Happy Birthday(s)

We've made some fantastic visual progress around here in the last month, and I've taken tons of photos to share with you of different projects - but we'll leave them simmering on the back burner for now. Since I was sidelined for almost a week with that migraine, I really need to go back and talk about our birthdays first. If you remember, both of our birthdays are in April - about a week apart. Mine was first. Even though we still had snow in our backyard, the deer had returned. I caught this one making a beeline for the bird feeder that morning.

Junior/Juniorette watched from the hill.

We had a relaxing morning at home and took our time before heading out. We had a few errands to run that day that started here at this lighthouse-shaped building.

This is our local branch of the Secretary of State's office - where we go to get the new tabs for our license plates. This is the worst thing about having our birthdays in the same month. Your vehicle registration and driver's license renewal correspond to your birthday in Michigan. Since we have 3 vehicles, April is a very expensive month!

After running the other errands we had on my birthday, we met Marty & Donna here for dinner.

This is the best thing about having both of our birthdays in the same month. We have 2 excuses to eat out at The Hut - since we have to take advantage of the free meal you get here on your birthday. I decided on the Northern Fried Chicken this year. Of course, Hut Hypnosis overcame me as usual, so I forgot about snapping photos until this last piece was resting in my to-go box.

It looks gross in that photo, but it was delicious. I had a nice day - topped off with some flowers from our friends.

Steve was blessed with a blue sky and sunshine on his birthday the following week.

We still had snow in our yard, but there wasn't much left in the lower elevations of the Keweenaw.

Steve wanted to start his day here in Hancock - as they used to give a free breakfast on your birthday. We were slightly bummed to find out they only do the free breakfast thing with their regulars now. I'm not sure how often you have to go to be considered a regular, but we apparently didn't fit the profile. Steve had a nice omelette anyway, and Marty & Donna joined us again.

More errands after that. Hey, when you live as far from town as we do, you don't miss the opportunity to do some shopping when you're there. It was time to fork over the dough for the last vehicle registration that month, so we stopped at the Houghton branch office for the Corvette tabs that day. 

After our errands were finished, Steve decided this was the day for our first Corvette ride of the season, so we made our way home to drop off our purchases and switch vehicles. We saw this guy as we pulled into the driveway.

The ruffed grouse was in no hurry, but we made sure not to hit it.

I put away the groceries while Steve got the Vette ready. When we went to leave, these 2 were watching us from the tree line, and there were 2 more on the hill along our driveway.

The plan was to go around the block - Phoenix to Eagle River - to Eagle Harbor - and back home. Here's the Lake Superior shore in Eagle River.

We pulled over to snap a quick shot of Jacob's Falls between Eagle River and Eagle Harbor.

We wondered if The Jampot (bakery) was open yet, but muffins weren't in the cards that day. We were 2 days early. We continued on toward Eagle Harbor and spotted our first lake freighter of the season.

Before we knew it, we were in Eagle Harbor.

The town hasn't yet awakened for the summer. We drove through and headed for the home stretch. We didn't see any snow at that end of our road.

As the Vette climbed into the higher elevations, we started to see snow along the side of the road. . .

and we still had quite a bit at our place.

We were home for 45 minutes before we had to take off to meet Marty & Donna again (#GoodFriends) for Steve's free dinner at The Hut.

Steve had joked with them and told them not to get him flowers - so they got him balloons!

I told Steve before we went in that I was determined to take a bunch of photos during our meal. As you can tell by the last photo, I started off so well. I even remembered to snap a photo of Steve when he was about to eat his salad. 

My salad came at the same time. . . and once again. . . Hut Hypnosis got the best of me. I didn't get any photos of Steve's fish dinner. I didn't get any photos of his free dessert. I didn't get any photos of any other food at our table. I didn't get any more photos of our dining companions. Nothing! I'm tellin' ya - that Hut Hypnosis beats me every time!

Still, our day wasn't finished yet. Steve had 2 more things he wanted to do before going home. This was first.

Nope, he just wasn't going to be happy unless he washed the Traverse.

A quick stop at the grocery store was next. Yes, we had already gotten some groceries at another store earlier in the day, but he forgot the most important birthday item.

He needed this - one last treat before turning in that evening.

That was it. One week. Two happy birthdays.

All is well in the Keweenaw.