Saturday in Western Michigan to East Lansing

We rose in Hotel Saugatuck and waited for our breakfast together, enjoying the room and each other’s company. This is my first rain fall style shower, and I think I like it more traditional. The fireplace was excellent, and I will have to rethink mine at home. This was really nice with the automatic start. The towels and sheets are wonderful, and I took pictures of the labels: The Turkish Towel Company looks wonderful.

Enjoying the slow start, we enjoyed our breakfast, with Deborah opting for an omelet and me for French toast with sausages. With breakfast inside of us, we finished dressing and getting ready. We packed and looked around at a most excellent room, realizing how much we enjoyed our stay at Hotel Saugatuck, except for the three trips up and down the stairs.

We drove to the Lake Michigan Beach once we understood the Nav to get there. You park further in the park following the signs. The stairs were wooden and well-maintained, but I held on most of the time with both hands. The sand was thick, and the water clearer than our Pacific Ocean waters. The view was stunning, and that amount of fresh water is just hard to imagine. We walked up and down the beach, and I found a shell. I always want my shoes (or feet if warm water — it is not), and my shoes got a bit more water than I hoped, but they dried out. These have been in the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, and Lake Michigan now.

 

 

We headed back to mid-Michigan and stopped at a rest area and ate our leftovers, mostly Deborah’s sandwich halves. The Debris Poor Boy was incredible, even a day old (kept mostly in our fridge at the hotel). We then got on our way again and made good time to East Lansing. We arrived just as our room was available at The Graduate near MSU. There we unloaded and spent some time together in our room. With plenty of time, we headed to The Stateroom at The Kellogg Center.

I had not been there before, and we parked on, we later discovered, the wrong level in the parking garage and missed the easy access to the hotel. We ended up walking in the rain and passing through a wedding party to get to the restaurant. This is the best place I have been in Lansing; it is, though the look and menu have changed, full of memories for Deborah. We had a table for two by the window and watched a gully washer as the wedding party, somewhat dampened, moved on.

I ordered the Osso Bucco, braised lamb shank. Deborah had some excellent lemon herb chicken. We had one drink as we had Liam’s play, he is playing the lead in Hamlet for the student group, and knew it would be three hours and sometimes warm in the theater. Dinner was terrific and the staff excellent. I would recommend The State Room.

Navigation took us on a tour of MSU at night, and we finally parked at the resident hall with the theater in its basement, and there we found seats. I remember Hamlet as it was the first Shakespeare play I read and found interesting. Romeo and Juliet were the first seen in my high school class book, but Hamlet was complex, and the themes of ghosts, revenge, and madness were much more appealing to me — still are. Also, there was a newish version of the film on PBS back when I first read Hamlet, and I found that interesting too. While I think it’s not the best assembled story, I think Henry V is the best composed of his plays; I still remember the words when Liam spoke them.

Liam stole the show with his madness and anger as Hamlet, plus his clear speaking and breaking words by action, which really worked. He was painful to watch but also hypnotic; you could not turn away even when he was clearly mad or plotting. His death on the stage makes you feel that something was lost the day Hamlet fell, but also, there was no way to stop this ending. All the characters never pull back and all fall. I thought Liam was actually Hamlet when I watched.

(Liam in white undershirt)

My favorite is a toss-up between Tempest, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I suspect the list is the same for many. Pleasure, Murders and Magic, and Dreams, yes, the usual choices.

We congratulated Liam after the play, and then we returned the car to the Valet at The Graduate, and soon we were resting and then sleeping. No ghosts appeared to usurp the night.

Thanks for reading. Sorry, this is late. It was a busy Sunday, but that story will be written tomorrow!