Most hotels are drearily cookie-cutter so it's always exciting to get to stay somewhere a little bit more unusual. For our Houghton trip APU is staying about 15 miles away from the venue at the Oak Street Inn in Calumet. We rented out the entire Inn-- 2 suites with 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, dining room and living room and a small house. Six girls in one suite, 5 boys in the other, and a house for the grown-ups (4 coaches and 5 athletes). I'm in the girls' suite, sharing a room with Kate Fitzgerald. Calumet had its economic boom time awhile ago so the place feels very antique and old-fashioned. When I first took stock of my bedroom I listed bed, one bedside table, one table-ish chest of drawers, small closet. Then on closer inspection I discovered that my chest of drawers was actually a record player and that my bedside table was a sewing machine. huh.

With the antique furniture, the gray-green plaster walls with the white wainscoting, the old brass light fixtures and ornate heaters came a very small TV. Not being much of a TV watcher I hardly noticed that detail but the boys certainly did. Clearly, they couldn't play 4 person Halo on such a small screen. The first day in town they went to a Rent-A-Center and rented a 60" TV for the week. and they're pretty dang proud of themselves.