Wrapping It Up

Today we were hip deep in laundry, cleaning, and packing as this trip to Petoskey is coming to a close. Fortunately, we had a delightful break with what is always a highlight of our trips to Michigan: a visit with the Murpheys! My cousin John and his wife, Marcie, stopped by our house while on their way to the Upper Peninsula. A great visit as always!

Kendall, pj, cousin John, & cousin-in-law Marcie!

Tomorrow, we begin the westward trek back to Boulder. Petoskey, the Great Lakes, and the North Woods will stay with my heart and soul.

Chief Petosega and Little Traverse Bay, today's early morning sky

Wave Herder!

 Taz The Amazing 14-Year-Old Cattle Dog decided that this was a perfect day for herding waves.

First: study those waves and assess the situation. 

 Second: get positioned just right. 

 Third: eyes on the pesky wave. 

 Fourth: ready to pounce! 

 Fifth: get that wave!

 Job well done!

 

 

 

One September Day

This was looking to be a rather ordinary day. I started the morning with an interval workout in the peacefully quiet cemetery then ran back into town to meet up with Kendall and one of my high school buddies for mid-morning coffee. After coffee, buddy Connie and I walked over to the Petoskey Public Library to take a look at their used book shop selection. Five books for a grand total of $11 later, I then headed for home. I was contemplating which leaving-for-Boulder chore to tackle first when my neighbor texted wondering if I would like to join her for some inner tubing in the Bay. I told her I'd see how my chores went and I'd let her know. Well... I got half way through my first chore, wondered what the heck I was doing, and texted her back with a "Yes!".  And that's how I spent most of the afternoon! Drifting along in the bay on an inner tube chatting with a friend. Lovely!

 Carpe Diem

Weathering the Weather

One of the many delights of being Up North is the variability of the weather. Packing for this trip meant bringing everything from beach basking togs to leaf peeping light jackets to early winter parkas, gloves and stocking caps. And sure enough, in the days following Labor Day, we needed to pull out a wide selection of weather gear.. 

Two days after Labor Day, we had a hint of what was to come when this wall of weather made its appearance at the mouth of the bay.

By Friday, we had a full on gale blow in. We, of course, got right out there to revel in the wind, rain, and wild waves of Lake Michigan.  It really was quite fun running around from one vantage point to another to get photos. The trick, however, was figuring out how to face the wind and stay upright while taking the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Later in the day, the wind let up a bit but Taz was not real sure that being out there was such a good idea and gave me that "what are you thinking" cattle dog stare.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turns out he was quite right. This photo shows the rain moving in again. I thought it would be a fine idea to stay out long enough to get a photo of the return of the storm. Silly me. The storm hit and in the three minutes it took to run from the lake shore to our house, I was soaked through to the skin despite the multiple layers of clothes I was wearing.

 

 

The next day was a bit blustery but capped the wild weather days with a stellar sunset. 

After having been cooped up a bit during the wild weather, the first calm day I decided to run from city limit sign to city limit sign just for grins. And grin I did!

The first city limit sign I arrived at was the sign where I officially reached my goal of running from Boulder to Petoskey in 2007!

Then I ran through the Bay View Woods to get to the next city limit sign at the southeast part of town. The woods, as always, offered a lovely run although heartbreaking to see the remnants of the April ice storm's destruction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The trail in

 

 

Creek through a log

Autumn mushroom crop

Ice storm damage

Good use of ice storm logs!

As was the case during my run to Michigan, Sunday (the day of the week I was doing this city limit run) proved to be loose dog day. After a very quiet run through the woods, on the trail coming up out of the woods I was greeted by three different groups of dogs - rambunctious but friendly. The big surprise was to be greeted by this kitty as I reached the neighborhood bordering the woods!

 

 

 

After the kitty I reached the southwest city limit sign, then ran on trails alongside the high school, out into the neighborhood my folks moved to after selling our Basket Shop (with our home attached), and to the southern city limit sign. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting bored with the city limit sign game, I opted for the scenic route home.

Fanciful gardens

Fast moving Bear Rive

Hints of Autumn in the trees

With another new day of good weather, we took a trip to Mackinaw City and spent a bit of time gazing at my favorite bridge: the Mackinac Bridge, a 5-mile long bridge connecting the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan, opened to traffic November 1, 1957, and currently the seventh longest suspension bridge in the world (the longest suspension bridge in the western hemisphere). It's a beauty!

 Remember the wild waves of late Labor Day week? One week later, and we have a very very calm Little Traverse Bay (photo from one of the same vantage points of the gale pictures).

 

 

 Next up on this fine weather day: the Bay Harbor Balloon Fest, which meant hanging out at the docks and watching hot air balloons rise in the sky!

 

And what's this? Yet another good day! Cool! Time to run one of my most favorite stretches of Top of Michigan's trail system: the North Central trail from Indian River to Topinabee - wide, flat, dirt trail, trees on both sides until arriving alongside the beautiful Mullet Lake.

 

 

 

  

 

 

And now for the grand finale of this post - the astounding extraordinary stunning night sky show of the Aurora Borealis of September 14th. I went out at 9 p.m. and saw this.

 

 

So I sat down on my favorite reading bench, kept my eyes to the north and told myself to be patient. And over the next two hours was treated to a glorious celestial display.

 

 

 

 

We live in a world of wonder 

 

 

 

 

Shooting star falling into the big dipper, light aurora in the background, September 15th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.