Just on our drives around the Lake Huron Shoreline we have had several great wildlife sightings!   We drove through Alpena the day the Viking Octantis was visiting!  We also visited Tuttle Marsh and caught some amazing sights!  Sandholl cranes!  but I didn’t have my big camera with me so they are just cell phone photos

Canada geese are everywhere!

My only aunt still with us,  Aunt Jean Foss, lives just north and west of the Big Mac, the Mackinaw Bridge near the little town of Naubinway.  We rented rooms at the local motel/hotel for the night and made there 3 hour drive.

We drove along the Lake Huron shore to the Mackinaw Bridge, and along the Lake Michigan shoreline west to Naubinway to Aunt Jean’s road

We had a great dinner together (I had to have some Great lakes whitefish!)  at the Cut River Inn, near the Cut River Bridge and delicious brownies at Aunt Jean’s for dessert!

And passed a couple Sasquatch on the way

In 1930, local lumbermen in Michigan decided to erect a monument honoring the men who are reforesting the area and include all lumberjack for their work.   We visited the monument today and several overlooks along the AuSable River

Several dams along the river give it reservoirs for recreation

We had a gorgeous day to make a climb down to one of the reservoirs for a closer view of an old floating lumber camp cabin.

Last evening the 🌎 eclipsed the 🌛.   I recorded it with 2 cameras,  first,  my cell phone camera.

And then remembered I had my Sony RX10 with me.

The eclipse was not 100%, so the brightest part still out shines the dark,  but it was interesting how the 2 took very different images of the same event.  

My little Sony HX99 made a very strange image,  the lens projecting red outside the image of the moon!  you can even see a bit of the shadow of the earth in the red images!  ok, camera / optics experts,  any ideas of what caused that?

In Michigan,  half the population has a ‘place up north’, a vacation home…. my cousin Kathy had a great condo on the AuSable River which has become her 24/7/365 home.   Emmett and I love visiting her and relaxing there. Here is the delightful view we are enjoying!

We are a short walk from the shore of Lake Huron so our daily walks are on the beach here

Kathy and her sweetheart, André. his son Tracey and granddaughter, Kaitlyn had a great dinner… I had the Lake fish Walleye!

The town is Oscoda, the finish line for the marathon 120 mile canoe race done every July

some sights around Oscoda

sunset tonight

tonight’s moon

Our stay in my hometown was simply so I could meet a very special person.   For 50 years this young lady was a mystery, but a couple years ago I received an email inquiry that introduced us!  Before that,  she was known as the baby my brother’s girlfriend had gone to Canada to give birth to,  but we knew nothing else.   Adoptions were sealed then…. before DNA analysis. 

As a scientist I had had my 23 and me DNA analysis done when it was first introduced to see if my ancestry was the same as the family research I had done…. and yes,  I’m 99.4% European!  surprise surprise!  English and Irish!   But the best surprise was when I received the email introducing me to my neice!  We became FB and Instagram friends,  communicated electronically, and COVID kept us in our separate countries when we visited Michigan last,  but Yesterday was the day we were able to really meet in person!  Patricia, Tricia Mary,  Patty, bubbly, lovely,  beautiful lady, and her great husband Jay. 

They boated over from Sarnia and met us for dinner on Black River.  I didn’t want dinner to end.   We had a great time getting to know each other and I hope a beautiful relationship is growing! 

Thank you,  Patty and Jay for taking time to spend with us!   I hope we see you again soon!

At the mouth of the St Clair River,  the foot of Lake Huron.   I love staying right on the river by the majestic Blue Water Bridges between PH and Sarnia Ontario.  When we come now we stay here at the Doubletree so we can watch the boats,  and walk along the river.

From our hotel room

Watching a ship,  the Mark W Barker come up the river,  heading north.

Visited Mom and Dad’s Graves

more ships!

And another

Thomas Edison is our most famous citizen!  His museum and statue

First stop is to visit some of my oldest friends!  Paula and Denny Willing have been friends since school!  Paula, since elementary!  And Denny since High school,  when they started dating.   It was great to see them again after about 9 years.

Denny is a big game hunter,  has served as a Marine, a Michigan State Trooper,  a state investigator,  and an NRA VP of competitive shooting.   Retirement finds them enjoying cruising and grandkids! Here are a few of his  🏆s

Altogether he had 14 trophies from his 3 hunting trips to Namibia and South Africa.   Personally,  I prefer shooting with my camera, but these are impressive mounts!

We saw that nearby in Grand Rapids at the Meijer Gardens,  is a Chihuly exhibit with some incredible installations!  Inside,  were some of his beautiful bowls, cylinders, drawings,  and smaller pieces.

What amazing pieces!  These first 4 are permanent Chihuly installations at the Meijer Gardens.

Outside installations in the water were incredible!  The still water reflected the glass balls and spikes.

Some were more grounded

The gardens have also permanent sculptures.

Of course, the flowers were beautiful.

Finally a couple garden installations!

We made a little discovery,  a settlement of German immigrants in the 1850s in Eastern Iowa, called the Amana Colonies.   it was a religious movement started in 1714 in Germany that came to the new world for more freedom of worship.   There still remains a vigor small village and a visitor’s center, restaurant,  and shops. 

we enjoyed a sauerbratten lunch at the restaurant

We spent the night in Iowa and crossed the Mississippi in the morning!  Impressive bridge over the river!

Iowa was our 8th state,  and today we crossed into Michigan,  our 11th state on this trip.  Back in my home state for the next couple weeks! 

We arrived back in the USA, through Denver, and stayed a couple days in Nebraska getting over jet lag and having time with my daughter and family,  before heading across country on our road trip portion of this adventure.  Chase county fair was in full swing,  so we got to experience fair fare, funnel cakes,  corn dogs,…. yum?

We enjoyed just relaxing on the patio at my daughter’s too, watching the migrating hummers.

we said our ‘Good luck at college and see you next time’  to Tucker and Navy as each heads of to their universities this week,  on different directions for now, Tucker to UNK, University of Nebraska,  Kearney, for nursing degree and Navy to Florida Atlantic for marine engineering.  

Our next stop was Lincoln and a great dinner, church,  and visit with friends,  Mike and Chris Collier.  We sang together at EVFree Fullerton several years ago,  but it is always great to keep in touch with fellow believers!

still heading east. … more visits to come next week.