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[agoblinwithablog]

Who needs reservations?

One thing you have to understand about Bear is that he is spontaneous, and not much of a planner. Myself on the other hand, is a basket of anxiety. They say opposites attract right.

Early October he tells me we are going somewhere, and its a surprise. The romantic in me is very excited that he planned something. I was told how many days we would be gone, and that was it.

I quickly pack after work, load up on snacks for the road, and off we went. He knows where he is going, and decides not to use the GPS. This was no problem, as its fun to be the passenger. It was a road trip, which means a private concert for him, featuring me.

Its about 10 to 1030 at night when we need to switch drivers. I begrudgingly get behind the wheel. I hate driving at night, especially when I don't know the area. I have horrible night vision. Again we still are driving old school with no GPS. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, except Bear got distracted on his phone, and we miss our exit.

We were apparently heading to Charlevoix, and missed the turn off from I-75. Finally he loads the destination into the GPS. I wasn't allowed to look, just follow. I was ok with this, and blindly followed to the destination. Maps takes us about 45 minutes of backtracking and we are now making headway.

We pull up to a hotel at around almost midnight. He gets out to go check in, or so I thought. Turns out Mr. Spontaneous Bear didn't make a reservation to the hotel, and they were fully booked. It was peak color time in Northern Michigan, and as we found out, all the hotels in the area have been booked for months!

Between the two of us, we called 10-15 hotels in the dead of night looking for a place to sleep. He finally gets ahold of one that has an opening. He books it over the phone, over $200 for a night, and they only had that one night, and were booked for the weekend. Bear plugs the address into the handy dandy GPS and guess what! We have to head back in the direction we came from. All the way back to I-75 and heading north. Romantic feeling is gone to say the least. I know, I know, it's the thought that counts.

We finally pull up to the last minute hotel after 2 in the morning, and he gets us checked in. We trek up the stairs, and he opens the door. Now for over $200 I was expecting something with some pizazz, or at least not that thin ass comforter. This hotel was not that. They had hiked up the rates due to it being "Peak Colors".

But it was a warm, clean room for the night. We were pretty much out after we setteled in, both looking forward to tomorrows adventures, and some much needed rest.

Roll around to the morning, no idea the time. The room is dark, the hotel was quiet, and I was snuggled in his arms. He pulls me closer and leans over, starting to kiss my neck, while his hands start to wander. I turn over ready to have a good morning, when we heard the door open.

We both stop dead, and he calls out to see who is opening the door. Turns out it was housekeeping, and it was after 10 in the morning. The maid quickly apologizes and about 5 minutes later we get a phone call from the front desk.

The lady on the other end was very nice and understanding, giving us a late checkout, saying we could leave by noon since we had such a late check in.

Bear and I hustled to get ready for the day, and to see what adventure awaited for us!

[agoblinwithablog]

Why is he over my shit?

As you may have previously read, I "ALMOST" died in a kayaking incident. (eyeroll)The next day we were leaving to head home, and on the way to the main roads we stopped at a small water fall called Jacobs falls.

Jacobs falls has a 20-foot drop on Jacobs Creek and is only a hundred feet from M-26. There is a small parking area on the opposite side of the road, and a few good spots to stop for pictures near the falls.. A simple, but pretty roadside waterfall.

You can also climb onto the top of the falls, its a little slippery, but not to hard to manage.

When we pull in, there was a mom with 3 tweens there as well. Walking up, he says "Should I be a bad example and climb up there?

I replied "That's what I am going to do!"

I handed him my phone, and started down the bank. Once I reached the bottom, I took my shoes off, and started the climb up. While I am heading up, the mom's 2 boys started up with me. The three of us made our way up there without to much trouble.

While up there, I was collecting rocks (Goblin of course!) and just enjoying the feel of the water running over my feet and stuff.

I climb across to the other side, and make my way down. I walk over to him and he smiles hands me my phone and says my turn.

He starts up, and is having trouble to say the least. Apparently I am part Mountain Goat and he is not...

The little girl that was left got the courage to go up after seeing me do it, and she ran up to go up with him. As he is scrambling, she is patiently waiting for him to get out of her way. The joys of being smaller. (Bear is 6'1" I am 5'2")

As I am watching him, the mom turns to me and says the whole time he was nervous for my safety. He told her the kayak story and was so scared.

He finally makes his way back down, with a very concerned look on his face.

When he finally reached the bottom he walks over to me, and tells me I am no longer allowed to anything like that again for the rest of the trip. If he has to put a kid leash on me he will.

We get back into the Jeep and head over to the next set of falls.

When walking over to view them, this lady goes "If you go down there you can get to the falls."

I told her I wasn't allowed to.

She looks shocked and states "but I just saw you scramble up Jacobs falls!"

Cue Bear coming around the corner and giving a quick rundown on the kayak story.

[agoblinwithablog]

Bonding Adventure

My boyfriend and I live in Michigan, in the lower peninsula, and for our first vacation together we decided to head up north, all the way to Copper Harbor, right off Lake Superior. Basically, the farthest up north you can go. The area is beautiful, lots of cliffs, and giant rocks along the shore. 

Our motel that we stayed in was right on the water, in a little bay that leads out to the lake. They provided kayaks for everyone to use. My kayaking experience is once, on a small river, that mainly pushed you, but why not. We are on vacation, its fun to try new things.

 I am more of a home body, sit and read books on the beach, Boyfriend on the other hand, very outdoorsy, and is the wild to my calm. Also another fact about me is I have no concept of time, or how much time has passed. We went out into the bay, little choppy but fun. We get outside the bay, just around the first outcrop of rocks, little bigger waves no big deal. We go around the second bend, and the afternoon wind picks up. The waves got bigger, lots of rocking, so we knew we had to head back to the bay. 

Boyfriend is maybe a few hundred feet ahead of me. The wind is so strong I am not making any progress. He motions that we need to go inland, and starts heading for a little outcrop in the rocks. I start paddling towards him, and see him pull his kayak onto the rock. The wind was so strong, and the waves were pushing me back towards another area. 

I noticed that the rocks there had a little valley big enough for me to fit through. I turn and paddle to that cove area, the waves helping push me there. I make it into the cove, and rest against the little area. It blocked the wind, and I was able to make it through it, and close to where he was. 

So I paddle around another rock, and get to the rock where he had pulled in. I get out carefully and pull my kayak up to his. I couldn’t find him, noticed he took his shoes. I figured he went to go find someone to tow us back. So I head up the rocks, and sit on the tallest rock that sticks out so I can see all around me. Figured I would get some sun while I wait. 

Meanwhile, he started freaking out because he lost site of me. He counted the minutes since I disappeared, and after about 3 minutes he starts to get freaked out. He goes tearing through the woods, in slip on sandals calling for help, banging on peoples doors. Running back to the cliff to see if he could spot me. Finally he finds a house with people in it. 

They call dispatch, notify them that there is a kayaker in trouble, gives my description, Yellow Kayak, White Female, Purple hair, black bikini. Dispatch tells them that they use their resources for recovery.

 Now he is really freaking out. The guy that he had run up, we will call him A, tells Boyfriend to get in the truck, we are going onto the boat. So off they race, they whip the lines off and start it, and go skipping out of the bay. 

Mind you I am up on the rock sunning like a mermaid. 

I was keeping an eye out for someone, and see this boat go racing out of the harbor, then making a sharp turn in the general direction we were, so I stand up. Boyfriend the whole time is thinking I'm dead, but keeps telling himself, and the others that I am smart I'm smart. But he couldn’t find me, what if he got me killed, my daughter wouldn’t have a mother, he would stay until he found me. A is telling him everything is going to be fine, I will be ok. 

Boyfriend was able to spot me on the rock because of my purple hair, and they turn towards me. I start making my way down, oblivious to everything that had happened, thinking they came to just tow us back. 

He leaps off the boat into the water and swims to me, pulls me into his arms and goes baby I thought I lost you, and kisses me. I'm confused. He tells me to put on my life jacket and get into the boat. So off I walk/swim to the boat. A pulls me in, and goes glad we found you. I look confused.  

They get the kayaks all tied up and stuff to come back with us. This is when the Boyfriend fills me in. That he has been running through the woods looking for help. I am slightly embarrassed, but smile because at least he cares right. 

Fucking see another boat coming out of the harbor, and our boat slows down and says we found her. I am asked is it you I said yes. So more slightly embarrassed.

We pull into the beach in front of our motel. People are gathered around waiting for us. The fucking sheriff is there, lights flashing in the parking lot. I had to talk to volunteer EMT's. Answer all these questions, whats my name, did you fall in, where do I live, all sorts of these. 

They wanted to give me a full check up. I said I was fine. They had to radio to the fucking hospital saying things were fine and I wasn’t going to be going there. Also they had to call off the coast guard that was 45 minutes away on boat, so the boat had to turn around, and the helicopter was 2 hours away. 

Had to talk to the Sheriff, answer lots more questions. Boyfriend talks to sheriff, and finds out there is only 1 in the whole county. 

After everyone leaves, we head back to the motel room to wash off the sand and sunscreen, and the whole time he is holding me, and I had to keep reassuring him that I was ok. I wasn’t able to leave his site after that, he kept holding me. It was very sweet, and romantic to be honest. It brought us closer together, so if you are looking for a bonding experience, its one way to go.