for a few days and then we are heading over to Spokane for a few more days. It will be nice to get a small break from the usual day-to-day in Ann Arbor. I know Arielle will be glad to have some time off from work, I’ll get a few days but will be working most of the time.
Also we just bought some Donettes from the new Hostess. I am pretty excited since I love powdered Donettes. Natalya also mention that she saw "Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger" on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and it is in Ann Arbor. We stopped in and had a burger. The food was good and the restaurant was really small. It was an experience. Well, that’s all for now.
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| Arielle at Blimpy Burger |
