Hello and welcome to Sunday afternoon. Right now I'm enjoying some quiet time at home while the girls nap. It's peaceful and the perfect time to sit down and share some thoughts.
Oh what a week we have had! This week, I've been on vacation from work. Usually that means an entire week full of adventures somewhere far away from home. But this week, as much as I would have liked to spend a week away, I decided it just wasn't smart right now. I've got a big trip coming in October, and with vet bills and some other issues recently, I need to be a little more frugal with my money. Generally I'd think I was just wasting my vacation days by not using them to go somewhere, but I was actually looking forward to saving some money and having some adventures a little closer to home for a few days.
So with no firm plans, we started our vacation week wondering what we should do first. After a little research, I decided that on Sunday, we'd jump in the car and head about 45 minutes southeast to Brighton. There are several State Parks close by with hiking trails, lakes, and geocaching opportunities and this sounded like a great way to spend our day.
Our first stop of the day was the Island Lake State Recreation area. It is a beautiful wooded area with lots of hiking and biking paths and it was our first stop as we began to work toward the goal of visiting all of Michigan State Parks. We received our first official stamp in our State Park book, and I am excited to be starting this new adventure.
We arrived mid-afternoon with plans to check out some hiking trails and just see what we could find. It was warm and humid, a combination that limits how far I can walk with Maddie, but I decided that we'd just go until she told me she was ready to stop. So with my backpack packed with her water supply and a few other necessities, we were off to explore.
We followed the Yellow trail as it meandered through the woods to the Huron River. When we got to the river, the girls got in for a little splashing around, and I could tell that Maddie was ready to head back to the car. It was a busy Sunday afternoon with lots of bikers out on the trail, and the girls received lots of love from people as they passed us. While it was a fairly short hike, Maddie was pooped when we got back to the Jeep. That helped determine the next stop on our journey for the day.
For our second stop, we headed a little farther down the road to South Lyon to visit the Michigan War Dog Memorial. I had read an article about this place earlier this summer and just knew I needed to visit. What a beautiful memorial to the dogs who have spent their lives serving our country with the military.
There were memorials for each of the wars that the U.S has fought in since World War II, but the Vietnam War Memorial Wall was probably the one I found the most moving.
What a special place to keep alive the memory of these special animals. If you're ever in the area, you should definitely check it out for yourself.
We awoke on Monday with big plans for the day. First, Maddie had a vet appointment first thing in the morning for her sixth Adequan injection. Once the appointment was done, I had planned to come home, get Peaches in the car, and head out for more State Park adventures. However, the universe had other plans for me!
We arrived home from Maddie's appointment and I was quickly finishing up a couple of items around the house when I noticed a stray dog wandering between two of my neighbor's houses. He was slowly meandering back and forth across the street. He had a collar and looked like he had probably been chained outside and gotten loose. I didn't want to see him wander off and get hurt, so I went out to see if I could coax him into my backyard. However, each time I would go outside, he would disappear into someone's backyard. I had almost given up hope of catching him when I looked outside and saw him standing in the neighbor's front yard with a woman. While my first thought was that maybe he was her dog, I quickly discovered that was not the case.
With her help, I was able to convince him to come hang out in my backyard. He had no ID tags and I had never seen him around the neighborhood, and it was clear that there was no one out looking for him at that point, so I called our friends at Ingham County Animal Control. There was not an officer immediately available to come help and I was nervous about leaving him alone in my backyard while I wasn't home, so I loaded him up in the Jeep and headed to Mason. He was such a sweet boy and gave me kisses all the way there.
Once he was safe and sound at the shelter, I headed back home and got the girls so we could finally head out for our day's adventures. Peaches best bud, Bentley joined us for the fun for the day as well. We once again headed toward Brighton for our first stop of the day-the Brighton State Recreation area. It was warm and sunny and the perfect day to be outside. Just like the day before, this park has both hiking and biking trails, but with three dogs in tow, I decided to avoid the joint use trails and focus on the short hiking loop around Bishop Lake.
With the humidity, it was once again a little slow going with Maddie, but with the lake nearby, we were able to stop at a couple of spots and everyone could get into the water to cool off and maybe even enjoy a swim.
After a few hours there, we were ready to head out and explore our next stop, the Pinckney State Recreation Area. We stopped to have our book stamped at the headquarters and discussed with the nice lady there some of our trail choices. With the knowledge she had provided, I picked a trail that I thought would be perfect. We parked and were off on our hike.
Suddenly, less than a half mile into our hike. Peaches stopped, leaned forward, and then jumped back quickly. I wasn't sure what would make her do that and then I saw it...our newest friend, the snapping turtle. Maddie completely ignored him, however, Peaches and Bentley were in an intense stare-down with him and then begun to bark and lunge. I tried to figure out a way to get around him or get him to move, yet nothing could convince him to move. He had found the perfect little sunny spot in the trail and that is where he was going to stay. While he was small, I was sure that he could still hurt someone and there was no getting passed him with the two crazy barkers, so I made the executive decision to turn around and find a new trail to hike.
We headed in the opposite direction and found a new trail head and had an enjoyable hike the rest of the time we were there.
It was now early evening and we had one more stop to make on our way home, the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail State Park. This is a multi-use linear trail, which means it is open to hikers, bikers, and horses, that has recently been added as a State Park. It follows an old abandoned railroad corridor and it was right on our way home so it just made sense to make a stop.
As I was getting the dogs out of the Jeep, a nice gentleman in the car parked next to us started to ask me about the dogs. He had just finished a 20 mile bike ride along the trail that day and was resting when we arrived. We had a nice conversation about the girls, our goal of visiting all of the Michigan State parks, Maddie and Imke's travels with me to 49 States, and my plans on finishing State 50. We enjoyed our conversation and he wished me luck in completing my travels and with the girls continuing to live life to the fullest.
And then we were off! I knew we'd be lucky to even make it a mile with Maddie at this point, but she was plugging along and seemed to be enjoying the hike. We walked one and a quarter miles and picked up a couple of geocaches along the way and as we reached the Jeep, Maddie headed right for it, ready to go! We had checked three State parks off of our list, but more importantly, we'd had a great day exploring some new places in our beautiful State.
On Tuesday, we spent a quiet morning at home enjoying some time outside, but by mid-day, we were all ready for another adventure. I decided we would head to Albion to do a little hiking on the North Country trail there. This is the closest part of the trail to us and we frequently hike in this area because it is close to home.
On this day, I decided to park in a different area and hike part of the trail that we don't travel as much, just to give the girls a change of pace. After about three-quarters of a mile, we turned and headed back to the Jeep because the heat and humidity were getting to be too much for Maddie. At this point I then drove them over to Victory Park where we could walk along the River and spend some time in the water.
Once we got parked, I allowed them to splash around a bit and then we continued our walk through the park. We turned around to head back toward the Jeep and stopped along the river one more time. It was so peaceful that I decided to sit down and stick my feet in for a bit too. Maddie laid down for a nap as Peaches continued to run around and explore and occasionally jump into the river for a cool down. I really enjoyed this afternoon because we were able to get in a nice 2.2 mile walk and also enjoy some down time together.
Finally, it was time to head home. I could see that the storms were starting to move our way and I wanted to do a little geocaching along our drive home. I found several caches and had a scenic drive down some country dirt roads...I even had a nice old man pull over to make sure that everything was okay when he saw me alone and outside of my parked Jeep on the side of one country road. I couldn't tell him why I was really stopped, but we had a nice conversation...of course he was admiring the girls and mentioned that he had a GSP mix at home. After a brief conversation, we continued on our journey and made it home just as the storms began. It had been another successful day on our staycation.
I really enjoyed all of our adventures close to home, but there was something missing from this vacation, and I couldn't ignore that voice telling me that I needed to head North for some time along Lake Superior. So it was decided-Wednesday we would be heading out for a U.P. Summer adventure. I went to bed Tuesday night packed and ready to head North.
Oh what a week we have had! This week, I've been on vacation from work. Usually that means an entire week full of adventures somewhere far away from home. But this week, as much as I would have liked to spend a week away, I decided it just wasn't smart right now. I've got a big trip coming in October, and with vet bills and some other issues recently, I need to be a little more frugal with my money. Generally I'd think I was just wasting my vacation days by not using them to go somewhere, but I was actually looking forward to saving some money and having some adventures a little closer to home for a few days.
So with no firm plans, we started our vacation week wondering what we should do first. After a little research, I decided that on Sunday, we'd jump in the car and head about 45 minutes southeast to Brighton. There are several State Parks close by with hiking trails, lakes, and geocaching opportunities and this sounded like a great way to spend our day.
We arrived mid-afternoon with plans to check out some hiking trails and just see what we could find. It was warm and humid, a combination that limits how far I can walk with Maddie, but I decided that we'd just go until she told me she was ready to stop. So with my backpack packed with her water supply and a few other necessities, we were off to explore.
We followed the Yellow trail as it meandered through the woods to the Huron River. When we got to the river, the girls got in for a little splashing around, and I could tell that Maddie was ready to head back to the car. It was a busy Sunday afternoon with lots of bikers out on the trail, and the girls received lots of love from people as they passed us. While it was a fairly short hike, Maddie was pooped when we got back to the Jeep. That helped determine the next stop on our journey for the day.
For our second stop, we headed a little farther down the road to South Lyon to visit the Michigan War Dog Memorial. I had read an article about this place earlier this summer and just knew I needed to visit. What a beautiful memorial to the dogs who have spent their lives serving our country with the military.
There were memorials for each of the wars that the U.S has fought in since World War II, but the Vietnam War Memorial Wall was probably the one I found the most moving.
We awoke on Monday with big plans for the day. First, Maddie had a vet appointment first thing in the morning for her sixth Adequan injection. Once the appointment was done, I had planned to come home, get Peaches in the car, and head out for more State Park adventures. However, the universe had other plans for me!
We arrived home from Maddie's appointment and I was quickly finishing up a couple of items around the house when I noticed a stray dog wandering between two of my neighbor's houses. He was slowly meandering back and forth across the street. He had a collar and looked like he had probably been chained outside and gotten loose. I didn't want to see him wander off and get hurt, so I went out to see if I could coax him into my backyard. However, each time I would go outside, he would disappear into someone's backyard. I had almost given up hope of catching him when I looked outside and saw him standing in the neighbor's front yard with a woman. While my first thought was that maybe he was her dog, I quickly discovered that was not the case.
With her help, I was able to convince him to come hang out in my backyard. He had no ID tags and I had never seen him around the neighborhood, and it was clear that there was no one out looking for him at that point, so I called our friends at Ingham County Animal Control. There was not an officer immediately available to come help and I was nervous about leaving him alone in my backyard while I wasn't home, so I loaded him up in the Jeep and headed to Mason. He was such a sweet boy and gave me kisses all the way there.
Once he was safe and sound at the shelter, I headed back home and got the girls so we could finally head out for our day's adventures. Peaches best bud, Bentley joined us for the fun for the day as well. We once again headed toward Brighton for our first stop of the day-the Brighton State Recreation area. It was warm and sunny and the perfect day to be outside. Just like the day before, this park has both hiking and biking trails, but with three dogs in tow, I decided to avoid the joint use trails and focus on the short hiking loop around Bishop Lake.
With the humidity, it was once again a little slow going with Maddie, but with the lake nearby, we were able to stop at a couple of spots and everyone could get into the water to cool off and maybe even enjoy a swim.
After a few hours there, we were ready to head out and explore our next stop, the Pinckney State Recreation Area. We stopped to have our book stamped at the headquarters and discussed with the nice lady there some of our trail choices. With the knowledge she had provided, I picked a trail that I thought would be perfect. We parked and were off on our hike.
Suddenly, less than a half mile into our hike. Peaches stopped, leaned forward, and then jumped back quickly. I wasn't sure what would make her do that and then I saw it...our newest friend, the snapping turtle. Maddie completely ignored him, however, Peaches and Bentley were in an intense stare-down with him and then begun to bark and lunge. I tried to figure out a way to get around him or get him to move, yet nothing could convince him to move. He had found the perfect little sunny spot in the trail and that is where he was going to stay. While he was small, I was sure that he could still hurt someone and there was no getting passed him with the two crazy barkers, so I made the executive decision to turn around and find a new trail to hike.
We headed in the opposite direction and found a new trail head and had an enjoyable hike the rest of the time we were there.
It was now early evening and we had one more stop to make on our way home, the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail State Park. This is a multi-use linear trail, which means it is open to hikers, bikers, and horses, that has recently been added as a State Park. It follows an old abandoned railroad corridor and it was right on our way home so it just made sense to make a stop.
As I was getting the dogs out of the Jeep, a nice gentleman in the car parked next to us started to ask me about the dogs. He had just finished a 20 mile bike ride along the trail that day and was resting when we arrived. We had a nice conversation about the girls, our goal of visiting all of the Michigan State parks, Maddie and Imke's travels with me to 49 States, and my plans on finishing State 50. We enjoyed our conversation and he wished me luck in completing my travels and with the girls continuing to live life to the fullest.
And then we were off! I knew we'd be lucky to even make it a mile with Maddie at this point, but she was plugging along and seemed to be enjoying the hike. We walked one and a quarter miles and picked up a couple of geocaches along the way and as we reached the Jeep, Maddie headed right for it, ready to go! We had checked three State parks off of our list, but more importantly, we'd had a great day exploring some new places in our beautiful State.
On Tuesday, we spent a quiet morning at home enjoying some time outside, but by mid-day, we were all ready for another adventure. I decided we would head to Albion to do a little hiking on the North Country trail there. This is the closest part of the trail to us and we frequently hike in this area because it is close to home.
On this day, I decided to park in a different area and hike part of the trail that we don't travel as much, just to give the girls a change of pace. After about three-quarters of a mile, we turned and headed back to the Jeep because the heat and humidity were getting to be too much for Maddie. At this point I then drove them over to Victory Park where we could walk along the River and spend some time in the water.
Once we got parked, I allowed them to splash around a bit and then we continued our walk through the park. We turned around to head back toward the Jeep and stopped along the river one more time. It was so peaceful that I decided to sit down and stick my feet in for a bit too. Maddie laid down for a nap as Peaches continued to run around and explore and occasionally jump into the river for a cool down. I really enjoyed this afternoon because we were able to get in a nice 2.2 mile walk and also enjoy some down time together.
Finally, it was time to head home. I could see that the storms were starting to move our way and I wanted to do a little geocaching along our drive home. I found several caches and had a scenic drive down some country dirt roads...I even had a nice old man pull over to make sure that everything was okay when he saw me alone and outside of my parked Jeep on the side of one country road. I couldn't tell him why I was really stopped, but we had a nice conversation...of course he was admiring the girls and mentioned that he had a GSP mix at home. After a brief conversation, we continued on our journey and made it home just as the storms began. It had been another successful day on our staycation.
I really enjoyed all of our adventures close to home, but there was something missing from this vacation, and I couldn't ignore that voice telling me that I needed to head North for some time along Lake Superior. So it was decided-Wednesday we would be heading out for a U.P. Summer adventure. I went to bed Tuesday night packed and ready to head North.
