What a Weekend! (Long/Photo Heavy)

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We had a wonderful time celebrating our anniversary.  It wasn't a highly planned weekend, but it all sort of just "happened" nicely....

We got up at 6:00 am and met our neighbors Tim and Leanne at 7:00 am for our motorcycle ride. 

We thought about stopping in this little town, Lawton, for breakfast, but we had just started riding.  So, we kept going.

We stopped at a little restaurant somewhere along the way and had breakfast.  The whole time we were riding, I kept telling myself, "You're going to be good and order oatmeal."  That was the healthy choice.  And it was quite chilly.  I thought oatmeal would warm me up a lot.

But then we walked in and the special was Cranberry Walnut French Toast.  My willpower did not hold fast.

We started just south of Kalamazoo and rode up to Tippy Dam, where the purple pin is in this map.  The darker green you see on this map in that area is all the Manistee National Forest.  So, it was a really nice ride.

This map shows you where we were once we got to the dam.  We were on the western edge of the reservoir.

Here you can see the roof of the dam and the reservoir behind it.

At the top, where we parked, were all these power lines.  The dam was constructed by Consumers Energy, which provides a lot of power to Michiganders.

The best part of visiting the dam was we hiked down this trail to the area below the dam.

As we neared the bottom, we saw this sign.  I had never seen a sign like this before, but if I heard that siren, I think I'd get the heck out of there!

Here is the area below the dam.

There were salmon fishermen everwhere you looked.  Apparently, the salmon were running.  They run up the river you saw in that second map.  Then, they get to this pool below the dam and are sort of trapped.  So, I guess it's a really good fishing spot.

Here is a fish one guy caught.  I put my foot by it for scale.  That is a good-sized fish, huh?  Papa Pea said it was a salmon.  I wouldn't know....

The rapids were pretty cool.

There was quite a bit of beauty around the river's edge.

We rode on after visiting the dam and stopped here for lunch.

I had to laugh at what was on the menu.  No, I didn't order the frog legs, in case you were wondering.  I had a burger and a beer!

After lunch, we rode around some more and headed back toward home, through the national forest again.  This was my view for much of the day.  Can't complain about that!

On the way home, we drove through Allegan.  We had heard there was a one-lane bridge there, so we tried to find it.  Here it is!

That was fun!

And when we returned home it was dusk, and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.  The day was wonderful.  A little long, but good.  It was chilly early and late in the day, but warm in the middle.  We got rained on a couple of times, but not bad.  A nice way to spend the day.

On Sunday, we decided to go to the beach.  I had been wanting to visit South Haven, so that's where we went.  I had some schoolwork to accomplish in the morning, which I did.  Then, we went to South Haven (if you look on the first map I posted, it's on the shore of Lake Michigan, south of Holland quite a ways....almost directly west of Kalamazoo) and found this cute outdoor spot for lunch.  The day was warm in the sun, a little chilly in the shade.  Had a glass of wine with my lunch.  The day was starting off great.

We walked out on the pier to the lighthouse.  Nice views of Lake Michigan.

We checked out the north and south beaches.  They looked pretty empty.  It was windy and about 70 degrees.  Too chilly for most people to be on the beach!

Poor Sweet Pea jumped off this pipe, just having fun.  She fell toward me and wopped her forehead into the camera lens!  Ouch!  She had some tears and a bruised forehead to show for that one.

After the tears were dried off, Papa Pea said, "Let's go check out the sand dunes!"  And Sweet Pea wanted to play in the sand.  So, we went to Van Buren State Park and hiked up the hill.

We were rewarded with a spectacular view of Lake Michigan at the top.

 
And beautiful sand dunes, too.

It was way too cold for me to get in, but not for these two.  Sweet Pea is a rock hound, and this beach was a great place to go rock hunting.

She also discovered that if you dig a hole in the sand, it starts to fill with water.  She thought that was pretty awesome, so she decided to dig a big hole.

Papa Pea came over to help.  I helped a little, too, but mostly I sat and warmed up on the towel!  When we came over to help her, Sweet Pea said, "That's it!  Now you're getting into the spirit of things!"  That really cracked us both up.  I'm still chuckling over it today.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  We had a general plan, but nothing too specific.  It was lazy, yet we got to do a lot of things.  Best weekend I've had in a long, long time.

But I didn't sew a thing.  I have nothing to show for myself this weekend (not even the laundry got done!).  I have no idea what I'll blog about this week, so it might be a little thin!  Maybe I can catch up on some older stuff!  Haha!

Hope you had a great weekend, too.

Until next time,

 

Comments

[Thimbleanna]

Looks like the perfect weekend -- wasn't the weather gorgeous? You have to grab those perfect temps when you can -- it will be cold before we know it. Can you believe, all these years we've lived here and I've never been to the dunes?

[Brooke]

awesome, awesome!!! My kind of weekend! Love, love all those outdoor shots!! Breathe in, breathe out!!!
Have a great week!!

[Deb]

Nice! Looks like a great weekend. We're going to have to get to Michigan one of these days - it looks beautiful.

[PegVan]

Looks like you had a great weekend! And I loved all the shots of Sweet Pea. I can just hear her saying, "That's it! Now you're getting into the spirit of things!" That is so HER! Loved it! The weather looked perfect, but I'm with you. I wouldn't have gone near the water either at 70 degrees! That's for polar bears! Great shots!

[PegVan]

Happy Anniversary! Can't believe it's been 12 years already. Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

[Melissa]

Now that's a weekend! I miss those kind of weekends-Jeff & I used to do that often living in Pokey. Now...its just too dang hot!!! I need to move back north. I've been working of that since we moved here it seems. No dice though, too close to tenure.

[liveacolorfullife]

Happy anniversary!! This was a fun post. Looks like you had a great weekend!

[carolld]

Awesome!! I enjoyed all your photos. Looks like it was a wonderful weekend. I was glad to see your pictures as I've never been up there. Thanks for sharing.

[Lyn Smith]

Hi, I live in Brisbane(Qld, Australia) & last time I visited America(3yrs ago) we visited South Haven & stayed the night, right on the shores of Lake Michigan. We walked down to the lighthouse & wandered through the town. really enjoyed it, though it was a bit CHILLY(October) It was great to see some photos of it again. Thank you.
lyn.robyn.smith@gmail.com

[Lynn]

Looks like a great time!

[Michelle]

Love all of your pictures! I can't think of a better way to spend a weekend. Happy Anniversary!!

[Donna]

Looks like you all had a wonderful time. I enjoyed the pictures. I have never been to Michigan so it was like a visit for me!
Have a good week.
Hugs
Donna

[Carla]

Great post! Thanks for inviting us along!!

[Terri]

I'm relieved you didn't sew. I was beginning to think your pace was inhuman.

[Amy L]

Happy Anniversary! We celebrated our 10th last week!

[Linda in Calif.]

I'm happy for you that you were able to just relax and enjoy your anniversary. Week days are for doing laundry - one load a day until you are done. LOL!! These are the kind of weekends we have been having lately, just motorcycling around and enjoying life.

[Allie]

You had a WAY better weekend than I did, lol - love all the pics! I haven't been to Lake Michigan since I was a teenager. Happy Anniversary!!!

[Maggie Szafranski]

What an awesome weekend!!! Such natural beauty you have so close by!!

[jenclair]

So glad that your anniversary weekend turned out to be such fun! Love the pics!

[Deb]

A very belated Happy Anniversary!! Sure does look like a fun time! And glad that you finally got in the spirit of things! LOL! And about the frog legs...my dad and uncle used to go "gigging" for frogs and my mom used to batter and fry them and loved eating them. I've never had them myself1