The transition to Fall

We had a pretty quiet week around here last week with not much to share.  The temperatures got a bit cooler as we moved closer to Fall and we had our first frost of the season over the weekend.  

We started a new trend of taking mid-day walks during the week as a nice break from the work day and we've all been enjoying them.  I think the changing of the seasons has made Peaches a bit restless, I know that the change from Summer to Fall always caused Imke some restless days and nights, and it appears that Peaches may be feeling some of the same things.  She is whiny during the day and anxious in the evening, so I'm hoping these mid-day walks will help  

Maddie is doing well.  The seasons don't seem to effect her in quite the same way, but I will say that she is always ready for an adventure, no matter how small.  I can't even begin to look like I might be leaving the house without her jumping up to follow me, afraid that I may leave her behind if I decide to go somewhere.  Of course with all of her enthusiasm, I can't leave her behind, but our walk slow and not very long.  Although we do have the occasional day when sassy Maddie joins us, normally brought on by the cooler temperatures, and we can get in a little longer walk.  We always enjoy the days she wants to be a real adventure dog and I'm hoping this Fall we see a lot of those days.

As I mentioned earlier, this weekend was a bit cooler and we even got some frost.  I got some final tomatillos and peppers from Vanessa and spent some time Sunday preparing veggies for the freezer.  I also made homemade applesauce which is one of my favorite Fall treats.  I had enough to freeze some for the Winter so I'll be able to enjoy the freshness of the season even when the weather turns frigid.  My tiny little upright freezer in the basement is filling up with all kinds of goodies.  

My garden still has several tomatoes that remain and the weather has warmed up nicely this week, so I'm hoping to be able to get at least one more harvest of vine ripened tomatoes before it cools down next week.  I'm hoping that the frost holds off again until October 1st or 2nd when I plan can pull the plants and find ways to use anything that remains.  It's been a great season in the garden and I'm already looking forward to next year's planting.

We've continued to find some new places to explore and have also continued to walk in some of our favorite new places.  The girls and I have really enjoyed some nice walks in nature recently, but let me tell you, I am done with burrs!  Everywhere we go, at least one of us, and generally all of us, come home with burrs on us.  Peaches is worst of all though!  Even when I think that I've gotten them all off, I'm still finding them on furniture and clothing...even in my hair.  So I'm definitely ready for burr season to end!  But those pesky little things aren't going to stop us from our walks.

Michigan Trails week started on Sunday and we joined the Michigan Trails Week challenge offered by the DNR.  Michiganders are being challenged to track miles hiked, biked, rowed, or ridden on horse back on non-motorized trails in Michigan and all local, state, and federally managed trails in the state count.  The goal is to collectively travel 100,000 miles during the week and we are going to do our part to help reach that goal.  

My goal moving forward is to try to walk 4-5 miles per day, at least 5 days per week, doing one walk with Peaches and a second walk with Peaches and Maddie together.  We all need to get out and keep moving and this will be a great goal to keep us doing just that!  While it should be easy while the weather is nice, I'm hoping I can keep it up even when Winter arrives so we can stay active and happy through the long days of that season.

I'm excited to see what fun new places we can visit locally this week during our Trails Week challenge and through the rest of this month.  It's going to be nice weather and a great time to explore Michigan in the early Fall.  Hope you get out to enjoy it too!  

Six Months

This week marks 6 months since I started my journey with working from home and all of the changes brought about by the pandemic.  It is crazy to think that we've been living through this for half a year.  And while there have definitely been some tough moments and some adjustments, I have felt very fortunate to be able to continue working through everything and I am thankful that I have been able to find ways to explore places close home with the girls to keep us happy and healthy.

Early last week we took a nice walk around Fenner Nature Center.  This has become one of our favorite places to visit for a walk over the last 6 months.  We walk there at least once or twice each week now.  While we were strolling across the grasslands trail, I realized that we have watched the seasons change and the progression of the flowers, grasses, and trees throughout this year.  

It seems like the trees were just beginning to show their new leaves and the now empty raspberry bushes were just full of berries.  The flowers now have turned to those of  the late Summer and the leaves are just starting to show a bit of color as they prepare for their long Winter's rest.  

I'm so glad we were able to find a place like this that we have been able to enjoy so much through these strange times.  The way the girls get excited as we drive into the parking lot, I know that they enjoy visiting as much as I do.  I am looking forward to our visits throughout the Fall and into the Winter and watching the continued changes in this new familiar place.  It's so nice to have such a wonderful place so close to home.

While we have really enjoyed our new favorite place locally, it has also been fun to get out and try to find more new places to visit.  It seems that any time we visit a place that Peaches had never been before, all of the new smells make our walk even better for her.  So while walking with Maddie requires us to walk a little slower, Peaches is happy to busily sniff and sniff along the way.   We always end these walks with two happy and tired girls.  

I've been trying to find one new place nearby for us to visit every week.  Last week, after doing a little searching, I thought I had found the perfect little park for a visit, and we headed off toward Potterville to spend some time at Fox Memorial Park.  Unfortunately, after arriving at the Park, I discovered that it is not dog-friendly, so we had to quickly adjust our plans.   I decided instead of trying to find another park, we would just find a spot to park and spend some time walking around the town of Potterville.

While it is a tiny little town with a very small downtown area and not much to see, the girls really enjoyed walking around town.  And before we left, I had to make sure that we made a stop for a couple of pictures in front of Joe's Gizzard City, the one claim to fame of Potterville.  It had been a nice change of pace from walking around our neighborhood.  We always love new places!

On Saturday we were excited to make a visit to our friends Tom, Barb, and Sherman.  It has been so long since we had seen them and it was definitely time for Sherman and Peaches to have a playdate!  I had been looking forward to this visit.

These silly dogs played chase and explored and had a grand time.  I love watching Sherman and Peaches run around chasing each other.

Maddie enjoyed sniffing and wandering around the yard.  While she can't keep up with the youngsters, she was still one happy camper!

Peaches and Sherman also enjoyed hunting the chipmunk in the tree as well as any other critters that moved.  Peaches spent a large part of the day sitting in that same spot in the corner, even when the rain began to fall.   We enjoyed a nice lunch and Maddie napped on the patio with us.  Sherman was happy to join us on the patio too, but Peaches was content to sit in the corner.  It was a nice visit and we hope that we can see them again before the weather turns cold.  

Before leaving Lowell, we made a quick stop for a stroll on the Riverwalk, which is part of the North Country trail, because we hadn't been there in so long.  We weren't there long, but it was a nice stroll, and once we were back in the Jeep the girls slept the rest of the way home.

We had a relaxing and quiet Sunday morning at home after our busy week.  Sunday afternoon, we took a drive to get some garden goodies from Vanessa and were thankful that Katelyn had left us a couple dozen fresh eggs from their chickens.  It's awesome having friends that have a bounty to share.  I also spent time in the garden picking tomatoes-over 125 more roma tomatoes along with 6 slicing tomatoes, and 4 heirloom, as well as a bunch of grape and pear tomatoes-and prepping some of the garden goodies for freezing and other uses, and then preparing dinner with fresh from the garden veggies.  I have really enjoyed all of the garden bounty this year and will really miss having fresh vegetables with my dinner every night.  But I am excited for the plentiful goodies that I have prepared so that I can enjoy my garden all Winter long.  

It was a long week, made even longer by the cooler temperatures, gray skies, and rain, but I am hoping that we have some sunny days ahead.  We are in our last full week of Summer and we plan to enjoy what remains.  We also have some fun plans for the upcoming weeks as we enter Fall.  I'm hoping to make the most of the next 6 weeks before we reach November and the long Winter ahead.  I look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you.  

Until next week, I hope you make the most of every day!

Weekend Fun with Friends

Tonight I am writing from the patio as we enjoy a really beautiful Monday evening outdoors after a wonderful long weekend of fun and time with friends.  It's hard to believe it's been a whole week since we said goodbye to August and entered our first week of September.  We are quickly inching our way closer and closer to Fall.  And I am always sad to see Summer go.  It won't be long before the garden bounty dries up, the temperatures cool down considerably, and we won't have as many opportunities to enjoy an evening outside like tonight.  So we are making the most of it now.

This week the temperatures were already cooler and the night comes sooner with an earlier sunset.  Over the next week we won't even get out of the low 70s with a couple of days only reaching the mid-60s.  In some ways the cooler temperatures are good because they are better for Maddie and we can take some slightly longer walks or have a few more weekend adventures, but I know we will all miss the Summer days and the fun we've had.

This week we've gotten out every night for a nice walk in some of our favorite new parks in the area, many of them I only discovered this year due to Covid and our need to stay closer to home.  The girls have also been in rare form when it comes to begging for my dinner, which is not something that they do often when we're at home.  Must be something in the air.

Maddie has been extra snuggly this week.  Maybe she is sensing that the cooler Fall nights are coming and she is preparing for the long Winter ahead.  While I enjoy having my space, I have also really enjoyed these nightly snuggle sessions as the days are shorter and we're spending a little more time inside each night.  I know when the weather turns cold, my favorite little personal heater will never be far from my side, and I do enjoy those quiet evenings with her resting her head in my lap.

As the weekend arrived, we looked forward to getting out more to enjoy what remains of our Summer.  Friday night we headed to Crego Park and I allowed Maddie to choose our path for our walk.  She headed off in the direction of the Lansing Riverwalk and off we went.  Both Crego Park and the Riverwalk were busy with families out enjoying the evening and lots of bikers zooming by us.  I had never seen this section of the trail this busy, but it seems that everything is busier in our new Covid world.  

We were greeted by many children along our walk and enjoyed some beautiful views as we walked along.  It was a great night for a walk.  Since Maddie's walks are generally short, we didn't go far before turning and heading back toward Crego Park for a walk along the water.

The girls made friends with a nice man who shared some chicken which was leftover from his family's picnic there and I didn't think I was going to be able to convince Maddie to leave.  Share a snack with Maddie and she'll be your friend for life!  After a short walk around the park, we headed back to the Jeep to head home for the evening  It was a nice start to our weekend.

On Saturday,  we headed out for another nature walk, this time at the Williamstown Township Park.  This is on the opposite side of town from us, so we have only been to the park a couple of times.  I thought it would be a nice change of pace for the girls to be able to explore a different area.  

The late Summer flowers and moody skies were a sure sign of September, but the temperatures were perfect and we enjoyed exploring some new trails in this area.  While we did see a few other people while were were out and about, it was pretty quiet here and it was a great way to spend the earlier afternoon.

I spent the rest of the afternoon prepping veggies from the garden for the freezer and making some roasted tomatoes and pasta sauces so I can enjoy my garden bounty all Winter long.  I am really enjoying filling my freezer full of Summer goodness for the depths of Winter.

Saturday also brought us the Kentucky Derby, which is always an exciting time at our house.  I ordered some pizza and Peaches donned a hat-and I know it's not a fancy hat, but that's okay- and we prepared to watch the Run for the Roses.  So weird for it to not be in May, but everything has been a little weird this year.  

Sunday I was excited to get together with a group of friends for a fun little outing locally.  Emmalee is a med student at Northwestern University in Chicago and Katelyn and Sean are new parents, so it's been awhile since we've all been able to get together.  Things worked out perfectly with Emmalee home for a short vacation, so we planned to meet at Anderson Park.  Peaches and Maddie were so excited to see Emmalee and to make a new friend, since her boyfriend, Casey, joined us.  They were also pretty excited to meet baby Arlo, who had his first adventure with us.  With me leading the way with Peaches and Vanessa following behind with Maddie, we took a slow stroll through the woods, enjoying time with our friends.  We hadn't all been together since Sean and Katelyn wedding in April of 2019, so it was great to get us all together again.  I meant to get a group picture, but totally forgot in all of the excitement, but at least Vanessa got one out on our walk.  We are really hoping that Sean, Katelyn, and Arlo will be able to join us for some more adventures close to home this Fall.  It was so nice to have all of our friends together.

After our walk and lunch, we headed home with some extra veggies from Vanessa's garden and spent some time prepping them for the freezer too.  Maddie and Peaches were especially excited about the green pepper that they got to enjoy.  They love their veggies!

Taking advantage of our extra long weekend, this morning we continued our journey of visiting the most beautiful spot and finding a geocache in each county in Michigan.  We were happy that Vanessa could join us for our Labor Day adventures.

Our first stop of the day was Jackson County and the Sparks Foundation County Park, home of Cascade Falls.  The falls include a light show and the show happens most nights from Memorial Day to Labor Day, but the show doesn't happen until after dark, so we weren't able to see that, but we did get out to explore the park.

After being slightly less than impressed upon first arrival, we discovered that the park was rather large and actually had some pretty, more natural areas.  We enjoyed a nice walk around and got some pretty pictures of this bridge, which I really liked.

Peaches enjoyed the number of squirrels that were scurrying around for her to stalk and overall we enjoyed our stop here.  But after a short time, we were back in the car to head to Washtenaw County and the Nichols Arboretum of U of M in Ann Arbor.   

The picture above pretty much sums up Peaches' day at the Arboretum.  She thought it was great, and once again found plenty of squirrels for stalking.  

There are tons of trails throughout the Arb, many well-traveled, and some much less traveled, and we took a good mixture of both.  I enjoyed our walk around and the beauty of nature right in the heart of town.  

After we finished our walk around, I made the girls stop for a picture at the entrance, and surprisingly, they both looked at me!  These happy faces sum up the way we felt about our time here.  While we only added two new county's most beautiful places to our list of visits today, it was nice to get out for a short adventure not far from home.  If you like nature and are in Ann Arbor, I'd definitely recommend a visit to the Arb.

On the way home, we avoided the expressway and, instead, took the backroads home.  This allowed us to stop for ice cream in Chelsea and to make some quick stops along the way for a little more geocaching.  The last park we visited, we were the only ones there, so I let Peaches run free and Maddie to plod along behind us unleashed as well.  It was a nice little park and we found three geocaches, but by the end Maddie was ready to head home!

We had a great weekend of fun with friends and are looking forward to a short work-week and some more fun with friends next weekend too!  I hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day and have a wonderful week!

Michigan's West Coast

After spending our Tuesday on the East side of the State, we made plans to visit the West coast on Wednesday.  I love spending time on the shores of Lake Michigan and there are so many beautiful places along the coast to visit.  Our plans for the day were to visit both some new places as well as some old familiar areas.  Vanessa joined us again and we're always glad when she does.  

Once again we were on the road before 9am headed toward our first stop in Muskegon.  While Maddie and I have been to Muskegon before, our first stop was the Muskegon State Park, which was a new spot for all of us.  Not only was this a visit to a State Park we had never visited, this was also listed as the most beautiful spot in Muskegon County...so I was doubly excited to visit.

We arrived at the Park, drove as far as we could to a parking lot along the shore and headed out for a walk along the pier to the Lake.  Maddie was pretty happy to get to the water for a big drink.  Peaches was busily sniffing and exploring the whole area.

The sun was shining and the temperature was rising, but it was still comfortable when we arrived and life is just better when there is a Great Lake near by and we were excited for the day ahead.  

After our walk along the pier, we headed back toward the Jeep to explore the park more.  We drove through the park, got my State park book stamped, did a little more exploring, found a geocache and then were back in the Jeep to head out to our next stop.  I can certainly understand why this would be considered the most beautiful spot in the county.  The Lake views and wooded areas were both beautiful. 

It was peaceful and uncrowded while we were there and we all enjoyed our time at the Park.  But Maddie was ready for a break, so after a quick stop to take a picture at the State Park sign, we started the slow, meandering 30 minute drive toward the dog beach. 

       

I was anxiously anticipating our arrival at the dog beach at Kruse Park in North Muskegon.  It is one of the few off-leash dog beaches in the lower Peninsula and has been a favorite location of ours for many years.  I have many special memories here with Jake and Imke, and this was the first beach Maddie ever visited with me 10 years ago.  I remember that trip well and just how terrified she was of the waves.  While she's still not a big fan of waves and has never been a swimmer, she has come a long way and is always excited when we get near the water.  We hadn't been here in a few years, and this was going to be Peaches first visit.  I was excited to make some new memories with them both.

Due to the high water levels in the Great Lakes, we weren't able to park in my normal parking spot at the far end of the beach, and instead had to park in the parking lot for the Park itself.  I was disappointed to see that the boardwalk and steps down to the beach were in disrepair and that we had to pay to park now, but we found the least difficult route we could to climb down the dunes so we could get to the water.

As we reached the bottom of the dune, we were greeted by some pretty happy dogs and I immediately dropped Peaches leash to ensure a pleasant experience for everyone.  She was immediately best friends with these new buddies.  I had a brief moment of panic realizing that Peaches had never been to the dog beach or spent any significant time off leash in new areas...so I wasn't 100% sure how well she would listen and how she would act.  But she did amazing!  She came when called even mid-chase with the other dogs and stayed close by when I asked her to do that.  She absolutely loved running on the beach and making new friends and I know now that we can go back and I don't have to worry at all about her.  I really look forward to taking her there again.  

Maddie was happy to be on the beach too and just enjoyed lying in the sand, sitting with Vanessa, and soaking in the sun.  Definitely a different experience than I 've had with her here, but I was just glad to see she was happy.  After some fun at the beach(and meeting an adorable GSP puppy!), it was time for us to continue on our journey along the coast, so up the dunes we went and loaded up the Jeep to head toward our next stop.  

Our next stop was the PJ Hoffmaster State Park.  I have been here several years ago, but since it was right along our travels, we made a quick stop to do a short hike, find a geocache, get my book stamped, and use the restrooms before getting a quick shot at the State Park sign and then continuing on our way toward Grand Haven.

By the time we reached Grand Haven it was late afternoon and Vanessa and I were definitely ready for lunch.  Luckily we drove past Arturo's Tacos on our way toward the beach and both of us love tacos.  So we ran in and picked up lunch to go and headed toward the beach to eat.

The Grand Haven State Park is not a place I ever want to spend much time.  The camping area is always packed and is a treeless cement slab in the middle of the beach.  The rest of the park is a crowded beach.  If the weather is nice, this beach is full of people and is just not a place I love to visit.  We sat in the parking lot in the air conditioned comfort of my Jeep with a view of the beach and that was enough exploring there for us!  But we needed to visit the park so we could get our picture at the sign, and we were successful in doing just that.

I am always amazed at the difference in the number of people at the Grand Haven City beach, less than a mile down from the State Park.  This is definitely more my kind of beach!

We left Grand Haven heading toward Connor Bayou, one of the many dog-friendly Ottawa county parks.  While the most beautiful spot in Ottawa County is listed as Rosy Mounds park, that location is not dog friendly, and so I decided we'd find an alternate location where we could take the dogs.   I was not disappointed.

Ottawa County actually has a lot of really dog friendly options, but this particular location right along the Grand River was amazing and beautiful.  We checked out the hiking trails and the kayak launch for some good views of the river and really enjoyed our time here.  This is definitely an area I would return to explore more.  The humidity and heat were both high, but Maddie still did a great job keeping up with us for a good amount of exploring.  Plus we found one of the coolest geocaches I have ever found!  Overall it had been a very successful day of adventures.

On our way home, we made a quick stop at Lookout Park in Grand Rapids, which is listed as the most beautiful spot in Kent County.  It is a small park with city views and a group yoga class was going on at the park when we arrived.  We made a quick walk around the park so we could check it off our list, and then we were back in the Jeep to head home.

But we had to make one more detour for a stop in Lowell for an ice cream party to celebrate Vanessa's birthday which had been earlier in the week.  It was a great excuse to try a new ice cream place and we weren't disappointed!

We had officially finished our day full of adventure after a long and busy day, and a great time was had by all!  While this was our last big adventure of my vacation week, we were glad to have made the trip and can't wait until we can get back on the road for more fun lake adventures again!