Retreat!

Every six months, the school and work sites for Young Detroit Builders shut down for a week and the students get a little break while the staff travels north to Port Huron for a work retreat. We stay at the Port Huron Retreat Center which is right on the lake and spend our days talking about policies and procedures, getting training, reviewing the progress of previous six months, and making goals for the next six.

When I think about it, the prospect of spending three straight days with my bosses and co-workers sounds like some kind of Dante's Inferno punishment. However, surprisingly, it almost always turns out to be a pretty good experience. We take plenty of breaks which allow us to wander down to the beach to collect rocks and fossils. We're fed at the dining hall on a schedule so meticulously kept that it makes you wonder if the cooks ran the train system in Italy or something. The food is almost always good and there's always a lot of it.

And, as much as I hate to admit it, it's kind of nice to get to know my colleagues in an environment other than work. The more I know a person, the more human and actual they become to me. The more human they are, the less able I am to resent or ignore them. So it's good.

I tried to be selective about my rock and fossil collecting this time. Suzanne has often wondered about the six or seven jars of rocks I keep around for seemingly no reason. (I do use a couple of them as bookends.) I didn't want to add too many more jars to the collection so I made sure to only bring back unique items that I didn't already have. (I try to tell Suzanne that jars of rocks are pretty tame. I mean, I could be Howard Hughes and could store jars of my own urine. Strangely, she doesn't think this is a valid defense.) So I came away with a small collection of fossilized coral, a Petosky stone, some brachiopods, and a few other cool things. My fascination with fossils is similar to my interest in the Norse penny -- miraculous things just under the surface of the every day. One of the reasons I actually get a little excited about going to Port Huron is that there are thousands and thousands of fossils being washed up on the beach there daily and all I have to do is walk along and pick them up. I love it.



So it was a good experience, but I'm glad I'm back. I was lonesome for the women in my life -- Suzanne, Maryn, and Avery. It was just really, really good to get home and be with my family.



My luxurious room. My roommate, administrative assistant Duane Maki, is in his fifties and had never slept on the top bunk of a bunk bed. So, for the first time in his life, he tried it. He slept on the top of the set that's out of the frame. The next night he slept on the bottom bunk, having had his once-in-a-lifetime experience.


The view from my front door. The lake is just that close. It's pretty fabulous. The little thing in the center of the photo is a bell they have mounted on the grounds.


If you follow this slope down and around, it leads to an area where they've laid a medieval labyrinth into the ground with paving stones. It's supposed to be meditative to follow the maze. If you do it right, it takes a good five minutes.


On the horizon of this photo is another of my favorite things about the area -- giant tankers and cargo ships move back and forth across the lake all day. The ships are just enormous and it's restful to sit and watch them noiselessly crawl from one side of the horizon to the other.

The path to the water. There are Adirondack chairs and benches on the other side of the trees and it's a terrific place to just sit and stare at the water.