We had some bad weather Saturday night, with rain blowing sideways for a time. I was sure that my tent, up in the backyard, would be flooded but it wasn’t. There was, however, a tornado that touched down not many miles from us during the storm, and a tree across the street from us split, falling across the road and into our yard.
What did make me smile was a couple hours of paddling on a lake with one of my college roommates. We don’t see each other very often, but it’s always a good time when we do.
We caught up with each other’s lives, her kids, my dog.
And we enjoyed a sweet after the storm breeze, bright blue skies and sunshine as we floated across the water.
You just can’t beat being on the water for giving yourself a pick-me-up.
So that’s my smile for this week. What made you smile?
The county fair is back. The fairground is in my tiny town, a little over a mile from the house. When Katie and I camp in the backyard during fair week we can hear the monster trucks, the announcer, the fireworks, the roar of the crowd.
What do you think is the best part about a fair…the food? Or the rides?
The noise doesn’t bother me, it’s only for one week and it’s the epitome of summer in the midwest. I have so many memories of the county fair, not this one, but the one we used to go to when we were kids.
Food? Or rides?
Which pretty much is exactly like the one I wandered this week. Big barns full of rabbits, goats, chickens, cows, and sheep waiting with their young person for their turn in the ring to be judged. Another barn full of sewing, knitting, canning, flower arrangements, and artwork, each a project of some young person, some with ribbons already attached.
Maybe the best thing is the games, though nobody really wins anything. Do they?
I was a 4-H kid in the 60s. I knit, mostly because I hated sewing which seemed to be my other option. Each year I entered a misshappen sweater at the fair. I think sometimes I won a ribbon, but I don’t remember.
The excitment that only the young can experience on these things.
I also don’t remember riding the midway rides, though I’m sure we did. We probably had some number of rides budgeted. We sure didn’t have free reign to ride as many and as often as we wanted.
I bet their hearts were beating fast while they swung in the darkness.
This year I noticed that there were bracelets available that let you into everything at the fair. All the rides, the shows, and who knows what else. They were $25.00 each.
How many funnel cakes can you buy with $25?
I don’t think I’d be able to ride enough to make that purchase worthwhile. Not without throwing up at least once. And there’s no way my folks would have sprung for a wrist band, even if there had been such a thing back then, for all four of us kids.
The Sizzler sizzled into the night.
Nope, I’m sure we could pick out one ride that we wanted to do and that was probably it.
Maybe the best part of a fair is just spending time with your friends.
But I do remember a booth where you could drop paint onto a spinning canvas, then you got to take your creation home. I had that painting for years. That was probably 50 years ago and it’s the most vivid memory I have of the county fair growing up. It still makes me smile.
I think I could ride this one.
We don’t go to the county fair every year these days, even though it is right in our town. And of course last year there was no fair.
Or maybe not.
So it’s been a long time since I’ve gone. But this year it seemed like a celebration of the return of something fundamental, and I looked forward to going back for a walk around.
There’s no calories in cotten candy. Right?
Wednesday evening turned out to be the moment, and I arrived just as the sun was going down on a hot afternoon.
This ride might be safe for me.
Most of the families with little kids looked exhausted. Many of them were leaving, but the young people were just arriving. I was there to mess around with the camera once it got dark and the midway lit up.
At least you could get your vegetables.
It’s not a big fair, it takes only minutes to see everything. But with each round I made I saw different images. I should have had a tripod, but I didn’t want to haul anything extra.
Ride this one before you eat any of the fair food.
All of these shots were handheld, most of the time letting the camera choose the ISO. Sometimes I delibertaly made the exposure longer to blur the lights. That was the most fun, just to see what came through.
Add the moon and it was a pretty special night.
Mostly I was there to have some fun, just like all the rest of the folks standing in lines for rides and food. It’s just my idea of fun involves more about the camera and less hanging upside down from a midway attraction.
Round and around they go.
But if I was 50 years younger I might just have tried those flying swings. I think even my stomach could have handled that.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve captured quite a lot of goings on in my backyard.
My husband gets all the attention, but I’m more beautiful if you take the time to look.
These are the kinds of things I never got to watch when I was going to work every day.
I should take some of this back to the missus.
The kinds of things I always imagined were going on and wished I could wittness for myself.
This place has the best drinks.
So I’m feeling quite lucky that I’m around to enjoy the fun stuff happening right outside my windows.
I swear this kid eats like a horse.
I hope you feel lucky to see it all too.
It can stop raining any time now.
In fact, I don’t have more words to fill the spaces, so I’ll just pile on the images.
Pink brings out my feminine side.
I’m sure you won’t mind.
Do you think this peanut is too big for my mouth?
Enjoy.
I’m just a kid, can someone tell me where the best diners are?No tree is going to outshine my colors!My preferred food does not appear to be in the feeder lady!You’re going to fix that – – right?Well if I’m going to be ignored I’ll just turn my back on you… you’re watching, right?A mother’s work is never done.Doing my pilates.I’m ready for my post-workout massage now.
I hope you are grinning now. I do every day, there’s always something going on out there.
Sometimes I’ll read a blog post I wrote and then note at the bottom the links to similar posts, and I’ll click on one and read the post and then pick another link at the bottom and click on that and read and so on and so on…and time moves on and the next thing you know I’ve spent an hour or more back in time remembering.
Whitefish Bay
Such a thing happened to me today, and eventually I wound up in 2014 celebrating my 1500th blog post. I read that relatively short entry and thought how much life has changed from 2014, but how much my life is the same today too.
I enjoy blogging because it connects me to all of you, plus I have an excuse to take pictures. But I also like that it’s a history of my life. I’ve often wondered when we did something, or what happened during a particular trip, and all I have to do is go check the blog.
The mouth of the Hurricane River
I guess it’s something of a public diary.
Anyway, today I checked to see how many blog posts I’ve written, but I can’t find that statistic. Seems there’s much more about how many people are clicking on your blog than anything about what you’ve done. I’m sure it’s in there somewhere. But if I had 1500 posts in 2014 I imagine the number is double that now.
On the shores of Sable Lake
Regardless…it sure was fun bopping around in the past. You should try it on your own blogs. I think you’ll end up smiling at the memories you have stored there.
As I headed home she wished me safe travels
PS: The images here are random things I shot on my camping trip. They didn’t make it into a blog post, but I thought they deserved to be seen.
I’m starting to feel repetitive here. All three of these lighthouses have appeared in this blog in years past. Still, lighthouses are irresistible, so maybe you won’t mind seeing them again. I didn’t mind visiting them again myself.
I was exploring the northern edge of the Upper Peninsualia, when I noticed a sign for Point Iroquois Light, and I remembered visiting it a few years ago.
A beautiful building.
During all the years I lived in the UP I never knew about this lighthouse. But it’s a special one, on a beautiful piece of land with a great view of Canada.
Canadian windmills across the way.
When we were here before it was open and we climbed the tower. This year covid has it closed, but I still enjoyed walking around the grounds. I was taking a picture of the lilac bushes along the front of the lighthouse when I realized there were butterflies everywhere.
Do you see them in this image?
So now you’ll have to indulge me while I show you some of those.
Hold still for a moment!
I spent a long time circling this lilac bush, trying to get a good shot of both types of butterflies.
I love the colors on the underside of this guy’s wings.
They didn’t stay still long, especially, it seemed, never stopping long in the sunlight.
Did you know the body of the monarch is spotted? I didn’t until just a couple weeks ago!
But it was so much fun to try. And in the end I got a few shots that I liked.
What a spectacularly beautiful day.
During this trip I camped at two locations, the first on the Straights, and the second at the mouth of the Hurricane River, where it empties into Lake Superior.
My site tucked into the trees. This was a beautiful, but rustic, campground.
This campground has a lighthouse too. You walk a mile and a half up a beautiful, wide, mostly level path above the shore of Lake Superior, out to the point where the lighthouse sits.
It’s a really pretty walk, though 1.5 miles starts to feel like a long way if you’re carrying all your photography gear.
My goal, when I made the reservation for this campground, was to do some night photography with the lighthouse in the foreground. It was a good plan.
Some of the coast here is rocky. All of it is beautiful.
I walked out there late in the afternoon one day. No one was out there, covid had this lighthouse closed too, so no park rangers were around.
Almost there!
No tourists either as the wind was picking up and another storm was on the way.
Au Sable Light Station, a beautiful compound.
It was kind of nice to have the place to myself.
I loved the colors of the brown ferns in the late afternoon light, with the red brick outbuilding.
On the other hand, it was still a couple of hours until the sun set, and a few more hours after that until it got really dark.
And I loved these sweet daisys with this building down near the water.
I started to feel uncomfortable with the thought of walking back down the path in the dark by myself. Plus there were no open restrooms out there.
The weather was changing.
So I reluctantly gave up on the idea of staying there until the stars came out. But I haven’t given it up totally. I plan to go back but bring someone with me so I’m not out there all alone!
The view from up there is stunning!
In the end it was good I headed back when I did. That evening the thunder began far off and quickly advanced until it was overhead. We ended up having 7 hours of pouring rain, lightening and thunder. I listened to it all from my cozy tent, glad I wasn’t running back through the dark and rain from the point!
As I listened to the pouring rain that night I thought about this open window in the tower. Bet no one closed it before the storm.
My last lighthouse is out at Whitefish Point. It’s a totally different sort of lighthouse from the other two.
This is the image everyone gets from the parking lot. It was starting to rain when I grabbed it.
And the beach there is totally different too.
Filled with huge fallen trees turned driftwood, tossed about by Lake Superior, it’s certainly not a swimmer’s paradise.
I had grand plans of trying to get the Milky Way behind the lighthouse. Or at least some stars.
Would have been cool with the Milky Way behind it.
It was sunny and 85 degrees when I left to drive up to Whitefish Point. When I arrived it was 58, windy and thunder was just off to the west. Another plan foiled.
And then the storm arrived.
So there you have it. Three lighthouses along the south shore of Lake Superior. Worth the trip even if I didn’t capture what I set out to get. I guess that’s the fun (and frustration) of photography.
There’s always next year. You won’t mind seeing them again, right?
