Love Day

Three weeks ago today was the beginning of our big drip. (No, that was definitely NOT Love Day. I'll get to that in a minute.) We were talking about drip day yesterday and agreed that it seemed like so much longer - more like several months ago. Time just dragged on some of those days. When I walked out of the bedroom into the great room yesterday morning, I actually said, "Aaaahhhhh." If felt so refreshing to enter a room not tented in plastic, and I had nothing to "dodge" on the path to the kitchen. I could actually sit in my chair - with my feet on the ottoman - and gaze out the sliding doors at our trees - while cradling my pink mug with both hands - and sipping my morning coffee. What a great, relaxing feeling!

We did manage to run all our errands yesterday, but I had a headache that was getting worse as the day went on. It was so bad by the time we got home that I had to go straight to bed. My darling Steve unpacked all the groceries for me. Thus, I didn't get the rest of the house put back together, so no photos of that today. I did have a post ready about Valentine's Day (Love Day), however, so I'll share that instead.

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Valentine's Day was a LOVE-ly day made complete with a LOVE-ly afternoon surprise. 

The day began with a LOVE-ly sunrise in the Keweenaw. It's not uncommon to see snow falling from the sky every day during January and February, and we get used to looking at the cool tones of a black & white landscape. So, when you're having your morning coffee and you suddenly notice a warm golden color through the trees, you sit up and take note.

The sun actually rises on the front side of the house, but we notice the first rays as they hit the tops of some of the trees in the woods at the back of the house. 

The golden glow filtered down through the trees. . .

and the sky got bluer and bluer.

Winter perfection.

Time to leave for church. I'll take you along most of the way - down our driveway first.

Then, turning onto our road. . .

and onto Hwy 41 for the rest of the trip to Calumet.

It was such a LOVE-ly drive.

Looking up at the cliffs along the road. . .

and approaching the curve at Cliff Drive.

Closing in on Mohawk. . .

and rounding the curve in Mohawk. 

We saw lots of snowmobilers at the local motels and along the trails on the way to church that day. I'm sure the local businesses were happy about that. 

After church, we got a quick car wash and noticed that their deer lawn statues are getting buried.

Next, we ran to the store for a few items for us and for my mom, and we stopped at her place to visit for about an hour. 

Steve always takes me out to eat on Valentine's Day. Since it fell on a Sunday this year, we thought we would eat in the mid-afternoon - hoping to avoid the large restaurant crowd after Sunday a.m. church services and before the evening holiday crowd. The timing turned out to be perfect for our meal at The Hut - as you can tell by their parking lot.


I brought the camera into the restaurant with us - fully intending to photograph our meal. However, we were once again overtaken by "Hut Hypnosis." We get inside and are so mesmerized by the food that we forget to take pictures! I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say that the portions were generous and the food was excellent. Steve had fish; I had chicken - couldn't eat it all. I finally remembered to break out the camera when we got the take-home box.

That's when we got the LOVE-ly surprise. After we informed the waiter that we did not have room for dessert, he thanked us for our patronage and said that someone had picked up the tab for our meal! What? Someone else paid for our meal? Yes, but he wouldn't tell us who it was. Talk about an unexpected blessing! What do you do when someone does that? Well, you first look around the restaurant to look for someone you know - someone who may have done this for you. No luck. So, you give the waiter an especially fat tip and go on your way rejoicing! It was a LOVE-ly end to a LOVE-ly meal on a LOVE-ly day that's all about LOVE!

All is well in the LOVE-ly Keweenaw.