Happy Leap Day! And tomorrow it’s March! The weather forecast sounds like March is definitely coming in like a lamb. We have to hope that the going out like a lion part is just myth.
If the long term forecasts are correct, this could be one of the milder years for the annual O’Mena St. Patrick’s Day parade. The parade is on Sunday afternoon, March 17, starting on Isthmus Road. Afterwards, paraders and on-lookers alike can gather at Knot Just a Bar for Irish fare and live music. Everyone is welcome to march along, or just cheer the paraders.
Kim and Dennis Armbruster recently returned from a fabulous three-week winter getaway to Australia and New Zealand. They spent two weeks aboard their cruise ship, stopping at nine ports, and added additional days in Sydney, Australia upfront and in Auckland, New Zealand before coming home. Some of the highlights of their trip included attending the opera, La Traviata, at the Sydney Opera House, sailing around Auckland Harbor in a former America’s Cup racing yacht, getting up close to many of Australia’s and New Zealand’s unique animals (kangaroos, wombats, emus, Tasmanian devils, sea lions, echidnas, and albatrosses), learning about native peoples and experiencing their cultures, and enjoying the beautiful harbors, cities, landscapes, and botanical gardens.
Kim and Dennis also enjoyed tasting a number of local wines and eating a variety of foods, including crocodile, emu, salmon, kangaroo, wild duck and camel. Being the trivia buffs that they are, one interesting fact that they shared is that there are many feral camels in Australia. The British imported them during the 19th century as beasts of burden, but released them into the wild when motorized vehicles came into use.
Last Thursday, Omena resident Annette Deibel celebrated her 99th birthday. Well over 99 friends and family from around the county and the country toasted her via a Zoom party.
It was the flu two weeks ago, and then a computer malfunction last week, that conspired to keep two weeks of Omena News out of the Leelanau Enterprise. As a result, we have three weeks of birthdays.
We missed Omena Mayor Rosie Disch’s birthday on February 16. Rosie, who is a yellow lab mix, turned 8. We also missed sending birthday greeting to Helen Putnam Bradley, David Lightner, Isabella Bronke, Don Valmassoi, and Jeffrey Dailey Happy Birthday last week to Sally Shapiro, Paul Harris, Chris Blessing, William Krusel, Violet Rose Smart, who turned 12, Janet Dickerson, who celebrated one of those milestone birthdays, and Annette Deibel, who, as we mentioned above, turned 99.
Happy Birthday this week to Ron Tonneberger, Alison Biskupski, Molly Smith, Kay Nolen, Larry Busby, Marian Electa Powell, and Judy Mardigian. There are no “Leaplings” in Omena News birthday file. If it’s missing someone, be sure to let me know.
