Norway ad

This is a new ad, playing in Norway. It's pretty funny!

Cooking Thursday

It's getting cooler outside and that means it's soup weather! I love soup. It warms you up, it's usually economical and it's a good comfort food!
I got this recipe from my sister Cheri. It has to be one of the easiest soups I've ever made and on top of that - it's healthy and tastes great!
For more recipes, visit Sandra at Diary of a SAHM.

Taco Soup

1 can corn, drained
1 can fat free re-fried beans
1 can chicken broth
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 cup shredded chicken
1 jar salsa

Stir together, heat and eat!

*Only 82 calories per 1/2 cup.

Wordless Wednesday

Fall update

This pumpkin field is around the corner from my house. They are harvesting the pumpkins, reminding me that we are in a new season.
Things change as the seasons turn, and change also happens in our lives.

We are counting down the days now, until our granddaughter arrives! Laura is due on October 11. She is doing well, but is getting anxious for this baby to arrive. This is her last week of work, things are pretty well ready at their house and so now we just wait.
I've been comparing notes with two of my blog friends who also expected grand babies about the same time as I was. Jean of What's up at the Stauffers was expecting a grandson on the 4th, and he came a little early - showing up on Monday! Kat of Just A Beachkat is expecting a grandson on the 13th, so she and I'll have to see who goes first - Laura or Bree.

Heather is doing well at her new job. She's enjoying what she does and is working with a lot of nice people. This is truly an answer to prayer.

Andy has 5 months left in Afghanistan. He's ready to be home. He still enjoys working on the helicopters but working 12 hour days with a day off only every 2 weeks is pretty tiring. When you add in not being able to get out and do fun things and not seeing family and friends it makes for a long 12 months. We are thankful for his safety there.

All's well with Bob and I. We can't wait to be grand parents and you know you'll hear about that when it happens!

New County Park

The county I live in (Ottawa) has been very smart about purchasing land and preserving it. It seems there are so many housing developments built and it's nice to see the County purchase land and keep it as parkland so everyone can enjoy it.
I've shown you a few farms recently where they did this. The first was the old county poor farm, and the other is the farm where I recently took pictures of Laura and Aaron.
Ottawa County recently purchased some property on the banks of the Grand River, which is just a few miles from my house. We checked it out last week and I can see there's going to be a lot of people enjoying it! A lot of people enjoy fishing here and they have added a boat and kayak launch.

The banks of the river near the bridge. They've made a path so you can go under the bridge, and there are walking trails on the other side.

Here's the view once you walk under the bridge.

The reflections were beautiful that evening.

This property has the river on one side and the bayou on the other. There are lots of wild flowers near the bayou.

I saw this leaf along the path we were walking. Can you see the heart shape?

Here's a view of the bayou.

And another view of the bayou.

Getting ready for a new sign.

The sun setting over the river.
I think I'll be back to walk those trails!

The winner is...

It's time for the giveaway of the DVD, The Shunning that I talked about earlier this week.
I entered the comment numbers into the random number generator and the winner was...
Connie from Everyday Blessings!
Connie - your DVD will be mailed to you shortly. I think you'll enjoy it!

Last Day

On Thursday we left Munising to drive back to Mackinaw City. We planned to take a scenic route back. It was really interesting to drive it because there were no other cars, no houses...just a road out in the middle of hills and forests!
We stopped near the Au Sable Lighthouse to tour it. The sign said it was a 1.5 mile walk to the lighthouse, so we started out. After we had walked about 5 minutes we came to another sign that said it was 1.6 miles to the lighthouse. We kept walking and then found another sign that said - 1.5 miles to go. Pretty funny!

This is the path we were walking to the lighthouse.


After we had been walking, we came to another sign that said "shipwreck", and pointed to the beach. After a little walk down the beach we found it.

This is the remains of the Gale Staples which went down in a storm in 1918. The entire crew was saved and this is the remains that have washed up on shore.
On another note - look at those waves! There were people surfing Lake Superior on this day.

While we were on the beach, we saw this rainbow. It's not real bright - hope you can see it!

I love the stones on the shore.

After more walking we finally sighted the lighthouse through the trees.


When we got to the lighthouse, we found it was the last day that they would be taking people on tours for the season. The keepers area was restored beautifully to the early 1900's era. After touring that area, we were allowed to climb the tower.

This little window was about 1/2 way up. What a pretty sight!

Here's the stairs we climbed - 99 of them in all!

Isn't this a pretty lighthouse?


We then started the hike back. There was one more shipwreck sign that we had missed on the way out, so we went back to the beach.

This is all that remains of the Mary Jarecki. She sank on July 4, 1888.

Here's the only critter I captured with my camera during the week. We also saw 3 bald eagles, 7 deer, several herons and one dead porcupine.

This is the remains of an old log cabin.

Heading back across the Mackinac Bridge.


We stayed in the same hotel we had been in a few days earlier, and again had a room overlooking Lake Huron.

This was the scene we were greeted with when we got up in the morning. It was beautiful weather after all the wind and rain during the week. And of course - we had to leave!

Excuse this blurry picture. I took it through the windshield as we drove.
We drove home via the Tunnel of Trees, which is a scenic route from Good Hart to Harbor Springs. This road goes along the lake shore and really does look like a tunnel of trees for most of the drive. It was a beautiful way to end our week away.
That's the end of all the pictures - vacation shots at least! Thanks for following along!

Marquette

This was what we saw when we opened the curtains in our hotel Wednesday morning. It was raining and windy, but this was a beautiful sight!

We drove about an hour to Marquette and again checked at an information center for things to do there. As it was still raining occasionally, we started with some things we could do inside.

This is St Peters Cathedral, a beautiful old church built in 1881.

I love these big wooden doors!

The stained glass windows were beautiful.

This is the Marquette county courthouse. It was built in 1902-1904. In 1913, President Theodore Roosevelt tried a case for libel here against a nearby newspaper. He won 6 cents - "the price of a good newspaper".

This is an old ore loading dock. Huge ships would pull up to the side of it and the chutes would be lowered for the ore to pour into the ship. This dock is bigger than it looks in the picture - 2 rows of railroad cars rode on top of it, loaded with the ore.

All these little shanties lined the pier.

This is an old dock that is deteriorating.

And another old dock. It's closed off so no one can walk on it. It doesn't look like something I would want to walk on!

Another deteriorating dock. The sea gulls like it!

The Marquette Harbor Lighthouse.

Here we are waiting to tour it.

We climbed these stairs to do the tour. How would you like to haul your groceries up these steps?

An end of the day shot - walking along the shore.

Although it rained a lot throughout the day, by evening the sun was shining. Marquette is another beautiful old city in the U.P.

Tomorrow I'll share the last of my pictures.

 

Marquette on Dwellable

Munising

On Tuesday, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula and drove to Munising. Our plan was to take a Pictured Rocks cruise once we arrived. However... as we drove it was raining and when we arrived in Munising we found that because of the strong winds the boats weren't going out.
We stopped at a tourist information place and got a list of things we could do. We found that the area we were in had lots of waterfalls , so we started out to find some of them.


Alger Falls

Next we headed to another spot to hike to another falls. Above, you see the trail that was next to the sign. The water was deeper and muddier than it looks so we made our way across the plank you can see, holding each other and some branches.
Imagine our surprise when we got to dry ground and realized that on the other side of the plants was another path - completely dry!

Here is the dry path. It gave us a good laugh!

This is what we were rewarded with at the end of that hike - a beautiful falls! This is Wagner Falls.

We took another hike and found the Munising Falls. This one is surrounded by the rocky cliffs you see below.

This is the North Channel Lighthouse, on Grand Isle near Munising. It is no longer in use, but has been restored in "rustic form" and a seawall was built to protect it.

As we walked along Lake Superior, we came across this old boat, breaking down on the sand.

The shores of Lake Superior are so beautiful!

This is Miners Castle. It was fun watching the waves come in, and seeing the water splash through the holes in the bottom of the rock.

One of the waterfalls we were looking for made us take quite a walk. This pretty path meandered through the woods, making it quite enjoyable!

This is the Falls we were walking to - Miners Falls.

This is one of the piers at Munising. I always like seeing the boats lined up!

Last, but not least a few pictures to make you smile!
The hotel we stayed at in Munising had these huge chairs out front.
Don't we look funny in them?

More pictures coming tomorrow...

Munising on Dwellable