The Great Fall Adventure 2023: Day 1

Would you drive out of your way on vacation to climb the 43rd highest peak in the United States, a “mountain” that’s more of a “mole hill” at only 1,549 feet?

We did.

But is it really “out of your way” when you’ve added it to the itinerary?

We were on our way to…

Well, I’m not quite sure where we were actually on our way “to.” We had destinations in mind, but we weren’t really heading to just one place in particular for a long stay. We had a lot of short stays in mind.

Since Campbell Hill was one of the 50 state high (and I use that term very loosely) points and was only an hour-ish out of our way as we headed toward West Virginia, we decided we didn’t mind the extra time and miles if it meant we could check off another state high point.

Now let me tell you something very embarrassing. We were in Ohio. (No, that’s not the embarrassing thing, though our son would disagree. I was born there and lived in three different towns there during my childhood, so I take offense at his disgust of all things Ohio while also being glad–no offense, Ohioans–that I no longer live there.) Anyway, we were in Ohio with flatland stretching for miles, and we couldn’t find the high point even though there was clearly a hill in front of us.

Choosing to ignore what we could clearly see, we decided to follow our phone’s GPS. We wandered for quite a bit before FINALLY walking toward that little hill. Then, even more embarrassing, we asked a stranger if we were going the right way. (Insert eyeroll here!) He must have thought we were dumber than a box of rocks.

(If you’re looking for Campbell Hill, it’s part of the grounds of the Ohio Hi-Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, which has the look of the air force station it used to be. One might think the high point would be found in the Hocking Hills of southern Ohio. One would be wrong.)

With the high point in our sights, we chose to run straight up it. The entire run took maybe thirty seconds. Probably less. And we weren’t even breathing hard when we made it to the top. But we had fun and checked another peak off our list.

As for books…

Hubby and I listened to The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny in 2023. I was actually not a fan of this one. I realize that she can’t set every book in Three Pines or the entire population of that little town would be dead after just a few books, but I don’t enjoy the stories set in different locations nearly as much. I like the cast of characters in Three Pines and miss them when Gamache solves mysteries elsewhere.

A Trip Down the Manistee

It was Labor Day. And it was hot! Looking back now, after spending a week in the negatives and teens, I could go for some of that hot weather right about now.

We had hoped to get out on the river earlier in the summer, yet there we were, on what was sort of the unofficial last day of summer, finally loading what looked like an inflatable banana in the back of the car. We could blame many things for the delay of our river trip. We’d had a college graduation to get through and Middle Daughter’s move, there’d been North Country Trail miles to log, I’d had a shoulder injury which made just the thought of rowing a boat too much to contemplate…you get the idea.

But everything finally lined up in September, and we set off for Baxter Bridge (about halfway between Manton and Mesick, MI) where we would exit the river. (Note: You are required to have a recreation passport to park here.) We staged a car there, then headed toward the roadside rest just north of Manton, where we would put our kayak in the water. (There is no quick way to get from point A to point B when driving this route thanks to there being only one place to cross the river in a car.) (Note: You also need a recreation passport to park in the lot at the rest area that is located near the southern North Country Trail trailhead and boat launch area. You can get around this recreation passport silliness by unloading everything at the boat launch and then parking up by the “restrooms.” [I use that term loosely. These are basically glorified porta pots.])

We inflated our kayak, slathered on the sunscreen, and set sail.

Allow me to interject with some info on this inflatable kayak and its pros and cons.

Pros

• Economical – We purchased the kayak at Dunham’s Sports on sale.
• Lightweight
• Easy to store
• Easy to transport, especially if you, like us, don’t have a truck to haul your toys in
• A conversation starter…which could be good or bad, depending on how much you like talking to strangers. We hear comments at least once per trip about our interesting mode of river travel.

Cons

• A conversation starter…see above
• Occasional moments of panic when a downed tree with pokey, jutting limbs is spotted in the distance
• Occasional moments of panic when caught on the downed tree that you should have been able to avoid since you saw it several moments before hitting it (Do I need to clarify why there is panic?)
• Slightly tiring and time-consuming to inflate
• Doesn’t glide as well as harder-sided kayaks

We enjoyed lunch on a little island all by ourselves. In fact, we had the river mostly to ourselves all afternoon. We saw turtles, ducks, a heron, AND a deer. The deer was especially noteworthy as it was living out the phrase, “Mistakes were made,” right in front of us. We were just floating along when all of a sudden the deer jumped into the river. It quickly turned around and exited the river. It was like it had been wandering along, leaped, and didn’t realize where it was going to land.

Our river map said our trip should have taken around 4 hours. We estimate we were on the river for about 4.5 hours plus our lunch break. We were paddling at a fairly decent rate for a good portion of the trip, so either the river current was moving slower or, more likely, our kayak just doesn’t move quite as swiftly through the water as others. After over four hours crammed into our little kayak under the blazing hot sun, we were both ready for our adventure to come to an end.

As for books…

Hubby and I listened to The Long Way Home by Louise Penny in 2023. I discovered, while logging all of my books into Goodreads on New Year’s Eve, that I had missed adding this one to my list for the year. I must admit, that I was never a fan of Clara Morrow’s husband, Peter. My hope was always that he would grow as a person and not be such an unlikable character. At the risk of this being a spoiler, let’s just say that my hopes will not be realized.

The Weather Outside is Frightful

I still have many adventures from 2023 to share but for today, join me on our first adventure of 2024.

Yes, January is more than half over and we’ve only been on one adventure this year. It’s a tragedy of epic proportions. There’s really no excuse for our slacking. We’ll have to do better next month…assuming the weather cooperates.

And assuming it warms up just a smidge because it’s little-dog-has-to-wear-his-sweater-when-he-goes-outside weather out there. (Little dog also refuses to keep his boots on, so it’s also tote-little-dog-back-to-the-house-when-he-starts-lifting-his-paws weather. If you’re new here, the little dog is 45ish pounds and hates to be manhandled. He also doesn’t like having his sweater put on, so you can imagine how the last week of single-digit temps has been for us. Sometimes little dog reminds us of Gimli from Lord of the Rings–you know, that scene in the movie where Gimli tells Aragorn something like, “You’re going to have to toss me,” in a very begrudging voice. That’s little dog, only he’s saying, “You’re going to have to carry me,” in a very surly way.)

Old Man Winter took a long time to make it to our little patch of woods, but when he arrived, he came in glorious fashion. The first storm dumped several inches. The second storm dumped over 12 more and came with brutal temps.

Before we dropped down into the single digits this week, we enjoyed temps in the teens over the weekend. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it was just warm enough for a snowshoe adventure in the woods. (For the record, it was 19 degrees Fahrenheit and the winds were 18mph.)

Hubby and I started off down our nature trail, then aimed our snowshoes toward a pair of ponds on state land that we usually visit a few times a year. We made our way down the path alongside one of the ponds, and then Hubby asked me if I wanted to go around the ponds or head off toward the ATV trails at the rear of our neighborhood. Upon reflection, I should have expressed an opinion. At the time, though, I didn’t have a preference because I was still nice and toasty in my winter gear and hadn’t yet burned through my massive breakfast of these scones https://theteacupoflife.com/2019/11/classic-english-scones.html with lemon curd, grapefruit, and these instant pot sous vide eggs https://foodieandwine.com/starbucks-sous-vide-egg-bites-instant-pot/.

So Hubby led the way toward the ATV trails.

About an hour into our adventure, breakfast seemed like a distant memory. Though I wasn’t the one breaking trail through 12+ inches of snow, I was still doing something, and that something was burning through the calories. Fatigue set in before we even made it to the turnoff for the ATV trails. But there was nothing for it but to go on.

And go on we did. Up hills. Down hills. Up some more. Hubby likened the experience to climbing Everest but with more oxygen. (I’m sure Everest is much more challenging than we can even imagine.) Occasionally, I would insist on pulling out my phone to check exactly where we were and to make sure we were actually going in the right direction. As so many trees were bowed under the weight of the snow, the trail was often hidden from view.

Though it was a delightful afternoon, I think we were both happy to hit the final stretch toward home. We were even happier when we discovered that a very nice neighbor had plowed our driveway while we’d been gone. Neither of us was looking forward to spending the rest of the day looking at any more snow.

Except we did have to look at more snow. Hubby cleared the portion of the driveway the neighbor was unable to do with his truck, and I shoveled snow off the deck. None of that was as taxing as clearing the entire driveway would have been.

As for books…

One of my final books for 2023 was Ultraproccessed People by Chris VanTulleken. I highly recommend this book. While Hubby and I never purchased or ate a lot of ultra-processed food, we certainly purchased and ate some. This book was an eye-opener, as were other books I’ve read on processed foods in the past. There are more ingredients that I check for on food labels now. I’ve also started making all of our bread. (Which is probably why I’m struggling to shed a few pounds. Homemade bread is AMAZING. And it goes bad quickly, so you have to eat it fast!) As we’ve cut out or cut back on some ingredients that aren’t the best for us, I haven’t noticed any change in my weight. What I have noticed, though, is that my skin looks clearer. Even if that’s the only change I notice, I think reading the ingredients is worth the hassle. I’d tell you what ingredients to avoid, but you’ll have to read the book yourself for that.

A Rainy Wheels on Rails Experience & a Hike

It was a gloomy September Saturday with the promise of rain, rain, and more rain in the forecast right when we were scheduled to embark on an adventure in Grawn, MI.

A few months earlier, a woman in our community band told me she’d had a great time at Wheels to Rails with some friends. I’d mentioned this to my mom, and after a few months of saying how fun it sounded, we finally settled on a date just before Labor Day for a trip north.

The tickets were purchased, and the weather looked promising.

Until it didn’t.

No worries, said the website. The experience would be on unless lightning threatened.

We packed our ponchos, and I doubt I was the only one hoping we wouldn’t end up as drenched as the time Hubby and I got caught in a rainstorm (thank you Hurricane What’s-His-Name that hit Florida in October of 2022) 6 miles from our car in the Slippery Rock Gorge in Pennsylvania. (That was a top ten memorable hike, thanks to what felt like near hypothermia by the time we reached the car.)

Despite my hope that our ponchos would stay tucked in their little plastic pouches, we had to don them before we even set out on our adventure since it started to sprinkle before our trip leader could finish giving instructions.

With rain hitting our faces and running down our ponchos, we set out on our 4-person bike for a 3-mile round trip down some old railroad tracks.

The first part of our ride took us alongside US-31. Within a short time, we were peddling through the woods. Our turn-around point was under an overpass where we all disembarked from our bikes so our leader could spin the bikes around for our return trip.

Once back at the car, the weather, of course, improved. Thus, the second half of our day could proceed as planned. After a stop for lunch at Olive Garden, where Hubby was served the absolute worst coffee ever (our waitress determined someone had brewed the coffee without removing the teabags that had been used for tea previously), we drove to Empire and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a 1.5-mile out-and-back hike along the Empire Bluff Trail. Someday, I’d like to return to walk further along the ridge overlooking Lake Michigan.

View of Lake Michigan from the Empire Bluff Trail

As for books…

One of my final books for 2023 was The New Couple by Alison James. I have three things to say about this book.

1. Despite finishing this book in either November or December (I don’t write down the dates I start or finish books), I had to look up what this book was about because I could not remember a thing. After reading a short description on Amazon, I finally had some clue about the plot. It took some digging around in the garbage bin of my brain to remember the finer details. So…clearly it wasn’t the most memorable book despite my remembering that I found it enjoyable as I read it.
2. The story was told from too many different points of view. I recall thinking as I was reading it that there was a lot of repeat information.
3. The main-ish character was a bit much. She was an obnoxiously nosy neighbor, and as someone who has the exact opposite of an obnoxiously nosy neighbor (in fact all of our “neighbors” are as un-nosy as could be), I was shocked at how nosy she was.

Sleeping Bear Dunes Trip #487

Have we actually done the Dune Climb at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore near Empire, MI, 487 times?

No, we have not. But it feels like we have.

There was a time, many years ago, when our nieces and nephews were younger and would come up to visit their grandparents (my parents) for a week, when we would make the trip up and down the dune at least once a summer with them.

Now, our trips to the dunes are less frequent. Sometimes, we choose to do other things at the National Lakeshore that don’t involve climbing the dune or doing the arduous hike up the dune, up and down some more dunes, and up and down even more dunes to reach a beach and Lake Michigan at the end of the trail. Sometimes, we ride our bikes on the bike path. Sometimes, we go to the beach and discover there’s a parking fee but nowhere at the beach to pay the parking fee and have to find another less amazing beach with free parking. Sometimes, we hike a different trail.

But on one Thursday in late August, when our older daughter and her fiance were visiting, we chose again to do the long, long walk up the dune and to the lake. We’ve done this hike twice before. Once when our kids were little and once when they were teens. I can’t recall how long it took either of those two times, but I know it took somewhere on the longer end of the 2-4 hours the National Park Service says it will take to walk the 3.5-mile trail.

Not so on this particular Thursday. With our future son-in-law in the lead and apparently unaffected by that pesky thing known as humidity, we did that out-and-back trek in approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes. We were hot and sweaty the entire way, and I don’t know about anyone else, but my leg muscles definitely felt alive.

Some people recommend shoes for the dune climb and hike. This is a personal preference issue. I prefer to hike the dune in bare feet. There is nothing less enjoyable, besides maybe a hot poker to the eye (having no experience with this, I can only imagine what it would feel like), than shoes and socks full of sand. I’d recommend shoes if the sand has been baking in the hot sun for hours. (I’d actually recommend not even trying the dune on a day like that. A cool day following a nice rainfall would be best!) Barefoot, you can expect your heels to be nicely exfoliated when you return to your car.

The width of the beach at the trail’s end varies, ranging from expansive to nearly non-existent, depending on lake levels. One year, there was barely any beach visible. This year, we enjoyed a nice stretch of beach. Don’t expect a wonderful sandy experience, though. There is sand, but there are also a lot of rocks! (This is great if you’re the type who likes to sift through rocks looking for the perfect colorful one that will inevitably turn drab once it’s dry.)

As for books…

One of my final books for 2023 was Seculosity by David Zahl, which was a book mentioned by a fellow church member. This book focuses on areas of our lives that have, for some, become a new “religion.” (Or, rather, for many of us if we’re being totally honest.) Such areas include career, parenting, technology, food, politics, and romance. It was an interesting book and certainly makes one think about the importance we’ve placed on each of these things.

Holiday Recovery: In Progress

Who else feels the need for a vacation to recover from the holiday season? It can’t be just me.

This year, the holidays looked a little different from most we’ve had. Excluding Christmas break of 2021, when we decided to take off to Texas with our middle daughter, we’ve always been together as a family on Christmas. This year, with multiple police officers and a nurse in the family, we had a bunch of awkward work schedules to work around, and family togetherness on the actual holidays just didn’t happen. Thanksgiving ended up being celebrated a few weeks early with a sushi dinner at a restaurant near where two of our adult children live. A rousing game of Taboo–during which our daughter’s dog, upset about being outside when he could see us having fun inside, looked in the basement window at us, raised his paw, slapped the window, and broke it–rounded out the day. (Their dog is just over one, so he’s just heading from the puppy stage into the German Shepherd velociraptor teenage years. Unfortunately, 80+ pounds of chaos is quite a bit more destructive than 20 pounds of puppy chaos.)

Christmas was celebrated twice–once with our middle daughter and once with our eldest daughter, her fiance, and his son. (The window-breaking dog came along and, thank goodness, broke nothing. The K-9 came also but had to remain in the garage, where she attempted to climb one of our tall garage shelving units when her handler was slightly distracted and, thank goodness, did not knock anything over onto the car.) Our son got to enjoy the festivities both times. During December, we also enjoyed another visit from our middle daughter and her new boyfriend, some visits from our son and his new girlfriend, a meal and afternoon of card playing with my parents, and a trip to visit with Hubby’s family. I love my family, but must say that the introvert in me is peopled out!

Amidst all of the visits and the visiting, we decided it was finally time to lay our kitchen faucet to rest. Hubby had attempted, several times, to fix its drippiness with the opposite of success. The faucet ordeal involved three trips to Home Depot, a broken bolt that meant some drilling and brute strength were needed to remove the old faucet, and a couple 2 am bedtimes as Hubby worked late so we could have a functioning kitchen sink in time for New Years. (Or, as it was celebrated in this house: Christmas #2.) Because the kitchen sink ordeal wasn’t enough to deal with, I found an amazing chandelier that lights up the kitchen with the light of a thousand suns at 75% off to replace the one above our kitchen table that lit up the kitchen with the light of one dim flashlight. Our son and I, with a bit of help from Hubby, installed the chandelier. I also found elephant coat hooks that I wanted hung by the front door and decided it was time to fix the drain in the kids’ shower. (It just needed a new drain flippy thingy and, even though I have no actual idea what the proper name is for the part, I’m pleased to say that I fixed the issue.)

On a side note: I listed the old chandelier (made by Dale Tiffany) on Facebook. Someone kindly told me I had put way too low of a price on it. Now I’m wondering what to do with this old chandelier that is worth more than I thought. Would it be weird to install it in our basement storage room?

Now, with our son back to college and the house FINALLY put back in order, I’m ready for a long winter’s rest.

Which will hopefully involve reading lots of books! However, I began the year with The Three Musketeers, so the likelihood of hitting 100 books this year is already looking slim.

After logging all of my books for 2023 into Goodreads–something I’ve never done before–I discovered a couple of things.

• I did not read as many books as I thought I did. It seems that in my bullet journal, I couldn’t read my own writing and skipped from #20 to #29. I ended up reading 52 books, not the 60 I thought I’d read. While I didn’t hit 100, I feel like I did pretty well last year considering I read Anna Karenina and two Outlander books.
• As Goodreads gives a “Year in Review,” I learned that I read approximately 20,100 pages. (Probably more, as The Year of the Hare was listed on there as having 0 pages. Although, that was an audiobook so…
• I learned that only 37 people have “shelved” (which I assume means “read”) the Book Mammoth Cave Curiosities on Goodreads, which was one of the books I read this year.
• The highest-rated book on Goodreads that Hubby and I listened to this year was How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny, which was not my favorite for the year. My favorite for the year was probably Anna Karenina, followed by the two Outlander novels.

Over the next few posts, I’ll catch you up on the remaining books of 2023 and some of our 2023 fall hiking adventures. There are some great ones (adventures, not books, though some of those were good also), so stay tuned!

Wilderness State Park

We found ourselves in the “wilderness” in mid-August, Wilderness State Park, that is. Located near Mackinaw City, this park has 26 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 20+ miles of hiking trails, some of which are part of the North Country Trail.

We parked at the Lakeview trailhead and headed south along the North Country Trail toward the Sturgeon Bay trailhead. Considering it was mid-August, the weather was lovely for a long hike, and we had the woods to ourselves, which is always a bonus! We spotted many clumps of Monotropa uniflora (aka ghost plant, ghost pipe, or Indian pipe) along the sides of the wooded trail and, for the first time, I spotted rose hips on some plants along the trail where it followed a power line. (Is it weird that I’d never seen rose hips before?)

When we reached the Sturgeon Bay trailhead, we took a short trip down a trail that followed a powerline until we reached the Lake Michigan shoreline. The miles walked along the powerline and the shoreline wouldn’t count toward our NCT 100 mile challenge goal for the year, but that was okay. The views of the lake made up for that. There were many beachgoers on the shore that day, but they were spaced out enough that the beach didn’t feel crowded.

When we returned to the Lakeview Trailhead, we made the decision to continue on the NCT to the north. As we progress along the trail, getting to “new” miles for us is an increasingly longer drive. It’s about a 2 hour drive for us to hit “new” northern miles and about 1.5 hours of driving to find “new” miles to the south. As such, we try to eek out as many miles as daylight and our feet and legs will allow us on each of our trips. On this day, we added three more miles to the north, bringing our NCT total for the day to 9 miles and our total for the trip to around 12 once you add on the beach miles.

I’m looking forward to completing the miles we have remaining in Wilderness State Park as it was an enjoyable area to hike. We have 7 miles left, which will make for a longer day since out-and-back will total 14. We’re so close to having all the miles from home to the Mackinac Bridge completed, and we’d hoped to finish them up this year. With hunting season starting next week, though, and with earlier sunsets and cooling (Maybe? It’s supposed to be 50 degrees plus next week.) temperatures, our chances of checking off that goal are looking slim. But there’s always next year!

As for books…

Hubby and I recently listened to The Nature of the Beast by Louise Penny. I have to say, I was disappointed. The original narrator of the Inspector Gamache audiobooks passed away and his replacement just isn’t the same. (It’s a guy who had a role on Downton Abbey.) I also wasn’t a fan of the plot of this novel, which revolved around some big “gun” found in the woods. As with most series that go on for many, many books, I find myself growing just a little bored. (It happened with the Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich and the Cedar Cove series by Debbie Macomber.) Yes, I want to know what happens in each of the characters lives since I’m invested in them after however many books this has been, but I find myself less and less interested as time passes.

Soft Pretzels, Macarons, and 2 Hikes

Does it get much better than soft pretzels slathered in butter, garlic, and Parmesan, a box full of macarons, and a hike on the beach? It’s a challenge to think of much that can make a day better.

In mid-August, Middle Daughter drove up for the weekend, and we spent a fun Saturday enjoying all of those things. We started our day with a hike at the Maple Bay Natural Area (located near Williamsburg, MI) where we walked the 2.3-mile loop trail that took us through the woods and then along the beach. To the horror of Son–whom we told of our adventures when we got home–we’d enjoyed eating raspberries along the trail. (He is incredibly suspicious of all things that grow in the wild. And in our garden.)

After leaving the natural area, we traveled to Traverse City for pretzels at the Petoskey Pretzel Company. Then we continued on to Le Macaron to try several of their MANY flavors of macarons. (They were tasty but EXPENSIVE! From all the recipes I’ve looked at, they seem pretty fussy to make, so the price is justified.)

We ended the day with another hike. We chose the Manistee River and Anderson Creek Loop trail near Buckley, MI, since we would be driving home through Buckley. We’d hiked a very small portion of this trail previously, as the North Country Trail follows along this section of the Manistee River. The trail that led to the creek and river portion was just a two-track, so I’m not certain I would recommend hiking this trail. The creek was lovely, though, and we did encounter some large bear footprints in the sand of the two-track. That’s always exciting!

As for books…

I recently finished reading Dream Doll: The Ruth Handler Story by Ruth Handler. After watching the Barbie movie while recovering from hand surgery, I became interested in the story of Barbie’s creator. Ruth Handler’s life story was interesting. I did roll my eyes quite a bit as she and her husband’s wealth increased and she expressed the incredibly entitled belief that they should be able to go swimming at a beach in a private neighborhood that they did not live in. I was also a bit surprised that both Barbie and Ken were named after their children. That seems just a wee bit awkward when you consider that Barbie and Ken were usually portrayed as boyfriend and girlfriend.

A Batty Bad Time

Things got a little exciting around our home in the woods this past summer when a family of bats decided to bestow upon us the privilege of having them in residence in our attic. Now I’m a fan of bats. I think their little faces are adorable, and I love the fact that they make a meal out of the bane of our existence in the summer: mosquitos. I don’t even mind them in the attic.

What I do mind?

When they figure out a way to go down through the walls–all the way from the attic above the second floor–and come out into the unfinished part of the basement. One night our son said, “Do you hear that? That’s a bat.” And, having middle-aged hearing loss, Hubby and I both said, “No.”

Well, it wasn’t just one bat. It was two. And they were in the basement.

Another day, one flew out from under the curtains in the office, encountered the spinning ceiling fan, and splatted on the ground next to me before I even knew there was one in the room. Can you imagine if that had landed on my head? I try not to.

One of our little friends

Then there was the day when Hubby wasn’t home and our son and I had to shoo one out of the house all by ourselves. It was terrifying. What’s also terrifying is watching a bat creep along the floor until it finds something to climb onto so it can be high enough to start flying.

That day was the last straw. It was time to figure out how those little goobers were getting into the attic. It didn’t take me long to discover their access point. The tell-tale trail of guano down the siding kind of gave them away.

Do not try this at home!

We waited for night and later in the summer, so our little friends (and their babies) had the best chance of being out of the attic, then Hubby put on his non-OSHA-approved, cobbled-together safety harness made from tow straps and headed up to the roof to stuff a small hole with steelwool. I should add here that Son and I were holding the other end of the tow strap while Hubby went over the peak to the other side of the house. Our purpose was to slow his fall if things took a turn. (He could not easily access the other side of the house from the ground or a ladder.)

The same week Son and I sent a bat from the house back to the great outdoors, I broke the lawnmower running over a rock, broke a garden rake thingy (the four-pronged thing that looks kind of like a hoe) while dealing with weeds in the garden, broke a drawer pull off a kitchen drawer, AND caught a puddle of butter that leaked out of a pan while baking bread on fire while cleaning the oven. The week had been a real trial!

So when the weekend came around, we hopped in the car to drive downstate to visit our older kids. We enjoyed peaceful walks at Bow in the Clouds Preserve and at Spring Valley Park with Middle Daughter before meeting up with Eldest and her fiance to go to Cruise the Creek in Battle Creek. (Cruise the Creek is a car show.) We had a tasty dinner at New Holland Brewing Co (which I do not recommend if you have a vegetarian in the group) and enjoyed some tasty macarons at a pop-up dessert stand.

As for books…

I recently finished Treasures of the North by Tracie Peterson. I’ve had this book for AGES and finally decided to get started on the trilogy even though the fourth Outlander book has been gathering dust on my nightstand for months now! I enjoyed this first book in the trilogy and intended to go right on to the second but in my post-hand surgery, pain-med induced stupor, I ordered a book from the library (and forgot I’d done so)!

A Not So Beachy Beach Day

It was late July–the perfect time for a beach day. The weather was hot. The skies were blue. The sun was shining. Hubby and I hopped in the car and pointed it north toward a lovely beach near Glen Haven, MI. Upon reaching the beach, we perused the historic boat museum for a bit since we’d never gone in before, then made our way back to the parking lot to get our beach towels.

That was when we saw the orange slips of paper dotting most of the windshields in the parking lot. A quick glance confirmed they were possibly parking tickets, placed there by an overly-exuberant park ranger who we, as we were fleeing the lot before earning one on our windshield, saw adding orange slips to every car parked along the side of the road.

We’ve lived in northern Michigan for many, many years. We’ve visited the Sleeping Bear Dunes many, many times. We never realized until that day just how much of that portion of Michigan falls under “National Lakeshore” designation and thus requires the payment of a day-use fee. Apparently, many other people were also confused.

Here’s the weird thing. There’s nowhere to pay the day-use fee at the beach. To pay, you have to drive somewhere else. The government always does things in the least convenient way imaginable, am I right?

As we had no desire to pay $25 to park at that beach for a few hours or drive somewhere else to pay the fee, we set out to find a public beach in Glen Arbor. There we found one the size of a postage stamp and set up our towels for a bit of reading in the sunshine. We also enjoyed a show with our lunch as an incompetent boater and company attempted to attach their boat to their vehicle at the boat launch. I may be just a slightly horrible person as I was hoping someone would take a dunking in the process. I was disappointed.

Following our lounging in the sun, we walked the short distance to an ice cream shop at Sleeping Bear Sweets located at Boonedocks in Glen Arbor. Expect to pay a price equivalent to 2-3 pints of Haagen-Dazs for 2 small dishes of ice cream at this little shop!

Ice cream savored (as one must when it costs that much), we headed off for a few hiking adventures despite the look of impending rain in the sky.

Our first stop was at Whaleback Natural Area near Leland where we enjoyed approximately 1.6 miles of trail and views of Lake Michigan.

Next, we headed to Clay Cliffs Natural Area for a 1.4-mile loop. We made it back to the car just as a few raindrops started to fall.

As for books…

I recently finished reading Hey Ranger! by Jim Burnett, which was a collection of stories from his time as a park ranger in various postings around the United States. I bought this book two Mays ago when we were vacationing in the Smoky Mountains, thinking there might be some tales from that park inside. There were not, though there were many interesting tales from places we’ve yet to enjoy.