No, it’s not that I lost my slippers. Or that I need to buy some slippers, though some winter mornings I wish I had.

No, this week I was lucky enough to be invited along on an adventure with a college friend and her mom in search of Showy Lady Slipper plants.

We drove over to central Michigan, kind of north of Grand Rapids, to Pierce Cedar Creek Nature Center where my friend’s mom had seen the lady slippers in previous years. And sure enough, she was soon grinning from ear to ear.

These are taller than the yellow lady slippers I’ve seen in the Upper Peninsula, and such a beautiful shade of pink. Definitely worth the drive.

In fact the whole boardwalk area was worth the drive, a wetland filled with blue flag iris and wild roses.

And if you looked close you’d find a bit of red too.

After we were finished photographing the lady slippers and were headed back to the car my friend’s mom saw an oriole dive down into the reeds.

Of course we didn’t believe her, told her it was probably the yellow warbler that we’d been hearing.

But darned if she wasn’t right. As we discussed the possibility of an oriole diving it flew up into a dead tree, sopping wet, and proceeded to pose for us as it preened it’s feathers.

We watched it until it finally flew off. Lesson learned – moms know stuff.

Then, as we continued back to the car we heard a yellowthroat singing away. Eventually we found it, hopping up and down the branches of a half dead tree.

It was hard to get a good look because it never stood still, but we did catch a glimpse of it’s cool black mask.

Man, seeing those two birds (and a whole lot of robins trying to get some attention too) sure made the day extra special. And to top it off we stopped at a dairy farm ice cream store!

I got lavender honey. It was amazing.

What a wonderful way to end the day, sitting at a picnic table eating ice-cream and watching the clouds (and cars) go by.

Oh…and on the way home there was a barn.

Yep. Can’t beat a road trip in Michigan with friends. I recommend it highly.