Mini Vacation in the Far North

I must admit we often jokingly refer to the UP, especially the western UP as the Far North. We were only as far as Marquette. It is actually several more hours to the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula. We drove in light rain all the way to St. Ignace where we stopped at my Mom's for a short visit and then continued on to Marquette. It was sunny by the time we got there. My sister, who used to live just two hours from me, moved there last December. She is now about 7 1/2 hours from me, which means I don't get to see her nearly as often.


One of the highlights of the visit was meeting Joan and Paul Haara for dinner. Joan has a lovely blog with gorgeous photos of northern Michigan and writes with a lively, humorous style. You really should visit her. We met in the pub at the Landmark Inn and I had a wonderful whitefish with tart cherry sauce and sweet potato fries. I don't know what I was thinking, but I forgot to take my camera with me - duh! We had a really nice dinner and visit and then ran into Joan at the Outback Art Show the next day. I sure wish she and my sister lived a bit closer. I also introduced myself to Helga Flower at the Art on The Rocks art show. I am taking a class with her in Okemos in September.


We stayed with my sister and her husband for three nights and had a grand time. They are really good hosts. We walked a lot and watched the Tigers and ate really good (not always good for you) food. Tom (the husband) grilled whitefish for dinner one night that was out of this world good. A part of our trip was an anniversary trip on the Sunset Cruise at Pictured Rocks that leaves from Munising, which is about an hour east of Marquette, and on our way home. The weather had been beautiful the entire visit and was still beautiful as we waited for the boat to load. Wouldn't you know it, about five minutes into our cruise, the skies opened up and it poured. I went inside to wait it out, but it wasn't going to quit. It did lighten up a bit, so I stood out in the open area and took pix.


This is the Grand Island Lighthouse, which is no longer in use. This is at the very beginning of our cruise. No rain yet.

This is the next photo I took through the window of the lower deck. Interesting, but not what I was hoping for.

I took my Panasonic point and shoot camera as my "good" Canon SLR has lost its ability to auto focus. It is 10 years old, so I suppose it was bound to falter in some way. I am quite pleased that even though I was standing in a light rain the whole time, the photos really didn't turn out that badly. I can only imagine what they might have been like with the sunset adding its influence.

The water really was this green here and so clear you could see the rocks below.

This tree is surviving on the top of this rock because its roots span the space between it and land - amazing!

There is a promontory that is called Indian Head because it is thought to resemble the profile of an Indian. I didn't get a good photo of that, but I do see a bit of a partly turned away profile on the right edge of this outcropping. Do you see it?

The sky was intermittently beautiful even in the rain.

And as we headed back, I saw just a bit of a rainbow.

I hope I haven't totally overwhelmed you with the number of photos in this post, but I had a devil of a time weeding out what to show.

We stayed overnight just outside of Manistique on Sunday night and then made a quick stop at Mom's for another quick visit before heading home. It is always so good to be home regardless of how much fun I've had while away.

I am meeting a girlfriend in Lansing later this morning. We don't have a plan, but it will be nice to spend some time together. She and her husband have a summer place in Ludington and are gone much of the summer, so we try to find time to get together whenever they are back home.

When I get home I plan to work a bit on the next assignment for my Going Green class and hope to have something to share tomorrow. What do you have planned for today? Does it include family? friends? art? Do share!

xoxo