I managed to convince my husband that a 2 1/2 hour drive daytrip to Kalamazoo would be a good idea. I printed up all my clues, plotted out our route, deciphered SpringChick's "Finding Fred" petroglyphs, etc. etc.

I'd never been to Kalamazoo, so the whole way there I kept quizzing Ken on the "-ness" of the city.
"Is it Flint-y?"
"No, only Flint is Flint-y" (we've been together for 14 years, he understands my shorthand by now)
"Is it Saugatuck-y?"
"No, it's not Saugatuck-y. It's Kalamazoo-y. It's hilly." He said, mostly hoping the prospect of hills would shut me up.
"San Francisco hilly? Or Kensington hilly?"
"Neither. Why don't you just wait a few more exits and see?"

The city is beautiful. We live just outside of Detroit, so anything west of Ann Arbor looks like camping to me.

We started at the "Two in the 'Zoo" box, accidentally parking in the wrong lot. That lot ended up being right by the box, but it took us about an hour to figure that out.
Then on to the "Woods in the City", where we ran into Azobox! Even though he'd just checked the box, we couldn't find it. We were standing right on top of it, I know, but sometimes....it's like searching for the mayo in the fridge, not being able to find it, and having your husband open the door, and point to it- right in plain sight.
Oh well, with a whimpering one-year old in my arms (too hot for the backpack, too woodsy for the stroller), we had to chalk that up to a loss.
Next stop was "Alsabo Land Preserve". I did this one alone to give the baby some time in the air conditioned car. After a mix up with the green markers, I went back and tried again. No luck here, either. Muttering, I headed back to the car, and on to Asylum Lake.
Here we met up with Azobox again, who, happily, had his stamp this time, so we got to exchange images. Yay! He assured us that both boxes we were looking for were in the park and easy to find ( he sight of our sweaty red faces and miserable looking baby must have been less than flattering).
The Asylum Birds+ was great, and I fully intend on stealing the bonus stamp idea. "Asylulm Lake Preserve" was right out in the open, Ken said, just sitting on a stump. Ken covered it a bit more when putting it back.
At that point, time had run out, babies were exhausted, husbands needed naps to go work the midnight shift, and so we didn't get to visit "Finding Fred".
Next time- I am in love with Kalamazoo- Ken was right, it is "Kalamazoo-y"
Delirium


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