Vacation Day 3: Dogs and Ice Cream

We woke up and drove to my sister's house, where we ate lunch and played with the dogs.

Then we drove into Midland where we went visit The Tridge, which is a three-pronged wooden bridge. I have struggled with bridges ever since the I-35 bridge collapsed when I was living in Minneapolis and I feel slightly queasy whenever I have to go over one. This was no different, but it's really cool. It is surrounded by a park and there's a put in to the Pere Marquette bike trail. Overall, it was pretty cool.

The three of us then went on a daily tour of the Alden B Dow Home and Studio.  Dow, a son of the Dow Chemical Company founder, was a Frank Lloyd Wright student who became famous in his own right. Unless you are a dedicated fan of mid-century modern architecture, I am pretty sure you can save yourself $15 and skip this tour.  We weren't allowed cameras, either, so I have no photos to show you, but I can tell you that even if orange carpet was a thing, orange carpet should never have BEEN a thing.

What I was most excited about during the whole day was ice cream at Whippy Dip after dinner. I just love saying Whippy Dip.  Stop whatever you're doing right now and say it out loud. Whippy Dip. Didn't that feel good?  Ever since my sister moved here three years ago, I ask her about Whippy Dip regularly. Been to Whippy Dip recently? Any new specials at Whippy Dip? What band is playing at Whippy Dip tonight?  WHIPPY DIP. 

(Small maple walnut in a waffle cone.)

Then we went back to play with the dogs some more. What dogs?  Oh, let me introduce you.

This is Red, my mom's dog. He is the fattest Pomeranian you have ever seen. He doesn't like men, but if you have a vagina, he will give you all the cuddles you can handle. He's always happy like this and I adore him so much that I threaten to dognap him on the regular.

He's lazy, though, and when I took him for a walk around the block, he almost died of exhaustion. But when my sister brought out a miniature hula hoop and lifted it a couple of inches off the ground, he almost broke my heart with cuteness when he walked right through it. 

The other little dog in our herd is Little Bit. She's a mutt who belongs to my sister and her husband. I've never met a dog who will play fetch as much as this little girl will. It was in the eighties today and pretty humid and I threw balls that she chased down and brought back to me for almost a half an hour.  Since Red can't be bothered to do anything physical for longer than fifteen seconds, this was amazing to me.

Little Bit has only met me a few times and she's always slow to warm up to me, but by the time I took her for a walk and we played fetch, we were the best of friends. 

Then my mom and I came back to the hotel, I put in a few minutes in the gym (ICE CREAM), and answered some work emails.  Tomorrow: more Great Lakes fun.