SD goes to Michigan

How short, and yet how sweet one week can be. Friday before last at almost exactly 10 PM we had the truck loaded and the kids buckled into the back seat. Stops at the post office, the bank, and the gas station accomplished, we headed out for Upper Michigan to spend a week pinballing between the big lakes, visiting my folks, fishing, and indulging in other (sadly) non-horsey activities.

Sunrise in Wisconsin

It's a long drive, and longer with all of us - why is it that pit-stops are never necessary simultaneously? But the sunrise in Wisconsin was beautiful. Right before I took this we passed a loaded cattle truck which appeared to have completely missed a curve and "emergency stopped" across the oncoming lane into a small stand of trees. I'm guessing from the lack of skid marks that the driver fell asleep. Thankfully, although the underneath of the engine compartment had to be shredded, the cab was undamaged, the driver was out and moving around and the cargo appeared to be upright, as well. The state police were on scene and everything was well in hand, so we didn't stop to offer assistance.

This year we were just in time for some beautiful ripe blueberries and even the mosquitoes and swarms of deer flies couldn't keep us from picking. (I've been reading all those jam and jelly descriptions Latigo Liz over at Cowgirl Up has been posting with my mouth watering, so I'm looking forward to trying my hand at some wild blueberry jam.)

Wild Blueberries
(well, these particular ones were black...)

The kids and T fished in Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, and most successfully in MacDonald Lake right down the road from my folks.

Fishing at Grand Marais (Lake Superior)

"If I don't look at it, I'm safe..."

Some of us weren't as excited about all the water - my mom's Belgian, Yancy, thought it was just fine staying dry, thank you very much!

Yancey on alert

She was much more entertained keeping watch over the rustling bushes while they fished off the dam at MacDonald Lake.

The Moving Wall, the half size replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall, was in Manistique while we were there, and we took the opportunity to stop and pay our respects. It was very moving, no pun intended. Although I've visited the real thing, it's incredibly touching to hear the hush and see the tokens left by survivors and their families.

At the Moving Wall

We also visited the Eva Burrell Animal Shelter (a.k.a the Humane Society of Schoolcraft County) and played with the kittens for a while. My folks volunteer, and it's always fun to see the animals. I usually try to help on their day when I'm home, but the kids hadn't been yet. M had a great time with the kittens, but we'd agreed beforehand that we couldn't take one home with us - not only would Mabel and Snowball have objections, but 14 hours in a truck, not to mention two days camping across Wisconsin with a kitten.... Not gonna happen this trip!

Adorable, or what?

Can't say enough good things about the shelter, though. Like all shelters, they end up with a lot of dumped animals nobody wants, or people can't afford to keep. Not enough spay and neuter, and with the economy what it is, lots of older, hard to place pets. They make a great effort to get everything successfully and responsibly re-homed.

Sunset over MacDonald Lake

Unfortunately, after many long walks, gorgeous sunsets, lots of wonderful meals, happy hours of fishing and hysterical games of golf (the card game, not the ball & stick variety), our trip had to come to an end.

Now that we're home it's laundry, school planning, and lots of memories to file away.