Labor Day Weekend Shenanigans!

There's nothing quite like a small town to keep you hopping on a holiday weekend.  And hop we did this Labor Day weekend!

My Labor Day weekend entertainment kicked off early with an absolutely fabulous organ concert in Bay View on Thursday evening. The concert was the grand finale to Bay View's 150th Jubilee - and both the organist (Dr. Kelly Hale) and the organ were phenomenal. Dr. Hale, in addition to his organ playing virtuosity, is also a fine story teller so added many a tale in between pieces. What a great night!

To kick off the actual weekend festivities (if Friday counts as a weekend day), we fulfilled what one of our children referred to as "a life-long dream" of Kendall's and went to see THE Oscar Meyer Weinermobile!

 

 

 

To calm down from that excitement, I ran home by way of the Bear River. This meant running from south to north beginning at the south end of the trail. I think that was a first for me and I was quite intrigued by how disorienting it was to cover the southerly portion of the trail in the opposite direction from my prior runs. It was still a beautiful run, though!

 

Our entertainment continued right into the evening as we traveled to a neighboring town, Boyne City, for their Friday night "Stroll the Streets" which, this evening, also included a car show. Kendall is all about the cars; I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed all of the music that was happening at just about every street corner!

 

Saturday started with a session of hill repeats along one of my favorite stretches of the Little Traverse Wheelway. The view is fantastic - and this Saturday I was also treated to the sight of someone walking their cat!

 

The day continued with some Really Big Doings with the Water Is Life Festival held on Petoskey's waterfront. Lots of information booths focusing on the importance of the Great Lakes as well as music and water blessings.  

Odawan Jiimaan canoe

 

As usual, we took in the evening sunset - but Kendall seemed particularly excited about the moonrise as well! What with the water festival so close by, we had a musical accompaniment for our sunset walk this night!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday started with a run west along the Wheelway. Much of the path is lined with trees - still showing signs of the devastation of April's ice storm, but also showing signs of resilience. This photo includes one of my favorite landmarks along the way - a wee tunnel that the trail passes through.

Back home, we actually labored on labor day weekend and took down one of our trees that had been broken in half by the ice storm. After that effort, I treated myself to a relaxing spell of reading at my favorite reading bench in the whole world. (Earlier in the week, Taz and I had walked past that bench and someone was sitting there reading. I looked at her and said: "That is the best bench" - and then both of us exclaimed, in unison, "in the whole world"!)

Taz nestled under the bench - he knows the drill...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taz's view from the bench

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reading was followed by another musical interlude! A Sunday afternoon concert at the Clocktower. That makes 4 days in a row with live music!

 

Northwestern State Trail - flags for Labor Day

And now we come to the actual Labor Day day. It was a humdinger! We wanted to participate in the World's Shortest Swing Bridge bridge walk in Alanson, a town a bit north of Petoskey. (While this short bridge walk was happening, 33,000 people were taking advantage of the opportunity to walk across the Mackinac Bridge - only open to pedestrians on Labor Day. It's a really big deal!)  I ran part of the way to Alanson as a warmup, and got there in time to hear the Rivertown Jazz band warm up! They led the high-stepping crowd over the bridge and back. How short is the bridge? I took a photo of them heading out, put my phone in my pocket and immediately had to pull it back out again in order to get a photo of them making the return trip!

 

 

 

 

The band - very fun jazz

 

 

And leading them back
Kendall is in the green shirt by a banner

Band leading the crowd over the bridge

 

Excitement continued into the evening with the Workers Over Billionaires protest in Petoskey. I have participated in way more protests and marches in Petoskey than I have in Boulder. Such an active town!

The protest was followed by another lovely sunset -  

 but this night, instead of moseying home after the sun went down, we lounged on The bench and hoped for a sighting of the Northern Lights. While waiting, we were treated to quite a show of constellations, shooting stars, and way more satellites that we ever remembered seeing before. It's really getting crowded up there! And then Ta Da! Yes! The Aurora! Only visible via our phone cameras, but still quite an experience.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, our Labor Day weekend! 

Yesterday, one day post-Labor Day, Taz and I had a leisurely run along Bear River (no bears, but yes a fawn).

  

 

 

 

And today, it's been raining most of the day - an excellent opportunity for updating my blog! Fortunately, the rain held off just long enough for me to get my run in - and to get this photo of the approaching wall of water!

 

 

 Rain or shine, beauty abounds.