Take the day off... well.. most of it.

We decided to take a break and do a little sightseeing on Saturday evening after work and then got the chance to do more on Sunday. Mom and I have run around a little bit, and Mom even went out and about by herself. She went to a Finnish Music Festival in Covington. I was tired out and had stuff to do at the house so she went and checked it out alone. It is only a few miles down the road. And then of course, David has been sort of housebound with his nurse Cosmo the Magnificent keeping him vigilant company. No one can really get close to David without hearing a low growl coming out of that little beast.

Here is the front facing the road. Geez, I just love it. It is kind of deceptive from the roadside.



Looks like a regular small cottage until and/or if you see the lakeside view.



Check out the scaffolding. Kinda scary looking isn't it. Of course, it would be very difficult without it.

Anyway, Saturday night after work David took us all to a wonderful dinner at Tony's Steak House just outside of L'Anse. It stays light for a long time here so both before and after our 7:00 p.m. dinner we cruised around a bit with Jerry as the tour guide.

We drove around a couple of Henry Ford's work sites. One is Alberta and the other Pequaming. Apparently he loved the U.P. and I guess and was making good use of it. Alberta was given to Michigan Technical University and then it is my understanding that Pequaming has been converted to mostly private use.

We found this field of wild lupines is near Pequaming. This was a small portion of the field. They were so beautiful!

So readers imagine this... we are driving along in Jerry's station wagon through the roads of Pequaming and we are scanning the views on both sides of the car. Jerry and David up front, and then me, Mom, and Dad in the middle seat. David's crutches took up the far back seat. Anyway, we are cruising and then everyone got all excited.. everyone that wears glasses that is... and that means everyone but me. (so far)

"What's that?!" Dad exclaims from the backseat pointing up through the seats to an animal crossing the road in front of us. Jerry slows down, and he and David say, "Oh... it's a porcupine!" The critter then ran to the side of the road so Jerry pulls up next to it. David and Dad who are on the right side of the road roll down their windows to get a closer look. Mom was very excited as well and so she also leaned over to see out of Dad's window from her place in the middle seat... "oh, a porcupine!" she said. Well.. I was sitting behind Jerry and therefore last to see this creature... so I lean forward to see if I can get a glance of it as well and I got quite a shock. I hollered, "That's a skunk not a porcupine!!!"

David and Dad quickly lean way away from their windows hitting the auto roll buttons as fast as they could and Jerry hits the gas and swings back onto the road and we drove away... all getting quite a kick out of that mix up. So kiddies.. here is a tip...

Nature Lesson of the Day

These are different animals! I am pretty sure you do not want to meet either of them up close and personal. The one on the left is a porcupine and the one on the right is a skunk. Additionally, for your trivia info for the day...

At the beginning of recorded history, the Chicago area was inhabited by a number of Algonquian peoples, including the Mascoutens and Miamis. Trade links and seasonal hunting migrations linked these peoples with their neighbors, the Potawatomis to the east, Fox to the north, and the Illinois to the southwest. The name "Chicago" is the French version of the Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa ("wild leek”/"skunk"), named for the plants common along the Chicago River.

Well, enough of that...

On Sunday morning it was raining, Jerry was a tired and Rick and Jim were winding down for the morning. It did not look like much was going to get done that day so Jerry decided to get some shut eye and we decided to hit the road again. I wrangled up David, Mom & Dad, the dogs, and went all went to Bond Falls, Rockland, Old Victoria, and a few other local places.

The first pics are from Bond Falls:

Then after lunch at Henry's Never Inn in Rockland, we went to the Old Victoria restoration site. They had folks walking around in costume, talking about the site that is being restored and raising money for that restoration. We had cinnamon rolls that had just come out of a wood stove oven while there. Just what we needed after ice cream, and lunch!

When we returned from our trip around 4:00 p.m. the rain had stopped. Jerry was back on site, along with Dickie-bird, Rick, and Jim and they had put sheeting and felt on half of the roof and were heading towards the other side... they worked until nearly 9:00 p.m.!!!

I will post more pics tomorrow, the house is really shaping up now that the roof is sort of on.