Apartments and Colors

On Thursday we took our cameras on our morning walk around our apartment complex.  Just thought I would share some of the colors.  This first two are pictures of puddles with the trees reflected.  You need to click on the picture to see it better. 

This is what the apartments look like.  It's a nice complex.

This is the playground.  They have a fire pit in the middle of these red chairs and wood stacked up.

Some of the colors.

Some more.

I really liked this tree.  Half of the leaves were green and half were red, all mixed in together.  No in between colors.

This dog park is larger than the children's playground :)

This morning we tried to walk, but the wind was blowing, and I couldn't see for my watering eyes, plus I was FREEZING, so we cut our walk short.  Portends of things to come.

P-Day October 1, 2012

 

Another P-Day has come and almost gone.  We went to some more beaches.  I never get tired of the water.  This first picture, though, was taken yesterday morning.  We got to church around 7:30 for Bennie's early meeting.  It was still kind of dark, and the moon was beautiful.  This doesn't really do it justice, but I like it.

 

We saw this at a summer residence on Hamlin Lake.  Hmmm, wonder where they're from?

Hamlin Lake.  This is another resort area for summer people.

It was in the paper a few weeks ago that some senators were up here fishing, including RICHARD BURR.  It was strange seeing a name we recognize in the local newspaper.

This just speaks for itself :)

Yep, already turning colors.  I thought this tree was gorgeous.

This is at a local park in Ludington.  There are several sculptures around the park.  This is titled "Follow The Leader".

More colors.  We were stopped for construction, and I took this out of the car window.

Some wildlife.  Gobble, gobble.

This is about 15 miles north of Ludington.  We were the ONLY ones here.  I just think that is so amazing, to have an entire beach all to yourself.  This is looking north.

Looking south.

Notice how calm the water is.  Last week there were white caps everywhere.  It was also kind of foggy out toward the horizon, and you couldn't really see it.

I don't know where this came from.  The log, not the cute guy :)

I liked this picture.  I'm always looking for a bald eagle.  I have yet to see one, but apparently they are around.

Another beach.  This is about 5 miles south of Ludington.

Again, NO ONE around but us.  Looking south.

Looking north.  And it was a beautiful day too.

Guy on a hill.  He's ready to go. 

So, it was a fun day.  Not as strenuous as last week.  I LOVE it up here.  The people are really nice to us.  Several families have invited us for lunch or supper since we've been here.  We're meeting a lot of different people.  Everyone should go on a mission :)

Just Some Pics

 

These are just some pictures I took yesterday.  This is a small pond in our apartment complex.  I've just never seen this sign before.

 

This is a place we went to eat lunch yesterday after our district meeting.  It is called "Country Dairy".  It is a big farm and restaurant.  This is the wagon they take groups around their pastures and do a whole "tour" of the farm.  They make their own ice cream (which is the BEST I've ever had), cheese, beef jerky, and have all kinds of meat for sale.  It's a cool place. 

This is the restaurant.  Who are those guys in white shirts?

Then last night we went to the lake to watch the sunset.  In this picture it is still in the clouds.

Still up there.

Now it's down, almost in the water.

There it goes!

It was beautiful!

Note the coat.  It is starting to get cold up here.

My favorite.

And that's it.

P-Day Adventures

 

Yesterday for our P-Day (personal day) Bennie and I went to the Ludington State Park again and hiked around.  The last time we went we stayed on the beach a lot, but this time we went to the other side of the park and hiked some trails around the river and some sand dunes.  I loved the sand dunes.  They were a lot of fun.  This first picture was just where we stopped on the way up to the park.  There were a lot of white caps on the lake. 



 

 

 

 

We had crossed over a dam and just walked along the river.  We saw several salmon swimming around.  We looked for otters but never saw any.





We found a trail called the "Skyline" trail, which was a boardwalk that went along the tops of the sand dunes.  That's Lake Michigan in the background.

Sand.  It looks like snow.  It was really hard walking up the sand hills but a lot of fun running down.

The river in the background. 

On top of a dune.

We saw a redheaded woodpecker that looked just like Woody!  Hard to see, but he is on that tree right in the middle.  You might need to click on the picture to see it better.

And we saw several deer.  This one looks a little ghostly with his bright eyes :)

It was a lot of fun but wore me out.  I felt like I had climbed Stone Mountain, which I really miss btw.  I love looking at Lake Michigan.  It is so blue.

Trip to Mackinac Island

 

Monday we traveled north to Mackinaw City for a senior missionary couples outing.  We took the scenic route and passed by this buffalo herd.

 

We went through Traverse City, which was gorgeous!  Most of the way up we stayed really close to Lake Michigan and saw the water several times.

We arrived in Mackinaw City Monday afternoon and visited all the shops and stores.  It was fun.  Then Tuesday morning we set out for Mackinac Island.  This is a picture of the island across Lake Huron.

This is the long bridge over the strait where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet.

This is a picture from our ferry going towards the island.

Getting closer to the island.

This is just of the main street.  No cars on the island, just bikes and horses.  Bennie said the smell was a mixture of fudge and horse manure :)

Handsome guy!

We took a carriage ride all around the island.  The leaves are already starting to change up here.

The Grand Hotel.  It cost $10.00 just to go inside to look around.  We just looked from the outside.

The back side of the island.  The island is four miles across, and 500 people live there year round.

The boardwalk close to town.

The houses are beautiful.

Stately manors.

Just the street.  They rent bikes, plus you can take your own over on the ferry if you want.

I loved this house and all the flowers.

It was a fun trip.  There were 24 in our group.  Apparently they have these "senior outings" a couple times a year with all the older couples in our mission.  We bought FIVE slabs of fudge.  We passed by one of the endless fudge shops, and they had just reduced their fudge - five for $19.95, which is $4.00 each, which is not bad I don't think.  We got chocolate, chocolate with walnuts, chocolate with pecans, chocolate with peanut butter, and butterfinger.  We gave most of it away this morning to the young missionaries at our district meeting.  It's fun being a missionary!