April 25-
Feels kind of strange
to be sitting down to write and not have some kind of special news to share.
No fancy trips out of the area and I covered the Togwotee trip last week, so
I guess it is back to like in the Keweenaw and life has been much better for
this guy. The new meds I got started on about 10 days ago kicked in and I
have felt much better this week. No big ups and downs, just steady as she
goes at around 80%. That is perfectly fine with me and I am sure that
because I am feeling better and can be more active that my improvements in
physical strength will come easier and quicker. I am already walking 4-5
miles a day now and can do it very briskly. The bottom line is it seems like
I have been waiting forever to feel like this and am very happy to finally
have made it to this point.
One of the big news stories up here this week was the
announcement that our local animal shelter, The Copper Country Humane
Society, won a national online voting contest and will be receiving $10,000
to use as they see fit. I feel like kind of a bonehead because the contest
started in January and I kept forgetting to mention it on the site.
Fortunately the community stepped up and word spread around the country (and
probably the world) and the CCHS went from something like 2000th place in
January to 1st in the final week of voting. So congrats to them, they are a
great organization and certainly deserve the money.
I forgot to mention one thing in the previous
entry. On the 17th the Bootjack Fire and Rescue held their "off
season" chicken BBQ. Ever since I first tried the BBQ years ago, I have
made it a point to get my tickets every year to enjoy this chicken. The main
event is in July and I believe it is the third Sunday of the month. A few
years ago I found out about the off season event, but always missed it
somehow. Keep in mind that I love this chicken so much I
could probably eat it every week, or for sure every month the rest of my
life. So it was always a bummer for me when I missed the off season event.
Anyway, to make a long story short. Nora got wind of the off season event
and we were able to get some last minute tickets (as a gift from my
accountant, thanks Tommy!) and headed down to chow down. Of course we
brought Gracie along and while she was not able to have any of the
chicken, she sure will be in the years to come. If you are a local and never
had this, or are going to be up here the third week of July, you have to try
this. It is not a tomato based barbeque, it is a vinegar based one. I do not
know what all goes into the basting juice and am sure it is a pretty well
kept secret, but man is it good! The proceeds go to the department and they
were able to build a brand new firehouse last summer with the years of
collecting from these events. One word of warning, you cannot just show up,
you do need to get tickets in advance.
So this week was somewhat quiet around the Dee house. I
did mention that I am feeling better, which also benefits Nora and the pups.
Nora, because I can finally help out more with Grace and the pups because we
take regular afternoon adventures. On Tuesday they had their annual visit to
the vet for their lube, oil and filter change. All went well and they wore
out the vet and assistants out pretty good and I know my arms were pretty
sore from trying to keep them from running around to say hi to everyone.
They just love to say hi and even the vet said that he has never known a dog
to be wagging their tail and kissing him while he gives them a shot. Good
old Huckie, he probably would not care if you were pulling one of his teeth
out, as long as you were giving him attention. It has been so dry up here
that the pups get so dusty from playing, so Monday I thought I would take
them to the big lake to let them swim and clean up before their visit to the
vet on Tuesday. It worked pretty good, but did muddy up the lake a bit! Just
kidding of course, but they did get cleaned up pretty good. Huck still loves
to fetch the stick
from the water and Millie loves to run
down the beach to get her kong or a tennis ball.
Yesterday was a beautiful day up here, with temps in the
upper 60's and sunny skies, so Nora, Grace, the pups and I took
to the woods for an afternoon walk. As I mentioned in the past entry, some
of the trees up here are filling out quite a bit. We did set a new
record low on Thursday with a 21 reported. The trees made it through that,
so I think they will be able to make it through any more cold temps that
Mother Nature throws at them the rest of this spring.
We picked up a new
stroller for Grace. Really it is a new stroller for us. She could
probably care less which stroller she is in, but the one we had was for
indoors or perhaps paved roads as the wheels were very small and were
solid. This new one has 12" pneumatic wheels and is way better for off-roading.
We plan to upgrade to some 27" mud lites with custom chrome rims, but
as long as it so dry are not in serious need for them at the moment.
The walk was very enjoyable, with the warm sunshine and beautiful
views. It's such a treat to be out in the great outdoors with my family.
It's so exciting to think about all the fun times we will have with Grace
and the pups in the years to come. She is REALLY starting to love them. Just
this morning when she came down from waking up, she was way more interested
in seeing what they were doing than saying hi to me. That can only happen
with Nora or the pups, otherwise I will be jealous!
When we got home from the walk, we decided to hang out on
the deck and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. Grace figured that since she
just sat in the stroller on the walk and did not get any exercise that she
would do a little
jazzersizing. Here she is just kicking
back with her dad. Then she got very interested in Nora's ball cap, so
Nora took it off her head and let Grace
try it on. A little big for her, but she still liked wearing
it. Ahh the memories being made.
So I guess that about covers it for this one. Next
Saturday the annual spring ATV ride is planned, so there should be some
interesting stories and pictures to share from that.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
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April 18-
Wow, hard to believe that
April is 2/3rds over already. I guess that is what happens when you spend
almost all of the first two weeks in a different place than home. I sure can
say that it was nice to not have to go anywhere, although the pups and I did
take a trip to Marquette on Tuesday to see the cardiologist. It was sort of
a regular check up with a little extra need. I am still having problems with
fluid retention. It is actually a pretty ugly cycle I am in. I am on
regular, daily diuretics, but they have not been able to keep up with
things, so when I get so full I can't lay flat to sleep, I take another pill
that sort of "boosts" the diuretic effect. Then I spend the next
24 hours having to stick close to a bathroom. I lose about 8-10 pounds in
that 24 hours and usually feel pretty good for about 24-36 hours after the
draining is done. Then I start accumulating fluids again and feel like I
have the flu. So we talked about this situation with my cardiologist and he
put me on two new meds. If these do not work, there are a couple of other
options of medications we can try and if they do not work, then we will put
a pacemaker in. I would just as soon get things over with and put the
pacemaker in, but the Dr wanted to try the meds first before going the
surgical route.
So we'll see, but I am really tired of feeling like junk
for about 4 to 5 days out of every week. My physical endurance has improved
dramatically in the past 2 months and on my "good" days I feel
much better and am stronger than I was before I had the surgery, so it is
really just the fluid retention that is the problem at this point.
It has been a week of pretty wild weather up here. We
started the week much like this spring has been, warmer than average and
dry. Then by Thursday we were in the low 70's and even had humidity, with a
dewpoint in the low 60's. A front came through Thursday night and Friday we
had snow. It did not accumulate at all, but quite a change from the 70's and
humid to snow in less than 24 hours. We recovered pretty nicely in time for
the weekend, with 50's both yesterday and today and quite a bit of
sunshine.
While on the topic of weather, we broke two snowfall
records this season. Not ones that I particularly like, but as I said all
winter, if we had to have an El Stinko winter, this was a good one. The two
records we broke were for the least amount of snow in March (0.2") and
the least amount of snow in the January through March period (55.7").
Pretty amazing that we had the conditions on the trails we did this year
given those numbers.
It has been such a mild spring that some of the trees are
already starting to open their buds. It has me a little worried because we
still can have some pretty cold temps in the next 4-5 weeks and the trees
typically do not open their buds until around Memorial Day weekend. It's
mostly the "scrub" trees and bushes like mountain ash, tag elder
and white birch. The maples seem to be smart enough to know to keep things
buttoned up and 90 percent of the hardwood trees in our woods are maples.
The low snow totals and warm spring also combined to
create the earliest Laurium Glacier meltdown since I have been keeping an
eye on things. It melted this Friday the 16th. That is about a month ahead
of the average. Again, another record I hope we do not break for many years!
I don't have much else to talk about with regards to
things up in this neck of the woods, so I can get onto the annual Togwotee
trip recap. As you all know, I did not make the trip due to my health
issues, but my camera went out and the crew (mostly Brian) took shots of
their daily adventures. Usually we have two cameras out there and end up
with around 70 pics to share, this year I have a little over 30. Since I was
not there, my story telling will be second hand, so that will also be a
little more abbreviated.
This year, rather than using two trucks and trailers to
haul the sleds out, we used the services of Mom's
Motorsports. He has a pretty unique setup, with a customized semi used
to haul both the sleds and the riders. The sleds travel in the
trailer and the riders ride in living
quarters on the truck. There is both seating and bunks for sleeping in
the living quarters, as well as TV's
to keep the kids occupied.
It was an off year for snow in the Togwotee area as well,
but like the Keweenaw, a low snow year does not mean no snow and the boys
were able to find some pretty good snow to play in. In fact, many of the
pictures that came back with the camera were of the various stucks that
happened. Here is a shot of Matt
pulling his sled around after a stuck.
One of the things that can be said about our riding group
is that most of the guys are pretty colorful. Not in the way they dress, but
in their personalities. However, this next shot shows the helmet
and goggle setup that Chuck found to match his personality.
Because of some dropouts for the trip like Al and I, a
couple of new riders were able to join the gang for the trip. Here is a shot
of Cody pulling a side
hill. Turns out he was doing a little "look
at me" for Matt. Normally not a very safe thing to do out west, but
it was a small hill and the snow was pretty stable, so not much danger in
bringing down a slab of snow on Matt.
We've gotten to be pretty good friends with
"Lefty", a local who guides in the wintertime out there. He was
nice enough and able to spend most of the week with the guys and show them
to the good snow. Here he is taking a break with Chuck, Matt and another
fella (one of the guys that also hired out Mom's Motorsports to bring him
out west). Here is another shot of Lefty
in a bit of a pickle with Dave. Before I show this next shot I have to
say that Lefty really is a very good rider and very knowledgeable guide and
I would trust him with my life. It just so happens that Brian caught him in
another unflattering position. This time coming to Nick's rescue, but
getting a little too
close for comfort.
In keeping with the stuck theme, here is a shot of Dave
G stuck and Dave
D stuck. Not sure if Dave D actually stuck going down hill or if that is
a shot after he got the sled turned around, but I do see a shovel out, so it
was a stuck. Otherwise I would have guessed that he was just giving a
mountain man pose for the camera.
We gave the name of our riding group "The
Lumberjacks" because we are so fond of riding in
places like this. Most folks like to stay out of the trees, so there are
usually not too many tracks in there and the snow stays nice and powdery a
lot longer in there too because the sun cannot get to it as well. They did
manage to get a little bit of fresh snow while they were out there. Here is
a shot of of the sleds coated in an inch of new snow one morning. The thing
to keep in mind when watching the snow conditions via the web cam at
Togwotee is that the lodge can pick up an inch of snow and just a mile or
two away and up another thousand feet as much as 6-8" of new snow could
have fallen. The lodge is high enough that it catches snow and also hangs
onto it so that you can ride right from the lodge during the entire season,
but there is also a lot more snow to be found a little higher up than at the
lodge.
Sometimes some wildlife can be seen at the lodge. I know
a year or two ago Brian and Dave had a little fox visiting their cabin every
night and this year there they had a
raven. Some folks that are not familiar with our gang might mistake some
of them for the local wildlife as well- especially after dark. That was
(left to right) Dave G, Luke and Dave D. Here is Matt
and Nick getting ready to ride. Here is a shot of the
lodge all decked out with the Pink Ribbon Riders banners.
As I mentioned a bit earlier, the snow amounts will vary
considerably out there- especially at different elevations. Just about 30
minutes and a few miles away from where the shot of the lodge was taken with
the sun shining, this shot of falling
snow was taken. Here
is another and another.
Boy that last one looked to have some fun play spots in it!
In addition to the still camera shots, we had two video
cameras and two helmet cameras capturing the events of the trip. This past
Friday some of the guys came over and we watched the couple of hours of
regular video cam footage and I plan to watch the couple of hours of helmet
cam footage that was shot. Here is a shot of Dave
taking some video.
Now, Matt riding ability is far above that of mine. So I
really should not be giving pointers to him, but someone should tell him
that he really does not need to fling
that leg out until he actually gets onto the hill. Here is a shot of
Luke demonstrating how
NOT to come down a hill through the trees.
Dave does not get stuck all that often, but you can bet
that when he does, there is some kind of story behind it. I was not there to
witness this stuck, but I am sure something about a
stick or something was muddled.
The guys did say that despite the off year the area had,
they did get into some very deep snow and this shot of Chuck
standing next to his sled that was all but buried in the snow is pretty
good proof of that. I do believe that he was even pointed down hill in that
one.
As mentioned, the annual charity event for the Pink
Ribbon Riders was held just as the gang was arriving. I was suppose to
get there a day early and take part in the event. Hopefully things will work
out next year so that I can be part of things. Brian did meet up with Jody,
who is one of the main organizers of the event. They talked for a bit and
Brian snapped this
shot of her in front of their trailer.
One of the things that sets the Togwotee area apart from
some other riding areas out west is the breathtaking views you get and one
of the more popular and scenic views is that of the Teton
Range across the Jackson Valley. Here is a shot of the
gang all decked out for racing with the Tetons in the background.
One one of the last days of riding, the gang really got
into some thick stuff. Dave said he got stuck and had a couple of riders go
past him only 10 feet away and they did not even see him. Here is a shot of Brian's
sled with his ski up against a dead pine. Rather than just move his sled
over a bit, Brian figured it would be easier to move
the tree. Wonder how that worked out for him!
As luck would have it, the snow
started to fly with a little more spunk the last day the gang was there
and just a few days after they left, the lodge got 44 inches of snow in 5
days. Timing is everything I guess, but the honest truth is that getting
that much snow also presents some negative issues along with the positive.
First is that it is very hard to ride in that heavy of a snowfall. The flat
light can make it very difficult to try and figure out what the terrain is
doing. Secondly, there is a big risk of avalanche and third, you cannot even
get to some of the places because of the deep snow and steep terrain. Still,
fresh powder is always fun!
But all good trips must come to an end and the gang loaded
their sleds into the semi and made the trip back to the Keweenaw. Of
course there is already talk of things to do for next year! My thanks to
Togwotee Mountain Lodge for taking great care of the gang. A first class
operation for sure.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
April 11-
Well, it was another
week of travels for the Dee family. At least Grace, Nora and I. This time we
jetted down to Texas to finalize the adoption. It's funny, I was wondering
if I was going to feel any different about my relationship with Grace once
the adoption was finalized and I can honestly say that I do. Not that I love
her any more than I did before. That just keeps on growing day after day at
a pretty standard pace. I really do not know how to explain it other than to
use the word final. Prior to the finalization, I was never worried that she
was going to be taken away from us. About the only way that could have
happened was if Nora and I were to be found unfit to be her parents.
However, I guess just knowing that by the letter of the law, she was not
quite yet fully ours, there was that little something missing. Nothing is
missing now and she is all ours and we have the
picture with the judge who signed the papers to prove it (as well as all
the papers!).
The actual courtroom proceedings for the finalization
process too all of about 5 minutes, we did have to wait a bit longer to get
our copies of the papers, but then it was off to have some fun in San
Antonio. I did have to do my midday work, but right after I was done with
that we headed out to see the city. The first stop was actually at the
adoption agency to say hi. Most of them were out to lunch, so we only got to
say hi to one of the staff that helped us with the adoption, but Grace
dropped off some Yooper Bars and then we headed to the
Alamo. There was some kind of an official event going on right as we
arrived and then once that finished the place was packed with people, so we
did not go in, but the
grounds surrounding the buildings are very beautiful, so we spent some
time walking around them. Here is a shot of Gracie
sitting on the side of Davie Crockett's fountain. Here is a shot of her
and I near a cactus plant. Here she is taking
a break on the official park bench of TX.
It was a pretty busy day, so we decided to head back to
the motel to relax a
bit before heading out to dinner for some good old Texas barbeque. The
barbeque was OK, but nothing to write home about. I got the sampler plate
and liked the brisket the best. We all got a good night's sleep. I got up
before the rest to do my work and then it was down for breakfast of Texas
shaped waffles to fuel up for the busy day we had planned.
I did the rest of my work and then we were able to spend
the entire afternoon at Sea
World. Grace definitely notices all that is going on around here, but I
was interested to see how she would react to all that was going on at Sea
World- especially since she does not see any of that sort of stuff at home.
We walked around a bit and got our bearings and saw everyone filtering into
the auditorium for the dolphin and beluga whale show, so we followed the
crowd and found our seats and watched the show. It was a very good show,
with about half of it being the animals
doing tricks and the other half being cirque du sole type performers
doing high dive and other tricks. Grace loved the show, but I think it was
just as much fun for her to watch the show as it was to watch the audience's
reaction to the show.
After the dolphin show we headed over to some of the
other exhibits. The first was the penguin house. I had to stay in a
different section with the stroller, but Grace and Nora were able to get a
good close look at them. We took a
short nap and then found our way to the shark exhibit. The first tank
had some rays and
a few other types of tropical fish swimming around in it, but the next tank
was full of sharks.
We also took in the otter house and the sea lion exhibit and then it was on
to see the star of Sea World. Shamu.
It was interesting to note that none of the trainers got into the water with
any of the killer whales during the show. Little doubt it is in response to
the tragic incident that happened a few months ago, but I wonder if it will
be a permanent thing they do, or just temporary. In any case the show was
still very entertaining and Grace had fun watching the
whales perform their tricks. We did make sure to stay out of the splash
zone when we picked our seats and were glad for it as the water in the tank
is 52 degrees and the whales are not shy about splashing
the heck out of the audience. I think a lot of them thought that they
would not get too wet, but once the splashing started, there was a mad
scramble to higher ground!
Once the Shamu show was over we had been at the park for
about 5 hours and that is really pushing the endurance of Grace, so we
packed it in and headed back to the hotel, but not before one more stop for
some BBQ. This time I stuck to the brisket that was very good and had a
piece of fried chicken that was also very good. The place we stopped at this
time was a chain and while most of them are more formal dinning, this one
was actually more of a fast food style. Either way it was pretty good. The
funny thing is we got back in the car to go home, but stopped for gas at a
place across the street from the restaurant and there attached to the gas
station was a little hole in the wall BBQ place that was not only packed to
the hilt, but it also smelled so good that even though I was totally
stuffed, my mouth watered. That was actually the kind of BBQ place I was
looking for when we were down there, but all of my results via an internet
search kept bringing up the same dozen or so and the reviews on them were a
total mix of good, bad and indifferent, so not much help. Oh well, if we are
ever in the San Antonio area again, we know where to stop for BBQ.
While the trip down was a total nightmare- thanks to a little
inclement weather and Chicago O'Hare's airport being incapable of handling a
little rain and limited visibility without going into a 3-4 hour delay, the
trip back could not have been smoother. All flights ran right on time and we
had enough of a layover in Chicago for Nora to experience a gyro and me to
enjoy a good old Chicago style Italian beef sandwich. Then it on to our gate
to watch for our
plane to come in so we could head back to the good old Keweenaw.
We arrived home at around 2:30 and Grace pretty much
crashed out while Nora and I got unpacked and relaxed a bit. Today has been
a beautiful day up here, with temps in the upper 50's and tons of sunshine.
We took a morning walk around the neighborhood and then an afternoon one in
the woods. The pups loved hitting the woods again, wasting no time finding some
puddles to go racing through at full steam.
So it looks like our jet setting days are over for a
while which suits me fine. I love the speed at which you get somewhere once
on the plane and it is actually flying, but everything else about air travel
is just plain tortuous. I guess the answer is to get your own. Perhaps Gulf
Stream, Lear or Cessna are interested in a little advertising swap?
I did sneak down to Laurium today and snapped a picture
of the glacier for those of you that have been losing sleep wondering if it
had melted yet. Not
yet, but looks to only have about 10 days left in it. Maybe more if it
got cold. The Allouez
Township Glacier is also still around, but looks to have even less time
before it is gone. Probably tomorrow.
I guess that about does it for this one. Remember, the
next entry(s) should be the annual Togwotee trip. I am pretty sure that the
gang and I will be getting together to view the pics and footage this
week and I will be able to write just like I was there! Until then...
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
April 4-
Well, I think I promised this
entry would be full of pics and stories from the gangs trip to Togwotee, but
plans have changed. They did go and had a blast. They also took tons of pics
and video, but we have decided that we would all like to get together and
watch the video and view the pics and let the stories fly. I can take some
notes and really get a good idea of what happened and then write the journal
almost as if I was there. I was out of town until yesterday (more on that in
just a minute) and there was not enough time to have the preview get
together. This week looks tough too, as I have a busy second half of the
week and a few of the guys are out of town and will not be back until later
Monday or Tuesday, so looks like we will have to shoot for two weeks from
now to write the annual Togwotee entry. I have been told that there are some
good pics and funny stories. The guys all had a ton of fun and found some
great snow- despite what some of the reports were from the area. They said
the base was not as ample as in years past, but they found plenty of powder
to play in, so I am excided to see the pics and watch the video. Figures the
week after they left the lodge got 40+ inches of snow, but that can actually
present as many challenges and problems as fun. Anyway, Togwotee journal in
two weeks.
As mentioned, I just got back into town yesterday. I
really should say WE just got back into town yesterday. Grace, Nora and I
flew south for the week and sunned our buns in Florida! After all that Nora
and I went through this autumn and winter, I figured it would be nice to
treat us all to a relaxing vacation in the Florida warmth. The way the
Florida winter and early spring went, I was getting a little worried about
the warmth part. 60 degrees is warm for the Keweenaw in April, but not
Florida. As luck would have it, the pattern changed just in time. We arrived
on Saturday the 27th and it was the hottest day that the area we went to (Ft
Myers area) had seen in over 4 months. It was about 86 when we landed.
When planning our trip, I did not want to stay in a
hotel, or really even a condo, I really wanted the privacy of a house. I
also did not want to be in an area that was all built up and busy-
especially during the busy spring break time. So I researched things for
several days and found this little island called North Captiva Island. It is
only accessible via boat and there are no cars on the island. I guess you
could think of it a little like Mackinaw Island, but WAY less touristy.
There are only homes on the island, plus a little club house, gift shop,
general store and a few small places to eat. You have to buy all your
groceries on the mainland and bring them with you on the boat. If you forget
something you either go without or can have it brought to you from the
mainland, but there is a deliver fee. Our only item forgotten (and also
requested to be brought over the next day) was a bottle of rum. Otherwise we
did very well in our grocery shopping.
The island is really a neat place to be on. Very laid
back, very quiet and very private. No crazy spring breakers, really not too
many tourists as the only persons on the island are those staying on it,
plus no cars. So you occasionally hear a golf cart go whizzing by, or the
voices of someone walking down the sandy lanes, but that is about it.
As mentioned, the weather cooperated pretty well with us.
We arrived Saturday night to the tropical heat type weather. Sunday was
overcast, but still warmed to 80. That was warm enough to hit
the beach and even wet
our feet in the Gulf. The gulf was still a chilly 67 degrees, so we did
not go any further than our ankles. However, Grace learned that beach
sand does not have all that much flavor. She did decide to
bring some home as a reminder of her first trip to Florida though.
One of Grace's favorite things to do was to buzz around
the island in the golf
cart. There were really no roads on the island, just sandy
paths through the tropical growth. Here is a shot looking down the
"road" that our cottage was on. Most of the homes on the
island are set back a bit from the roads, which really adds to the remote
feel of the island. The southern 2/3rds of the island is also a wildlife
preserve. You can go in there and explore via some of the footpaths, but no
buildings exist and there are some very remote stretches of beach the
further south you went. I think we have a little dare-devil on our hands
too, as the faster we went in the golf cart, the more fun Grace had. Plus,
she and I loved the turbulence on the plane ride- which was not something
Nora share our sentiment in.
The home we rented was a neat two bedroom, two bath
place. All of the homes are built on pilings to get them above the dangers
of storm surge during a tropical cyclone. So I got my exercise and even got
into a little better shape by having to climb a flight and a quarter of
stairs each time we wanted to come and go from the house. The house also
came with it's own
heated swimming pool and rooftop hot tub. The house and pool area were well
protected by the tropical growth on the island, which also provided for
some nice privacy.
The home also had wireless internet, so Grace and I were
able to be on vacation, but still
get our work done. Wireless meant that I could also bring my laptop down
to the pool area and here is a shot of me
getting my midday weather update done down by the pool. I could get
pretty used to that!
My favorite part about the place was the pool. Grace is
looking like she is going to be a
water baby too. As soon as it gets warm enough up here, this
will probably be the scene at the Dee house all summer long. We took a
couple of walks on the beach too and I am sure that this
too will be a scene repeated in the UP this summer.
Nora really did come along and enjoy all the fun, but is
not as enthused to share pictures of herself on the internet as Grace and I
are, but I am going to sneak this one in of Nora
and I enjoying a
sunset from the rooftop deck of our rented home. Grace's bedtime
actually came before the sunset time did, so we were not able to go to the
beach to watch the sun set, but those from the roof were almost just as
good.
There was some wildlife on the island as well. Just about
every day, this little
fellow would come moseying through the yard in search of something- a
meal I guess. We also spotted some bunnies, perhaps there were some tortoise
vs. the hair races going on somewhere that we missed! The waters around the
island also had their fair share of creatures. We spotted this
porpoise swimming just off shore and then on one of our walks along the
beach, some guys fishing caught something. We slowed our walk just enough so
that we could watch them land what ever it was that they had caught.
Turns out it was a little hammer head shark! Glad the water was 67 degrees!
Where there are small hammer heads, there has to be the bigger ones!
Of course like any good vacation, the time to leave comes
way too fast and that is what happened on this one. Seems like we were just
getting settled in and used to the warm Florida sun and we had to pack
things up and head home. However, not before one
last spin around the island on the golf cart! Plus we have such a
beautiful spot to come back to, it is never really a sad day to be leaving a
vacation spot to be heading home. I am sure we will return to the island
again. It was really a fun experience and I would like to take Grace there
when she is old enough to really appreciate how unique it is from most of
the rest of Florida.
The trip back went well. We did hit a little turbulence
just before landing, but that is standard operating procedure in the little
prop jobs that fly into the UP airports. We had Nora's cousin Amy staying at
the house to watch the pups and they were very happy to see us, although
they love Amy and had tons of fun with her all week as well. Today being
Easter Sunday, of course mommy had a special outfit all ready for Grace.
Actually I think there were six that she wanted me to pick from. So the last
shot of this entry is of Grace
in her Easter outfit and Easter basket.
Happy Easter everyone and...
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD-
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