We never learn, it seems, so for July 4 weekend we tried to go to the beach at Warren Dunes. We set out on Sunday after church with all the beach fixins loaded into the van (and the GPS sent us all over the place on the way there…all through the sticks) and when we got to the entrance to the park, we found that the rangers had closed the entrance (because all the lots were full) and were turning people away. There was a line coming from the other direction (trying to turn right into the park) going for a long long way. We luckily could see what was going on so we didn’t stay, and headed for South Haven instead. When we got there, we found the beach as packed as we have ever seen it, including on a July 4^th, and we were unable to find a parking space anywhere around north beach. We finally found a place to park at south beach, far away enough that I had to drop the fam off at the beach and go park and hike back. Man the beach was packed. Seems that there was an art fair going on in South Haven that day, and there was a fireworks show in the evening, so nobody was leaving the beach in the late afternoon. We just stayed there, went swimming, sat under the canopy, and such until around 5 and then took off for home again. A much faster trip home than the outbound trip.

 The fireworks show in town was Saturday the 2^nd. We took the kids to the fairgrounds like usual and found a good place to park and watch, but this year it really seemed to be a lesser show than previous years. It just seemed shorter and less impressive.

 The “new” Honda has already had a misadventure. On Friday I took it in to Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed, and they told me that the drain plug was either cross-threaded or overtorqued when it was changed the last time, and the threads stripped when they took it out and it would not go back in. They installed a “pan saver” as a temporary fix but told me that I should take it back to where the oil was changed last and have them fix it since it was their fault. I wasn’t optimistic when I went back to Boggs to tell them. They sent me to their main shop, where they made an appointment for me to bring it back in next week. We’ll see what they say, I guess.

 Softball had a big win on Tuesday, we played the last-place team in the league and beat them down 17-4, but it wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. They were kind of like Charlie Brown’s team, or maybe they were having an off night, or maybe some of their good players weren’t there. But they weren’t doing much of anything right. Or maybe we’re getting better, but I kind of doubt it.

 Missy has returned from Europe! She came back Tuesday evening, the bus pulled in to the high school around 11:30 pm. She was very jet lagged, and very tired, and happy to be home even though she had a fantastic time! As when Alex went, it was unusually hot there the whole time, and they were always on the move, but she did and saw so many things and had such an amazing adventure. She took about a million pictures, too.