My
blogger friend Dawn and her sheltie princess were on a camping adventure when
they stopped by the bookstore on Tuesday. How does Katie manage to look
perfectly groomed on a camping trip? My little tomboy Sarah doesn’t stay groomed
for as long as an hour! But the adventure part of their visit rang bells for me
as I launched into a welcome day off on Wednesday. My goal for the day was –
not to have any goals and not to set myself anything to accomplish.
I
love a quiet, rainy morning, wherever I am and whatever the day holds, the
sounds and smells of rain, peaceful drizzle or dramatic downpour, taking me
back to dreamy days of childhood. And so, not bothering about raindrops, Sarah
and I began our outdoor adventure on familiar ground, near home, where lovely
long views over orchards to dunes and lake competed for my attention with
roadside weeds.
There
is always something to see on our neighborhood roads. But we did not stop there
for long.
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| Stop! Then GO! |
Did
I have a book with me on our expedition? Yes, of course! Superior Land and
the Story of Grand Marais, Michigan, by Karen A. Brzys, went very well with an
apple bratwurst sandwich from Bunting’s Market in Cedar. What a great job Karen
has done with this book! I love the way she begins the history of the Upper
Peninsula with the glaciers – not surprising, I suppose, coming from the Agate Lady.
And the rain cleared away -- .
After
picnic lunch in the middle of the county, I was able to gratify a long-held
wish to photograph old St. Joseph’s on Bohemian Road, bright white against clouds and blue
sky.
School
Lake warranted a brief stop, but without a boat there wasn’t a lot of exploring
we could do around its shoreline, so it was on west on Bohemian Road and across
M-22, headed toward Lake Michigan. We did not go to the beach –
another time -- but family will recognize these near-Lake scenes, and everyone should be able to recognize the absence of crowds. I love my quiet places!
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| Inviting two-track |
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| Miniature landscape with hint of fall at center |
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| Horsemint in knapweed with bracken background |
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| Horsemint closeup |
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| Ghosts of raindrops |
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| Bracken shadow |
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| Orienting Shot #1 |
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| Orienting Shot #2 |
Days of adventure can be tiring, but they are well worth the energy, as are busy summer
bookstore days. My only complaint is that all the days go much too
fast....
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| Water flowing toward the Big Lake, where all will merge |
4 comments:
I'm glad you had such a lovely day off! We enjoyed visiting you very much. And that's a great photo you took of the two of us!
We got rained on Wednesday morning. For hours. But we were able to pack up in an hour break in the rain about 8 a.m. and eventually made it over to Gerry's place where we began the long process of drying out. The tent is still drying out in my yard at this moment!
The princess is now sleeping on her air conditioning vent. I think camping wore her out. Me too, come to think of it.
Dawn, I'm glad you like the photo. Thank you for letting me use it on my blog! You both look beautiful!
And yes, adventures can wear us ALL out, but the excitement in the moment and memories afterward make the exhaustion worthwhile.
Your article prompted me to find more about Grand Marais. One of the
sites
I ran across had some historical links which may be on interest:
a 1907 map of the area between the U.P and NW Michigan and a link
called 'Michigan Trails' which had further links to each MI county.
The Leelanau county had numerous old photos of Northport. If you
are not familiar with the site (run by a man named Petosky, which
sounds suspiciously like Petoskey) you may want to check it out.
BB, I'm not finding the relevant link??? Clicked on "sites" and got to GM but could not get to Leelanau from there.
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