Our Time in South Haven

As our time in South Haven has drawn to a close, I thought it would be a good time to recap some of what we've seen and done here in Michigan.

Good food knows no single location.

• We found excellent Mexican food in Michigan, which I never would have expected.
• We also found some really good Chinese food in Mattawan, which was also a bit of a surprise.

Neither does poor food.

• We definitely found some "interesting" definitions of what passed for Chinese food.

We have really seen some of the small-town experience.

• High school football here is not only prevalent, but an experience which dominates the local towns.
• This was the first place we had lived where we had a really large group of trick-or-treaters.
• We saw some of the emptiest shops ever for a Black Friday. Whether or not it was related to the economy, or to it being Michigan remains to be seen.

Hitting a deer is apparently not as unusual of an occurrence as it should be.

• You would think that this would be a very unusual occurrence, since there are towns all over this area. Apparently not so much.
• Also it is amazing how much dead deer can really continue to smell. The car will still smell like it even now, almost 2 months later.

People are different elsewhere, but not in a good or bad way.

• We have met some of the nicest, most welcoming people we have ever seen.
• People are generally just expecting to be treated the way that they want to be treated.

So what have we learned so far?

• IT is truly amazing how much free time you have when you are not planning a wedding or a cross-country move.
• It is also amazing how little there can be to do in a town when you don't have a built-in social structure there.
• Travel is as interesting as the next place to explore.
• When we went exploring the areas around South Haven, we really enjoyed what we found.
• Once we had explored the majority of the areas within a reasonable distance, we quickly found ourselves borde and not really feeling too much adventure out of it.

I think that one of the biggest things we have learned is that we have lived in large cities for far too long at this point to be able to live in a small town for very long. Or at least a small town that is not very close to a larger city. I am hopeful that we will find out some more things when we get to Kentucky.

Black Friday Shopping

It has been a tradition that every year, I seem to go out into the masses on Black Friday, and take my life in my hands in search of a great deal and an interesting story. This one was no different than the others; stories to be found everywhere.

The Chicago news stations were covering the traffic outside the mall in Schaumburg. This is a HUGE mall, with tons of shopping on the surrounding streets as well. The place was literally causing traffic problems onto the freeways nearby, and this was a normal occurrence. Needless to say, we won't ever being going there for Black Friday shopping.

We started at the Walmart in South Haven. It's a 24 hour Wal-Mart, so when we were there last night around 9ish, they had begun to put out all of their doorbusters. However, they managed to keep people from buying them by having them shrink wrapped onto pallets, and with paper signs that said "Cannot be purchased until 5 am". I am sure that there was at least one customer who tried it, hoping to get the great price early.

We wandered in there around 8 am, as we were not getting up early just to look around. There really weren't any deals we were looking for, and figured that would let some of the more insane crowd do their thing, and allow us to look around a little easier. We were right.

This Wal-mart was different. As we walked around, there were still a lot of the door-busters in stock, sitting in the aisles. The customer load was heavier than usual for this particular store, but still much quieter than we were accustomed to for a Black Friday-type holiday. When we got to the front, there were cashiers waiting to help people, actively looking in fact. A very unusual sight.

After we finished at Wal-Mart, we headed for Kalamazoo. Almost every major shop is there, and along one street (Westnedge Ave). We wanted to get an electric frying pan, similar to the one we have been using here in our rental, and knew that we had gift cards to Bed, Bath and Beyond leftover from the wedding. They were fairly busy, but definitely a manageable crowd. We got our items there, and moved onto Kohl's.

Kohl's must have been having some of the best sales around, because the place was insanely busy. The line to purchase things wrapped from the registers, down the aisle, took a left turn toward the back of the store, and went all the way down that aisle as well. Realistically, there were probably about 100-150 people in line just on this one side of the store. And another line almost as long was on the other side of the store as well. Crazy.

We went to the Toys'R'Us across the street, and found them to be picked clean. They literally had areas of their store that looked like they had been robbed. There was nothing on the shelves in these areas. 

We also went to the mall, where they had a Sears (not super busy), a JCPenney (which was just a sea of people), and a Macy's (which appeared busy as well). Not really finding much there as well, we went to Best Buy.

Best Buy was super busy, and had also taken a couple of tricks out of the Disney guide to hiding how long the line is. They had cordoned off a portion of their appliance department, and had the line running through the refrigerators, where it couldn't easily be seen. It appeared, as you walked into the store, that there was hardly anyone in line at all. Very sneaky.

Target was one of our last stops, and it was interesting to see the difference location makes. I had talked to my sister earlier, who had been shopping back home in California. Apparently she had bought a dvd player for a co-worker, that she had to nearly fight to keep once she had grabbed it. Meanwhile, back in Michigan, almost 7 hours after they had opened, there were about 10 of the same dvd player still sitting on the counter, unpurchased.

We did manage to find a couple of items we were looking for (both for ourselves and as gifts), and are no worse for the wear. And also we didn't get up as early as some of the crazy people!

Our Next Assignment, and the Fun that Ensues

You know, I had started this post a couple of weeks ago, as you probably guessed from the fact that I said I would have an announcement soon. We had been working with Brynn's recruiter, and had nailed down our next assignment, and were just waiting for the contract to come in. That contract came in, and we were all set. Or so we thought...

Turns out that there is a clause in her contract with the facility she is working at (and apparently all facilities she works with) that allow them the opportunity to end the contract early for a number of reasons. This list of reasons includes low patient census. Now you'd think, well, that not having a lot of patients in the hospital is a good thing, right? And it is. We definitely think it is. But that said, the facility she is working for did, in fact, ask to end her contract early, for this very reason. So our time in Michigan is actually coming to a sooner end than we had initially anticipated.

Now, this came as a complete surprise to us that it could even happen. Her recruiter even said that it was extremely unusual, since it is very rare that a facility brings in a traveling physical therapist, and finds that they don't have a need for them during the assignment. Both the facility, and her recruiter, made it very clear that it was not a reflection on the work she had done.

This left her recruiter (and us) scrambling. Her last day at her assignment in Michigan would be 12/4. The new assignment that he had already lined up would not start until 1/4/10. A month without work, simply put, was not an acceptable option.

Another issue came from the fact that each state has its own licensing process for physical therapists. Currently, Brynn holds a Michigan license, and her original California license. Anywhere that he would have to look would have to either be one of those two states, or be a state where they could be reasonably sure that they would be able to quickly get her a license.

Over the past 2 weeks, they worked on finding her an assignment, and were able to get the final touches put on the contract for it late last week. Unfortunately, the previously committed assignment (starting in January), was no longer where we would be going.

Instead, we are now going to:

Murray, Kentucky

Now, you may ask, where is Murray, Kentucky? Here.

Murray is:

Home to Murray State University (and their D-1 sports programs)
About 3.5 hours to Memphis, TN
About 2.5 hours to Nashville, TN or Evansville, IN
About 4 hours to St. Louis, MO
About 8 hours from here in South Haven, MI

You can find more information about them here: Wikipedia, City of Murray

Now, you may notice, that this town doesn't appear to be a whole lot bigger than South Haven. We're alright with this. And the main reason is Murray State itself. The college pretty much ensures a couple of things:

1. There's going to be work in the area, due to the need to support the college.
   
2. There are going to be things to do and things to see, due to the college being there.
3. There are bound to be a lot of people around our age there, due to the college.
4. Murray State is a division 1 school for athletics. This means that there is a possibility that they will be playing meaningful basketball games in early February through March. Also the potential for some baseball and softball games to watch as well.

So, we now know where our adventure is going to lead us next. I'm hoping to have a few more posts in the coming week.

Weekend Thoughts for 10/24/09

I am still adjusting to the concept of "weather". On Friday we had a blistering rain storm, with 20-30 mph winds. At least in the morning. Until it got sunny around 11 or so. At which point it stayed sunny for about 1-2 hours, before the rain returned (without the wind). Then around 3 or 4 the wind kicked back up too. Until about 5:30 when we went out and it had gone back to a sprinkle at most. I've lived in areas with storms before, but obviously nothing quite like these.

• It is amazing how much you take it for granted that you have access to services when you live in a city. Something as simple as getting a passport photo. When you're in a small town, it becomes much more clear that there are not necessarily a lot of places to get things done like this.
• Watching TV earlier, there was a commercial for a "breakthrough deodorant replacement". Never need to buy deodorant again, it claimed. And while it may or may not work, I find it a little unusual that the doctor who was speaking on behalf of it was Dr. Dave E. David. Can't make this stuff up.
• We went out exploring this morning, and decided to stop for breakfast in a restaurant in Douglas (about 20 minutes north). Our main reason for this choice at the time was that the parking lot seemed full. Well worth the stop. They had a breakfast buffet on weekends for $10 a person, with some of the best bacon we've ever had.
• From the placement advertising (a surprisingly good idea it seems), we found that there was an indoor flea market in Saugatuck, not far away. It was actually very interesting to go through. They had a large building (I think in this case it was a barn), in which they rented out small areas on a permanent basis to local people with stuff to sell. While it was interesting to see what some people valued things at (a lot of them a little too much), there wasn't a whole lot we thought would be worth buying.
• Also back in Douglas was the Saugatuck Brewing Company. They had some excellent beers and one of the best environments inside their bar that I've ever seen. Very cool place it seemed.
• Next door was an antique mall, and a rather large one at that. It is a bit unnerving to see things from your own childhood for sale in an antique mall. But some of the other cool things we saw included a Rand McNally map book with maps (or the book itself) from 1890, quite a few copies of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, and a surprisingly large amount of stained glass. It was interesting, but it seems that some people had literally called old crap from their house as "antique". But if someone buys the stuff, then it doesn't really matter.
• The Bears play the Bengals tomorrow, and hopefully they're going to not suck like they did last week. I can handle them losing to teams that are better than them. What I can't handle is when they do stupid stuff that costs them during the game (like penalties and red-zone interceptions)

Related Posts:
Weekend Thoughts for 10/18/09
Weekend Thoughts for 10/5/09
Weekend Thoughts for 9/28/09

Weekend Thoughts for 10/18/09

I came to the conclusion that on some assignments, there's simply not going to be enough things to write about on a daily basis. It hasn't been a very busy week, but I did notice quite a few things this week....

• Clementine's, one of the more popular restaurants here in South Haven, has some of the best onion rings around (or so I am told by people that know more about these things). They come stacked on a paper towel holder (with the stick in the middle), and come in either 6" or 1 foot size orders. Apparently they sold 6 miles worth last year. That's quite a lot of onion rings in 1 foot increments
• I went to the South Haven library's book sale on Thursday morning. Now, the library is interesting to begin with. When we drove into town, their marquee sign out front said "Get your banned books here." So I was not really surprised when I got to the library when it opened, and there were about 15 people waiting as well. The book sale had quite a few books I picked up, and I have plenty to read from now until we leave (and potentially more)
• We decided to venture out again in search of Chinese food, entirely due to a recommendation (and offer to go with) one of Brynn's co-workers. She was right! Excellent Chinese food in Mattawan (about 25 minutes east of Watervliet) at Chinn Chinn. Definitely a keeper, and we'll have to try to get back there again before we leave Michigan.
• We are definitely not in California anymore: On our way home on Friday night, we passed through the town of Paw-Paw, which is the county seat. In their downtown area (which seemed very nice as we passed through it) was an apartment for rent: 2 bedroom with electric and gas paid = $495 per month. Definitely not in California.
• The speed limits in the state of Illinois, for the most part, are 55 mph on the freeway. What the sign should probably say is SUGGESTED speed limit, 55 mph. At no point was there anyone I saw doing less than 65 mph, even with cops on the road. At one point, some genius in a van caught up with the cop, and was riding him in the hopes that he would get out of the way. After about a quarter of a mile, he finally gave up. I'm not sure what was going on, but even that seems ridiculous to me.
• I had been to Portillo's/Barnelli's before, but apparently had forgotten how good it was. They (in most locations) are a combination restaurant with two counters, one Italian food, and the other hot dogs. Brynn's favorite is the Peasant Pasta.
• We also stopped in at the outlets in Michigan City, Indiana today. Most notably missing from the photo on their front page would be the cooling tower that sits in the background of the shopping center. It is apparently not a nuclear reactor, so I guess that should make me feel a little better.
  

Weekend Thoughts for 10/10/09

We're still adjusting to the weather here, as the weatherman was nice enough to inform us that it was going to be unseasonably cold this weekend. He wasn't kidding. Sunday's high will be 45 degrees. 45! Geez!

• We went wine tasting here on Saturday, and I'll have a post up about that in the next few days.
• As we were driving on Friday night, we listened to the local radio station. They were broadcasting the local high school football game. It is Homecoming here, and since South Haven only has one high school, there are areas of the town that are very decorated. Unfortunately, they lost.
  
• Scanning their website, I found this little bit of interesting. I know I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention at the time, but even still that they can do this seems a bit shocking to me.
  
• I've come to the conclusion that I'll pay to have just this package of TV channels: The local channels, MLB, NFL, ESPN, HGTV, DIY, and the Fine Living Network (FLN). I can pretty much find something to watch on these channels at all times.
  
• That said, I'm wondering how long it will be until we can get more programming online than we can through the TV cables themselves. With Hulu, Fancast, and many of the TV channels' own websites, I can almost always find a program I want to see when I want to see it.
• We picked up pumpkins today! I'm told I am going to carve at least one of them, which is something I cannot remember ever doing. Should be interesting. Photos to follow hopefully (unless it really looks bad, at which point I'll deny it forever).
• The Bears are on a bye this week, and having looked at the rest of the schedule, I am glad there is playoff baseball on tomorrow. I can't find more than one or maybe two games that I remotely want to watch for the actual games, and not their impact on my fantasy football teams.

Local Cuisine of South Haven

We've been here for 3 full weeks, and have had time to get a feel for our dining options here in Michigan.

• Italian, not surprisingly, is HUGE here. There are only about 40 or so places to get food here in South Haven (which includes places like McDonald's and Taco Bell), and around 10 of them are Italian restaurants. We ate at one of the Italian restaurants near our house, and it was excellent. We would definitely go back there again, and they also offer gelato as well!
• Feeling a bit more ambitious, we tried the only Mexican restaurant in town. We've lived in a few different areas where Mexican is one of the dominant cuisines, so we feel pretty good that we can tell good Mexican food from bad. This was really, really good Mexican food.
• After having such a good experience with the Mexican food, I figured it was time to try what passed for Chinese food. MISTAKE. It's a good thing we didn't try this before the Mexican food. It was, quite honestly, the worst Chinese food we have ever had. The only food that was tasty at all, unfortunately, was the fried foods. Ugh.
• We also had pizza this week, and could definitely tell we were near Chicago. On one side of the pizza, sausage and mushrooms. On the other, pepperoni and green olives, my wife's favorite. Throw in that the pizza was cut into squares rather than slices, and it definitely reminded me of my favorite pizzeria in Chicago.

I think what we've learned is that we need to remember where we are. Certain foods are just not very likely to be good in certain areas. We still will have to be ambitious from time to time, but also wary as well.

Wednesday Thoughts

I'm really happy that the weekend is closer than the start of the week is at this point, as it seems like the week just drags on and on these days...

• I took a walk this morning, and down the street from our house is a parochial elementary school. It was interesting to see a fire engine company showing the kids how the ladder works, and giving them rides in the basket.
• We definitely have started seeing real weather here. Last night we were experiencing what I would call "a massive wind storm". Weather.com said it was 30-40 mph sustained, with 50-60 mph gusts. Can't wait for the snow to come with this stuff....
• Also standard with this "weather" is the rapid shifts from one type to another. Brynn and I went on a fairly long walk today, because it was sunny and very nice this afternoon. Not to be confused with the overcast, windy, terrible weather we had 12 hours earlier.
• It's hard to believe, but we are already having to start thinking about our next assignment. There are still about 9 weeks left on the current one, but due to the time it takes to get a license in new states, we've got to start doing paperwork already. We requested the paperwork for 3 states that we would not mind working in at some point, and hope to start these processes very soon.
• As some of you may have been told, the police cars here do not have the standard light package on top of their car (which would be a slim beam set of lights), but instead have the old style round siren. Pictures to follow for those that can't believe that.
  

TV and Other Thoughts

We are headed back to California for a friend's wedding this morning, so just some quick thoughts today....

• The house phone in our rented home keeps ringing every few hours. When I answer it, there's no one on the line. Or it's a telemarketer. I'm not sure why I keep answering the phone, since I don't even know what the phone number is. Probably better stop.
• Saw this on Monday, and the best description I came up with was that Vanilla Ice is now the mayor of Munchkinland. Once the music hit, I was convinced that I must be hallucinating.
• I was watching some TV today, and they were advertising the upcoming Chicago Bulls basketball season. Which made me realize that I will probably be seeing a lot of this guy if I watch any basketball this year. Which seems to me like a good reason to not watch basketball this year.
• I also saw a commercial for a promotion that US Cellular is doing out here. It's called BatterySwap, and it is actually a very interesting promotion. The basics are that if your cell phone battery is dead, just go into one of their stores, and swap it for a new one. No cost. I wonder if anyone else is going to do this soon.

There's a post scheduled for Friday morning, but probably nothing until Tuesday after that one.

The Weather

I said I was likely to see some real weather at some point here in Michigan, and today I was definitely not disappointed. Last night we had some thunderstorms, and today the wind (along with some rain earlier) are definitely kicking up.

Apparently, we are at the end of this cell, but there are more coming in the next day as well.


Those are the waves we can see from the shore of Lake Michigan. Let me repeat. Those are the waves ON A LAKE. Realistically, the wind is probably blowing about 40-50 mph at this point.






The same lighthouse I took a picture of a few days ago. At one point, the waves were hiding the majority of lighthouse from our view.







Even the seagulls refuse to fly. Never a good sign.







More of the waves. Surreal actually.






When we decided to come to Michigan, I figured we would get some poor weather, including some snow. What I was not expecting was 40+ mph winds. Something new every day here...

Saturday Thoughts

It is amazing to me how fast a person can adapt to their new surroundings. We have been in South Haven for slightly more than a week now, and there are little things that I am already taking for granted.

• When we came back in from running errands today, I forgot to lock the car. My hands were full of bags from the errands, and it must have slipped my mind. About 2 hours later, I was walking by the door to the car, and wondered if I had locked it. I checked, and then locked the car. In our last apartment, I would have been concerned about 2 minutes after I got out of the car, if not sooner. Apparently I feel safer in this house than I did in the last one. (Not a huge surprise there).
• I am watching a San Francisco Giants home game on tv today, which started at 1 PM local. Which is 4 PM here. Yet in my brain I am convinced that it is still early afternoon, and that I should be hungry for lunch, and not dinner. I assume this has more to do with the outside light level than anything.
  
• We ventured down to the mall in Benton Harbor earlier today. This was a tad bit depressing. About every 3rd store front was either closed, or vacated entirely. I think we are getting a better idea of how the downturned economy is affecting people. We were in a bit of a bubble living in the Bay Area, as I cannot honestly remember seeing very many empty stores at our nearby malls there.
• As we drove through other parts of Benton Harbor, we came to the conclusion that the town had been hit very hard by the economy. I haven't really ever seen houses boarded up and abandoned. But here they were, every few blocks or so. As we continued through town, we determined it was time to leave. Just did not feel very safe in the part of town we were in.
• I am very interested to see what South Haven is going to be like come November. Nearly every sign we have passed for a tourist-type attraction has stated that it closes on October 30th, and will reopen on April 15th.
• I had this theory when we arrived that if we had a few of the premium movie channels on our satellite TV, that we wouldn't need or want Netflix because the movie channels would offer us so many recent movies. They appear to have been offering them, but the thing I forgot is that there's no accounting for taste necessarily. While it appears to be an interesting movie, I am not really in the mood to see Wanted, but that's my option tonight.
  

South Haven

I mentioned that we walked around town a couple of nights ago, and hadn't had a chance to put up the photos until now...




This is the view down the sidewalk near our house. Approaching sunset.
The photo doesn't even do it justice, in my opinion.









The beach and its' view. Realistically, it is only a 5 minute walk to here.









My beautiful bride, and me





From the beach there is a canal that leads to the main boat harbor of South Haven. For me, it is unusually scenic, and generally just very pretty. Further down on the opposite bank is an old-style clock/lamppost. If I had gotten a good picture of it, it would be here. But apparently I can't hold the camera still when taking pictures of clock/lampposts.





There is a movie theatre in downtown South Haven. 3 fairly recent movies. Note that the regular price is $5.50 (matinee $4), and also includes a small soda. As I recall, I could get a small soda for near $5.50 back home. We are going to have to check out the Monday special (2 for $10). I know I could only get one ticket for $10 at home.




We are looking forward to exploring a little more. Hopefully this weekend or maybe another night this week.

Our Digs

One of the things that is nice about working with a travel company, is that sometimes we will get some rather nice housing while on assignment.

The travel company, as a part of the contract for the assignment, will arrange for, and provide housing as a part of the compensation. Where the housing is, and how nice it will be is really determined based on the assignment location. For our current assignment, we are living in a VERY nice house. This is mostly due to the fact that the area is so sparsely populated, and there are very few options other than vacation rentals.

We are currently residing in a vacation rental house, approximately 3 blocks from the beach, and about 7 blocks from the downtown area. Both are reasonably walkable.




This is not the house we are living in. But it is a very nice house, and a pretty good representation of the neighborhood we live in. The whole area seems like we're living in a Norman Rockwell painting.








This particular house has a screened-in porch in the back, and a rather large porch in the back as well. There was some patio furniture and a barbecue listed as available when we looked at the listing, but as of yet have not been able to get access to those.





These are both features that I don't imagine will be in every place we live, either. Since it's detached, it has its' own mailbox. And in the front of the house is a sun room with a pair of comfy chairs.






This could very well prove to be another arch-nemesis of mine. When it starts snowing, having a 15+ foot driveway could prove to be a lot of shoveling. Definitely going to park the car as close as possible to the end of the driveway when the weather starts turning really badly.




Being in a new location so often could prove difficult, but it is really nice knowing that we will be well taken care of, and comfortable while we are there.

Ruminations and Observations

Not too much today, since I worked....

• I have slowly started to learn about this "weather" that I had always heard about in California. During today, it went from foggy to partly cloudy, then overcast and then rainy, and finished up humid and overcast. The humidity reminded me of Hawaii.
  
• Having scoped out the competition, I can really see how it is that Walmart comes in and blows the doors off of local grocery stores. Nearly everything we priced out was 50 cents to a dollar cheaper. While there's something to be said about how they run their business, they aren't kidding about being the best prices around.
• There's something very satisfying about going into a used book store and just looking around. I walked to downtown and made it to Black River Books, the used book store here. The store is very nice, and I am looking forward to spending some more time there.

Around South Haven

We walked around South Haven tonight, and came away with a lot of observations...

• It is so amazing that the beach and the lake are only 3 blocks from our house. Walking on the beach here, I can see us going to the beach quite a bit until the weather turns.
• We walked up through the harbor area, and it looks like it was built recently. Although I am guessing it was not. Very well maintained. I guess it is a bit sad that I expect things to be in disarray.
  
• The downtown area is so quaint. Even though the majority of the stores were closed when we were there, you can tell that they will be interesting to explore on a different day.
• The movie theater is a definite throwback. Three screens, we are hoping to go see a movie tomorrow. Probably Inglourious Basterds.
  
• It is a bit surreal coming from a highly populated area to being here now. We walked home from downtown South Haven (about 6 blocks or so), and we were the only people on the streets once we left the main street in downtown. Reminded me of walking around at 3 in the morning, except that it was 8 pm.
• There is a rather unique store not far from downtown, that appears to sell all sorts of unusual items. In the window were: a gas pump, and a pedestrian walk signal, among other things.
  
• Just another reminder that we are in the Eastern time zone: When a television show states that it is live, it actually IS live. Unlike on the West Coast, Dancing with the Stars was live. We are rooting for this guy, since one of my co-workers knows his mom. And he seems pretty cool too.

I don't assume to think that all the assignments we take will be like this, but this is a great start, and gives me confidence that it will be good.