More Summertime Fun

I think everybody knows our cast of characters by this time, so we go straight to the action, in which our intrepid travellers -- Michelle, Henry, Malcolm, Stella, and Monique (taking the photo) -- are off to brave the wilds of Canada on a four-day bicycle trip:


Sadly, they had only biked a few kilometers before a polar bear lept from an iceberg and took down Malcolm.

Fortunately for Malcolm, the polar bear didn't think his knee tasted as good as a nice harbor seal, so they all managed to escape. The expedition then fled to the safety of a polar-bear-free beach:

Stella and Michelle.

Malcolm hiding out under the log bridge.

Brigitte and Arsen came to rescue the expedition, which had apparently run low on vital supplies like ice-cream sundaes and iced tea. Here, Malcolm tells Brigitte how he defeated the mighty polar bear.

Three generations of Darnay women in the park in Stratford.

Arsen and Brigitte at the tir na nOg (Land of Youth) gate. It must've worked because when everybody got back to Wolverine Lake we split the candles evenly in a joint birthday party for Stella and Arsen:

Stella gave Arsen a hand-embellished package.

And she obviously knows his cigar philosophy.

Stella gave Arsen two marvelous collages she made.

Henry and Malcolm were more interested in the birthday cake than Stella's present opening...

... until they realized that the present she was opening was a giant jar full of jellybeans!

Arsen perusing his present.

Monique and John, actually in a picture instead of taking it.

The flower garden by the garage. Pretty isn't it? Remember it. We'll come back.

Stella, Michelle, Katie the Beagle, and Malcom, who is hiding behind the watering can.

Monique and Michelle, hat-hunting at the Eastern Market.

Michelle, Henry, Stella, and Malcolm at the Eastern Market. After our Eastern Market trip we were off to...

... the ice-cream social at the Grosse Pointe Farms lakeside park.

Brigitte on the beach.

Malcolm and Henry.

Stella and Henry beside the right boat for their missing sibling: the To-The-Max.

John and Henry looking over the ships.

Michelle and Arsen in a little photo I like to call Grosse Pointe Farms Gothic.

And we end back in the flower bed by the garden. The butterfly you see joined the festivities last week as a caterpillar named Aristo. Today he became a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly and was released into the wilds (well, okay, he was released into the tame suburbs) to a thrilling chorus of "Born Free."

And that's this week's photoblogging update on the summertime visit.