An End of Summer Hurrah

Hello friends and happy September 21st.  Sadly, we have reached the last full day of Summer for 2021. This year the Autumnal Equinox, and official start of Fall, occurs at 3:20pm ET on September 22 so by this time tomorrow it will officially be Fall.  While I am always sad to see the end of Summer, we really made the most of our Summer this year almost until the very last minute.  The weather has been beautiful and I haven't yet had to switch from shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops to pants and jackets, but I can definitely feel Fall in the air today.  But while the weather was still sunny and warm during the last few days, we got out to enjoy it!  

Peaches and Maddie have been enjoying our adventures both big and small.  Even just the trip to the vet for Maddie's laser therapy is a reason to smile.  They get to see friends so that always makes for a good day.  Any reason for a ride in the car makes them both pretty happy.

While we had a some stormy weather to start our week and weren't able to get out much, by Thursday things had cleared up and we finally had the chance to get out for a bit more of any adventure.  So for the first time since the students returned to Campus earlier this month, we made a trip to campus on a weekday and, honestly, I was completely shocked at the number of people on campus!  It's been 18 months since campus was so busy with students and I had forgotten exactly what it was like with them all here.  

While a portion of our walk on a busy portion of campus where the girls got some attention from strangers and I got a lot of comments about how cute and well behaved they were, I was also happy to find some quieter areas for our walk.  I was really a bit overwhelmed by all of the people!   But I know the girls enjoyed themselves.    I'm sure we'll do more walks on campus throughout the Fall, but it's definitely going to take me some time to adjust to the return to a somewhat more normal campus.    I sure am going to miss our quiet and uninterrupted walks.  At least it's still pretty.

On Saturday, we started our day pretty slowly.  Maddie and I stayed in bed longer than we would normally and we enjoyed a little snuggle time, but I didn't want to waste the day, so eventually we got up and headed outside to enjoy our final weekend of the Summer.  

The garden is still providing some veggies and I had to get out and do some work to make the most of my harvest.  I got a really good broccoli harvest, probably one of the best of the year, along with a little celery, lots of pear tomatoes, a some San Marzano and Roma tomatoes too.  I still have a few Roma left to pick, but the tomato harvest this year was not as good as last year, so after one or two more pickings, they will be done.  I am hopeful that the broccoli will continue for a bit with the cooler weather and I've even got some more zucchini growing unexpectedly.  And I have to keep reminding myself that October is only 10 days away and I'm guessing in the next three weeks all of my veggies will be harvested and the garden cleaned up and ready for next year's planting.  But I will have a freezer full of goodies to enjoy throughout the dark Winter months.

After our time outside, I came in to clean up and start lunch, but Peaches had other ideas.  She always seems to have some extra energy to burn and was ready to go!  So after a couple of rounds of fetch with her new toy, I decided an afternoon adventure was in order.

We loaded up the car and the girls were ready to go!  They definitely knew an adventure was coming.  

We made the drive about 25 minutes South to the small town of Leslie to do a little geocaching, get in a walk, and see a new area.  We didn't have a lot of luck with our geocaching attempts, but we did get in a pretty nice walk around town and even picked up dinner at a local restaurant before leaving town.  

And we did finally find a couple of geocaches to help keep my streak alive as I continue to work on geocaching for 365 days in a row.  As of today we have completed 291 days with only 74 to go until we reach 365 days.  It's been challenging and fun and I'm excited that I've been able to keep the streak going.  But it will also be nice to be done!

Sunday we had one final big Summer adventure to take.  We were up and out the door shortly after 9am to meet Vanessa and make the drive Southeast to the bottom of the Thumb.  Our first stop, Palmer Park in St. Clair.  We enjoyed our visit to this area so much earlier this Summer that we decided to head back and see even more.  While we didn't see many freighters, we did see a few throughout the day.  It's always impressive to see them so close.

After a walk through Palmer Park and a little geocaching along the way as we drove South down M29, we reached Marine City.  We decided to check out this quaint little town and it did not disappoint.  

Maddie was enjoying being close to the water, Peaches was loving all the squirrels, and Vanessa and I both enjoyed our walk through town.  There are lots of cute little stores and restaurants and plenty of places to satisfy a sweet tooth.  

What I liked most about town were all of the cute parks along the river.  They were beautiful and included lots of information about the history of the area.  And the views were pretty nice too.  After a nice walk through town we had to stop for ice cream before we continued our journey South.

We made a stop at the Algonac State Park to take a walk and do a little geocaching and we made a quick stop at the Algonac Boardwalk for a little history lesson and geocaching as well.

Finally, we made it to New Baltimore and Michigan's tallest flagpole.  We got the girls out to explore the area and to get a picture because I couldn't miss that opportunity!  We also had one mission to complete in the area and that was to find a geocache in the area so that we could get our first geocache in Macomb County.  Over the last 18-24 months we have been working on finding a geocache in each Michigan county and Macomb was one we still needed.  

While we didn't find the initial geocache we went to find, we did run into a couple of other geocachers and had a nice conversation with them while we all looked for that darn cache.   We finally gave up and made the short walk to find a different cache nearby with our new caching friends.  I'm happy to report that we made that find and officially have found a cache in 81 of the 83 Michigan counties.  Only 2 to go!! 

It had been a wonderful day of geocaching, walking the girls, and sightseeing, but the day was coming to an end and we made a very quiet drive home while the girls happily slept all the way.  What a wonderful way to spend our final Sunday of Summer!

The girls weekend adventures made for a pretty quiet Monday at home which was good since we had rain in the evening and couldn't get out for much fun.

With the forecast calling for rain most of the day today and for the next two days, I made a point of getting the girls outside for some fresh air this morning while I worked from the patio.  It was gray and cloudy, but still comfortably in the low 70s.  Before the rain moved in, we also went for a drive on my lunch to make sure we could find our daily geocache.  Otherwise it's been a pretty uneventful final day of Summer.

Cooler temperatures and more rain move in tonight and we won't get out of the 50s the next two days so it will be slow around here for a couple of days, but thankfully the 70s return in time for some Fall weekend fun.  The changing seasons certainly aren't going to keep us from having fun and we have some great adventures to share over the coming weeks.  

As the Summer comes to an end and I reflect on the last few months, I feel blessed to still have both of my girls here adventuring with me.  Had you told me last Summer, or even just a few months ago, that Maddie would still be here with us and going on adventures still, I wouldn't have believed you.  But here we are and I am thankful for all of the memories we've been able to make together so far this year.  Our adventures have definitely been different.  There are more challenges and they have had to be modified to work with Maddie's limitations, but I'm so glad that we've been able to continue to have fun together.  My adventure dog is still adventuring and that really is all that matters.  After all, what's life without adventures?