Out of the Garage

A better title:  Who let the Vette out?

Steve did!

We took a nice drive before sunset on Saturday evening.

Ahhhhh!

Lake Superior was quite calm.

I took this next shot on the way home. Can you see the lake in the background?

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

After Shopping

OK, maybe going to Walmart isn't that exciting. Still. . . I always try to take my camera along whenever we hop in the vehicle. . . just in case I see something. I know I've shown you the Walmart parking lot in previous posts, but I don't think I've shown you many views of the area where the Houghton Walmart is located. So, here we go.

When we're tuckered out from shopping, we stop at this intersection to leave the Walmart parking lot.

Not a bad view before making a left turn, huh? (By the way, I blurred out the license plate on that Lincoln.) We hang a left and then a quick right to head down the main drag in the newest part of Houghton - the shopping/fast food district.

This is the section of town where we have Tractor Supply, Shopko (similar to Walmart without the grocery), Dollar Tree, Culver's, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and Applebee's. Plus, we can't forget about Dunham's Sports and JCPenney at our sparsely populated mall. 

We're now leaving the area and heading back toward downtown Houghton. The buildings you see off in the distance are actually in Hancock (on the other side of da bridge).

As we make the curve, you can see the Portage Lift Bridge that separates Houghton and Hancock.

We weren't quite ready to cross the bridge yet. Steve said making an afternoon trip to Walmart justifies a stop at Joey's to grab some takeout - fish tacos for dinner. Steve ran in to pick up our order, and I took 2 photos from the parking lot.

Yes, it is very close to the bridge. Many of the side streets in this part of Houghton are steep.

Now, back across the bridge to get to the Hancock side.

We must have been talking a lot between Hancock and Calumet, because I didn't take any pictures until we were back in our driveway!

I didn't spend much on flowers this year, but I finally painted my little $2 garage sale chair with a $2 can of el-cheapo red spray paint. The cane seat was broken, but I bought it to hold a flower pot anyway.

Just that plant. . . and another hanging plant in front - plus one in the back I haven't photographed yet!

I can't seem to get in the mood for Calumet decorating right now - probably too much daydreaming about the new house! End of tour.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sneak Peek Friday

Continuing our lighting theme from last Friday, I thought I would give you a peek at our kitchen lighting for the new house. We'll have some under cabinet lighting and a ceiling fixture, but the real stars of the show will be our pendant lights.

That was the black and white version for a teaser. We'll hang one above our kitchen sink and two above the breakfast bar.

Here's a photo in living color.

Yes, more copper! 

Have I told you that I believe in mixing metals? We'll have lots of bronze in the house, but we'll also have copper (shiny and hammered). We'll even have some. . . 



wait for it. . . 



galvanized metal. 

Don't let the thought scare you. Look for it in future posts!

All is well in the Keweenaw.

25 Years

"O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." (Psalm 34:8)

It was 25 years ago today that my first husband was killed by a drunk driver. It was difficult to imagine then that I could ever smile again - that I could ever be truly happy again. I had 2 choices: try to handle the grief alone - or - cling to the Lord and trust Him to help me through it - one minute at a time at first; then, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year. 

Here I am - 25 years later - married to a wonderful Christian man that I'm completely head-over-heels in love with - living in our favorite place - and I do smile - and I am truly happy. The Lord has blessed me greatly - in good times and in tough times. Clinging to the Lord was - and still is - the best choice.

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Sunday Reflections

All is well in the Keweenaw.

Looking Up

It's the first day of summer, and I'm going to talk about the sky. The brilliant sky was one of the things that really impressed us when we first visited this area. I know I've previously mentioned that the typical color is something we call "Keweenaw Blue." Remember when you stretched out on the grass when you were a kid - gazing up at the clouds during the day or the stars at night? Trying to see pictures in the sky? I spent a lot of time doing that on the farm when I was a kid. Well, I still enjoy gazing at the sky. You've seen a lot of sunset sky shots on this blog. Need more proof? I was looking through the photos I took on our last trip to and from Saginaw at the beginning of May. One thing that struck me was how many photos I took of the sky. Most of our trip in both directions was spent under a cloudy, gray sky, but I was sky-gazing anyway.

We had a long trip ahead of us, and we got an early start. We still had quite a bit of snow on the ground when we left.

It was a little hazy as we were driving down into Hancock and Houghton.

Ice was still visible on Lake Superior as we traveled along the shore across the U.P., and the clouds in the sky started to have more definition.

We were driving in rain by the time we made it to the Mackinac Bridge.

The weather seriously hindered my sky-gazing and bridge-gazing experience.

 

Here's what I could see out the side window as we crossed the bridge. 

I couldn't see the sky; I couldn't even see the water! Thankfully, the rain stopped as we continued traveling south, and we saw some very interesting clouds.

 

We even saw a rainbow.

 

 

Four days later, we were headed home and started out another trip under cloudy skies.

 

The Mackinac Bridge was soon in view.

 

 

I could see the sky and the water as we crossed this time.

More interesting clouds as we drove through the U.P.

 

Things had been melting, but we saw some ice on Lake Superior.

We had to make a quick stop at Menards in Marquette that evening. We needed to pick up something for our contractor, and I wanted to get some exterior lights they had on sale. 

It was dark and raining by the time we got to Houghton.

This is Hwy. 41 going through Hancock.

As we headed into the pitch black countryside between Hancock and Calumet, we experienced some incredible lightning.

I just happened to time that last photo perfectly to catch the way the lightning lit up the sky. It was after Midnight by the time we made it home, and it was raining buckets and lightning something awful. We sat in the car for 20 minutes until we got a break to run into the house. By the time we turned up the heat and checked to make sure the house was still secure, the rain had stopped. Steve was able to get the car unloaded without getting soaked. That was a good ending for our final trip to Saginaw for quite a while.

Stay tuned. I'll have some beautiful Keweenaw Blue sky shots again in future posts!

All is well in the Keweenaw.