Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Copper Harbor Lighthouse

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Getting. Old. er.

Am I middle-aged? I guess I have to admit that I am - since I'm now halfway to 106. Yikes! I got my birthday gift (the new laptop) a little early, but Steve gave me a truly beautiful, heartfelt card on my birthday, April 21st. He also surprised me with some doughnuts that morning. We both have a sweet tooth, and he knows I have to cut down (out) on the gluten from now on (insert sad face). Yep, seems I have a gluten intolerance - according to my recent blood tests (insert another sad face and a sigh). Anyway, let's have the doughnuts and go out with a bang, right?

Steve said we could do whatever I wanted to do on my birthday. Go for another ride and visit the new house, of course! So, we headed up Hwy. 41 toward the property. We went beyond "The Last Place on Earth,"

past the snow thermometer,

past the cliffs,

through Phoenix and headed down the road toward our driveway.

We've had more snow since then, but we could see bare ground on our driveway that day.

It's really difficult to take and post a photo that shows the "real" color of our house. It looks too peachy on my laptop and too orange on my tablet. My younger brother said it looked gray on his laptop. The siding looks like a cedar shake shingle, and the color name is "traditional blend." If you want to see the true color, I guess you'll just have to visit us and see it in person.

I couldn't resist daydreaming in the house again.

OK, time to leave - another quick shot of Steve's beloved truck.

It's amazing how the snow depth decreases as we head out of the higher elevations and down toward the shores of Lake Superior. We could see some open water near Eagle Harbor.

We turned left in Eagle Harbor and headed down Hwy. 26 - following the coastline to Eagle River.

We stopped at Jacob's Falls for a quick shot. . .

and hoped for some good deer action in Eagle River. Sure enough!
 
 

Remember, this is one of the locations in the Keweenaw where deer "yard up" for the winter. You can tell they're used to seeing cars and people at this time of year.
 
 
 
 

The deer don't just stay in this one location in Eagle River. They take over the entire town - wandering through the backyards and between the cottages and cabins - eating everything they can reach. You can see how they've stripped everything from the lower branches of the trees.
 
 

Before leaving Eagle River, we stopped to take some pictures of the falls. The water was really flowing - thundering down toward Lake Superior.

Another great thing about living in the Keweenaw? FREE meals on your birthday! Quite a few of the local joints give you a FREE meal on your special day. Just show them your driver's license. If you have a large appetite, you could go to one place for a FREE breakfast, another place for a FREE lunch and another place for a FREE dinner! We had doughnuts for breakfast, so the FREE dinner was just fine - especially since we were going to The Hut. Their portions are very generous. Steve figured he was entitled to a special treat, too, so he had his first burger of 2014.

Since my meal was FREE, I opted for one of the most expensive things on the menu - the rack of ribs. It's the most popular birthday meal at The Hut. Wow! I can see why! The ribs are simply tremendous! Did I mention they were FREE?

I'm sure there's gluten in their BBQ sauce, but we're going out with a bang - remember? After eating a nice salad and the Michigan wild rice, there was no way I could finish the ribs. No problem. I did what everyone else does - brought home a doggie box.

We weren't about to give the meaty ribs to Cocoa, but we did bring home those bones for her. Believe me, she was very happy with the bones!

When we got home that evening, we saw something that made a perfect ending to my day - our first Robin of the year! The light was fading, so the shot quality wasn't good, but it was a Robin. 

SpringIsComing

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Special Sunday Reflections


The best husband in the world gets his special birthday dinner at The Hut tonight! He's having the rack of ribs!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Melting

Sorry I didn't get to this on Saturday, but I got busy with other things.

We drove down to Houghton on Friday - the day after the 19" snowstorm. The sun was shining, so the snow was really melting. Steve was pumping gas, so I grabbed the camera and took a few shots of the parking lot - not the most scenic area of the Keweenaw, of course!

I panned around to my right for a few shots - slightly more scenic.

See that big building up on the hill? That's "The Bluffs" - a senior assisted-living community. The view they have of the hills & valleys surrounding Houghton & Hancock is gorgeous at all times of year. They have duplexes and this large community/apartment complex. I zoomed in for another shot. We decided it wouldn't be a bad place to spend our last few years (if we're not able to live on our own one day).

As long as we were in town and it was getting to be late afternoon, we decided to pick up some fish tacos at Joey's for dinner - yummy! I took the next two photos of the bridge between Houghton and Hancock from the back parking lot of Joey's.

OK, back to Calumet. We dropped off some things we picked up for Mom and went around her block to get back to our house. Here's the snow at the end of Seventh Street.

You might not think that pile of snow on the right side is very big, but here's how it looked out the passenger window of our Traverse when we were next to it.

Now, around the corner and onto Sixth Street. Things were melting well.

And, onto our block of Seventh Street. Notice the white truck in the next photo for perspective.

The village snow removal equipment is kept just down the block from us, but our section of Seventh Street always seems to have the most snow on it.

Back home. Enough snow has melted for us to begin to see things through our living room window again! 

The snow remaining on the driveway after Steve's snow removal work the day before had now melted, too.

Just a bit more on the roof, but the sun took care of that yesterday. Off to do a little running now! I'll bring the camera.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday, April 20, 2014