"Can't always guarantee catching fish but it is fun fighting them when you hook into one, especially a bass or a big catfish."

He smiles.

"We have what you call a grand slam lake. Grand slam in baseball is when the bases are loaded and the person up to bat hits a home run. Grand slam fishing means at least 4 different fish in one area. I know of at least 6 different species of fish in the area. In the state of Michigan, you cannot travel more than 16 miles in any direction without coming to some sort of body of water plus where I live I am about an hour from the 3rd largest lake on the planet."

He smiles over at her.

"Might have told you about it, not sure though."

((Oh, so they're in Michigan? That helps geographically!))

"I know about a Grand Slam in baseball, and the Grand Slam at Denny's, definitely didn't know that about fishing. But that lake you're talking about, is that Lake Superior?"

She asked, curious about the information.

(Yup lol.)

"Nope, Lake Superior is about a 6 or 7 hour drive north of here. Technically we are by the Saginaw Bay which turns into Lake Huron. Lake superior is the biggest lake, period, Michigan is second and Huron is third."

He smiles and holds his right hand out and flips it palm side up.

"The space between my thumb and index finger would be Saginaw Bay, once you pass beyond the tip of the thumb to about the halfway between the first and second knuckle on the index finger, it becomes Lake huron."

He chuckles.

"It makes for interesting discussions when you say where you are from in Michigan."

((Okay, then I'll make Ele from San Francisco, CA.))

"Well see there's why I got confused,"

Ele said, poking Tyler's palm with the point of her first finger,

"You said third largest lake on the planet, that would be Lake Superior. I think you meant third largest lake in the country."

She corrected him and stuck her tongue out at Tyler playfully. She held her own palm up to look at the "map" Tyler had described,

"At least you can carry your map wherever you are!"

She laughed, enjoying herself as they drove through the beautiful scenery.

"Well, fresh water. I just realized the Caspian sea is actually considered a lake since it is inland."

He drives past a dead end road to the left, on the land beyond it a fence begins.

"By the way, what lake are you thinking is second? Lake superior borders 3 states and 2 countries."

Ele shrugged,

"This was all just information I heard over the intercom as we were landing in the airport. The alight attendant just rattled off a bunch of facts, forgive me if my memory is fuzzy. I was too busy looking at my phone."

"Maybe one day you will be able to see lake superior. The lakes are a magnificent sight. Mackinac bridge is a monumental, emphasis on mental, build."

He chuckles.

"7 miles end to end and over 5 miles spanning over the water. Mackinac island, that is an amazing sight too. It is beautiful there, hard to spend just 1 day there but it is possible."

He drives up to the next corner and turns left onto the main road, heading towards town.

"On the island you have the choice between bikes and horse drawn carriages for getting around the island. If you ride around the outside road on the island it is a 9 mile ride. Amazing fudge on the island, some of the best in the world in fact and you can watch them make it."

He licks his lips.

"Man, I am getting hungry just thinking about it."

He says with a laugh.

"That does sound wonderful, it kind of reminds me of San Francisco."

Ele said, thinking of her home fondly. It had changed a lot while she had lived there, but at its core it was the same funky place that made her smile.

"You can walk almost anywhere, but you can also take historic trolleys, or bikes too! And the Wharf is so cool because you can go to the chocolate factory, or watch saltwater taffy be made... And if you like weird ice cream there's a fantastic place near Little Italy that sells organic ice cream made with infused flavors like rose, lavender, or anything you can think of."

"Sounds fabulous."

He smirks and chuckles.

"I love odd flavors of ice cream. 4 times a year Vale turns his bar and grill into a ice cream shop. Not the one at the resort, one actually in town. They will mix special flavors up just for that day. They have done some flavors on request that will never be back, they just wouldn't work but one that has been coming back repeatedly has been an odd one that just works. Raspberry goat cheese ice cream. One that I have loved is kind of strange but not really, candied bacon and peanut butter ice cream."

He smiles.

"I actually grow roses and lavender at my place, lavender is a hard ingredient to do right. Go heavy and it tastes like soap. But yeah, maybe one day I could take a road trip out there. I have always wanted to trip across america."

"Oh I love lavender!"

Ele said happily, back at her apartment she had managed to grow a little bush on her patio and used the blossoms all over her room to give it a relaxing and fresh fragrance. Sometimes, if she collected enough blossoms, Ele would distill them down into her own lavender oil for baths or to wear.

"My favorite weird flavor is Vietnamese coffee with frosted almonds and peanut butter curry. It's so weird, but so good!"

She admitted bashfully, she normally didn't talk about anything personal with people, so the fact that Ele was opening up to Tyler even with things so trivial as flowers and ice cream was a big deal for her.

"It is wonderful. I finally picked up some fall blooming crocus bulbs and this year I plan on growing them and harvesting them to get saffron. It can be sold for up to like $2,000 a pound."

He drives through town and gets out on the open road once again.

"I love Chicken satay with peanut sauce, peanut chicken and peanut pork. I have done peanut chicken several times over the years. Toss in a glob of crunchy peanut butter and hit it with some garam masala. I could eat that for days on end."

"You're making me hungry!"

Ele groaned, holding her stomach and looking up,

"Now I'm craving a really good spicy chicken masala and some fresh naan bread!"

He laughs.

"Well, I do have clay at my house and a pottery wheel. We could always get a naan bread recipe and do it traditionally."

He smiles over at her.

"Making pottery is so much fun, especially when you fire your own."

"Don't tempt me! If you keep up those kinds of promises I'll become a desperate woman!"

Ele laughed, she was enjoying herself right now. They were having fun, a light-hearted conversation, and it was a beautiful drive just to top it all off.

"How much farther to the casino? I'm gonna have to hunt down that cheap place, all this food talk has made me hungry!"

"Quite a while, we are still 2 counties away. Probably another half hour or 35 minutes."

He continues driving.

"What cheap place you talking about?"

"Well the cheaper place, you said there were two places in the casino, one that was formal and the other normal. I use cheap as opposed to formal."

Ele explained as she settled back in for the rest of the drive.

"Alright. Siniikaung, most dinners are around the $12 mark but you can get filet mignon and surf and turf."

He keeps heading straight down the road.

"We are gonna go down the back roads mostly, much more fun that way and we might see a pair of bald eagles on the way too."

"Really?"

Ele asked excitedly, immediately turning her head to look out the window and examine the sky for the eagles,

"I've never seen one in the wild! That would be so cool!"

"I have seen them like 2 dozen separate times in the wild, 6 times on this one road that is about 8 miles from where we are now."

He keeps driving eventually coming over a freeway and down the other side. He drives about a mile driving down a short road that curves off from the main road. He drives down it and stops at the other main road that connects to the road they had previously turned off of. He turns left then almost immediately turns right at another road. They pass through some wooded area's and follow a very long sweeping corner and come up to an open area, as they drive he starts looking around. He smiles and pulls off on the side of the road.

"They are out."

He says, grabbing a camera from behind his seat. He tosses on a lens and hops out. He raises the camera and points it at the 2 bald eagles who are just relaxing in the top of an old dying oak tree.

As they drove, Ele kept her eyes up on the clear blue sky, tracking every bird to see if it was an eagle. When Tyler pulled off the road and jumped out of the car, Ele did the same. She scrambled to undo her harness before jumping out of the car and pulling out her phone,

"Oh my gosh!"

She breathed, standing next to Tyler as she raised her phone and began taking pictures,

"They're beautiful!"

Ele couldn't stop taking pictures, wanting to capture every moment of the mated pair above them. When she felt like she had enough pictures, Ele just stood and watched the beautiful eagles.

Eventually, the pair began looking around, and Ele pulled out her phone again just in time to capture the pair taking off into the sky. When they were out of view, Ele squealed and jumped around happily.

"I saw eagles!"

She cheered, doing a little happy dance and holding her phone to her chest like a precious treasure, turning to Tyler, Ele's eyes were bright and her cheeks were pink with happiness,

"I can't believe I saw eagles! Thank you!"