Saturday, July 3, 2010, Tahquamenon
We woke up (many times, earlier, but "officially" [our "official" wake
up is when Mary takes her morning meds]) at 8:00 AM but didn't really
get up until 9:00. We had a leisurely breakfast of Graham crackers
and milk and coffee for K and oatmeal for M. M washed dishes while K
drank his coffee and we cleaned up, battened the hatches (although it
is sunny and blue)(just in case) and headed out on backcountry park
roads toward Tahquamenon Falls.
It was lunchtime by the time we got to Tahquamenon. We moved a picnic
table into the shade and ate our bag lunches. Then, we hiked (slowly,
because of pain), up to the upper falls, stopping at all the overlooks
to take pictures and reminding each other that this was where the
miracle of our meeting took place and reminding each other that we
love each other. It was a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold.
Sunny and blue and breezy. We hiked along the river and down into the
gorge, photographing scenes and butterflies, each other and other
people. We sat with a family at the top of the gorge, listening to
them interact. We took picture of other people with their cameras and
they took pix of us with ours.
One of the things we discovered and enjoyed watching and attempting to
photograph were the "foam devils." They are like dust devils, only
with foam from the falls. They whirl around in a mini tornado shape
and then "explode" like a fountain. This is sort of an inversion
process, which we've not noted with dust devils.
Then we decided to eat dinner at the restaurant, because we wanted to
go to the lower falls and it was a long drive back to camp and
besides, this was where we met. We had a lovely dinner. Keith had
the broiled lake trout and Mary had apple smoked pork chops and wished
she'd gotten the lake trout. (The pork chops were good, but the trout
was better.) We even got dessert. It was a forest pie (bumble
berry!!) with ice cream. Mary ate the pie and Keith the ice cream.
This was not on Mary's diet.
Then we drove to the lower falls and hiked up to the falls overlook
area and sat around people watching and taking pictures, hiked along
the river trail, and back to the car. It doesn't sound like much, but
it was a long day, and we are tired.
Keith is driving now, back toward camp at not Little Hog Island (it's
called Lake Michigan Beach--duh, Lake Michigan is HUGE!). Mary is
attempting to remember and record the day's events on iOla the iPad.
The sun is setting. We're attempting to go back a different way and
we hope we don't get lost.
Keith says the salient feature of the day was Mary's day-long
(week-long) distress. It has been pretty terrible, spoiling parts of
our vacation.
Keith also remembers the botany lessons Mary gave him--She was showing
him Tsuga canadensis and Abies balsamea (hemlock and balsam fir) and
explaining how to distinguish them, also spruces and yellow birches
and pyrola (shin leaf) and wild lettuce, or what Mary thinks might be
wild lettuce. We photographed a wood frog and a black swallowtail on
pink thistle, a strange kind of thistle, maybe the rare one they have
here.
We are stopped now in Trout Lake, which seems sort of like a Wild West
town-- seriously--wooden front taverns, stores, general store, all
kinds of redneck types with 4 x 4s and boats, people drinking and
whooping it up in the tavern. We stopped for ice to keep the salmon
we were supposed to eat tonight fresh, we hope, until tomorrow. And
off again down 123 toward Moran and Brevort Lake. And our home away
from home, the tent on Lake Michigan near the highway.
We woke up (many times, earlier, but "officially" [our "official" wake
up is when Mary takes her morning meds]) at 8:00 AM but didn't really
get up until 9:00. We had a leisurely breakfast of Graham crackers
and milk and coffee for K and oatmeal for M. M washed dishes while K
drank his coffee and we cleaned up, battened the hatches (although it
is sunny and blue)(just in case) and headed out on backcountry park
roads toward Tahquamenon Falls.
It was lunchtime by the time we got to Tahquamenon. We moved a picnic
table into the shade and ate our bag lunches. Then, we hiked (slowly,
because of pain), up to the upper falls, stopping at all the overlooks
to take pictures and reminding each other that this was where the
miracle of our meeting took place and reminding each other that we
love each other. It was a perfect day, not too hot, not too cold.
Sunny and blue and breezy. We hiked along the river and down into the
gorge, photographing scenes and butterflies, each other and other
people. We sat with a family at the top of the gorge, listening to
them interact. We took picture of other people with their cameras and
they took pix of us with ours.
One of the things we discovered and enjoyed watching and attempting to
photograph were the "foam devils." They are like dust devils, only
with foam from the falls. They whirl around in a mini tornado shape
and then "explode" like a fountain. This is sort of an inversion
process, which we've not noted with dust devils.
Then we decided to eat dinner at the restaurant, because we wanted to
go to the lower falls and it was a long drive back to camp and
besides, this was where we met. We had a lovely dinner. Keith had
the broiled lake trout and Mary had apple smoked pork chops and wished
she'd gotten the lake trout. (The pork chops were good, but the trout
was better.) We even got dessert. It was a forest pie (bumble
berry!!) with ice cream. Mary ate the pie and Keith the ice cream.
This was not on Mary's diet.
Then we drove to the lower falls and hiked up to the falls overlook
area and sat around people watching and taking pictures, hiked along
the river trail, and back to the car. It doesn't sound like much, but
it was a long day, and we are tired.
Keith is driving now, back toward camp at not Little Hog Island (it's
called Lake Michigan Beach--duh, Lake Michigan is HUGE!). Mary is
attempting to remember and record the day's events on iOla the iPad.
The sun is setting. We're attempting to go back a different way and
we hope we don't get lost.
Keith says the salient feature of the day was Mary's day-long
(week-long) distress. It has been pretty terrible, spoiling parts of
our vacation.
Keith also remembers the botany lessons Mary gave him--She was showing
him Tsuga canadensis and Abies balsamea (hemlock and balsam fir) and
explaining how to distinguish them, also spruces and yellow birches
and pyrola (shin leaf) and wild lettuce, or what Mary thinks might be
wild lettuce. We photographed a wood frog and a black swallowtail on
pink thistle, a strange kind of thistle, maybe the rare one they have
here.
We are stopped now in Trout Lake, which seems sort of like a Wild West
town-- seriously--wooden front taverns, stores, general store, all
kinds of redneck types with 4 x 4s and boats, people drinking and
whooping it up in the tavern. We stopped for ice to keep the salmon
we were supposed to eat tonight fresh, we hope, until tomorrow. And
off again down 123 toward Moran and Brevort Lake. And our home away
from home, the tent on Lake Michigan near the highway.
--
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
- Jack London
"A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth." Einstein, from a letter to a friend in 1901 when he was 22
"The fist is more than a sum of its fingers." Margaret Atwood
"Our truest responsibility to the irrationality of the world is to paint
or sing or write, for only in such response do we find the truth." ~Madeleine L'Engle
If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton
Mary
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