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Friday, August 7, 4:00 a.m., text from Mark: As you can imagine, I called Mark while getting ready for work.  I could hardly process what he was telling me.  Niki called off the wedding. At the airport. Obviously, there were no tears shed. By that night (at midnight no less), I had him back in Michigan, and Ethan and Rebecca were picking him up from Detroit Metro. While I think we have all breathed a sigh of relief that the wedding didn't happen, we are still seeing after effects of the wedding being called off. The first thing we had to do was circle our wagons around Mark, and make sure that he was okay.  In all honesty, he had been manipulated and controlled by Niki for so long that he just felt free.  No more fear about not responding to her texts quickly enough, no more 2 a.m. Skype sessions because she would only talk to him when she had time, no more awkward times spent with her family where she would act like she loved Mark, but would then treat him like c

While John was here, we decided to try our hand at kayaking.  Several years ago, we kayaked the nearby Betsie river.  While it was nice, we were looking for something a bit bigger...and something that didn't involve leeches.  Trip Advisor told me that the Platte rivers were THE place to be in Traverse City. So, I decided to rent local, and we found a kayak/canoe rental store in Honor, Michigan.  The lady was nice enough.  We had limited time, so we decided to tackle the Lower Platte river, a nice leisurely river with an estimated finishing time of two hours. Thankfully, John agreed to a double kayak.  My arms aren't the strongest, and there is no doubt that I like to sit in the front of the kayak and look like I'm paddling (when I'm really just enjoying the ride that John is providing).  While it was nice to kayak, it was a bit on the boring side.  There wasn't much current, and we finished well under two hours. I guess the upside to there being no current was