All is well in the Keweenaw.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Thursday, July 28, 2016
The Deer Whisperer
It was foggy here in the Keweenaw on the afternoon of July 14, so this video isn't real crisp; but look who came out of the woods as Steve was hanging the bird feeder he had just refilled!
The Deer Whisperer - 7-14-16
Crazy, huh?!
I'm still working on editing the fireworks photos. Stay tuned.
All is well in the Keweenaw.
The Deer Whisperer - 7-14-16
Crazy, huh?!
I'm still working on editing the fireworks photos. Stay tuned.
All is well in the Keweenaw.
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Copper Harbor 4th - Parade
This is the second installment in my series detailing the annual Independence Day celebration in Copper Harbor - very heavy on the photos today.
We awoke early on the morning of July 4th - eager to get the golf cart decorated for the parade through town. I put on a pot of coffee while Steve ran down to the little bakery on the waterfront to get some of their delicious bacon and cheddar scones for breakfast. He delivered 2 of the scones to room 19 for our buddies, Marty & Donna. (Remember, these rooms do not come equipped with a coffee maker, so bringing our own was definitely the way to go - so much better than getting a small foam cup of coffee at the Bella Vista motel office. I'm sure some of you are thinking: What kind of motel room doesn't come with a coffee maker? Hey, this is Copper Harbor! There are no motel chains in this tiny resort town. Vintage lodging is the norm here. The Bella Vista is our favorite motel in the Harbor - clean rooms with a refrigerator - on the waterfront. It's really ALL about the view and the experience of being IN Copper Harbor, so I'll gladly bring my own coffee and coffee maker.) Anyway, as I was getting ready for the day, Steve was out on the deck - sharing our coffee with several of our motel neighbors who also have standing reservations every year.
We decided to leave the Corvette at home this year and use the golf cart for the parade instead. I was a little more understated in the decorating this time. . .
OK, time to start lining up on one of the side streets.
The fire trucks are always at the head of the pack. They drive a short way down Hwy. 26, turn around and form a line to come back through town. The rest of us get in line behind them.
We took our place in line after these 2 tractors.
The man on the right lives on our road.
At first, the crowd is sparse.
We begin to see more people as we approach the traffic light at Hwy. 41.
Suddenly, we're so busy throwing candy that it's difficult to find time to snap pictures!
The parade route turns right off Hwy. 41 and heads through the Lake Fanny Hooe Resort.
When we get back to Hwy. 41, we turn right and head out of Copper Harbor toward Fort Wilkins.
Fort Wilkins has 2 campgrounds, and the parade goes through both of them. We were really rationing our candy by this point to try to have at least one piece for every child we saw, but we ran out just before the final curve of the last campground. Next year = at least 20 lbs.
This all took over an hour and the parade participants headed back toward Copper Harbor - full speed ahead. I managed to get a quick snap of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse through the trees.
It was impossible to get our electric golf cart up to the speed of the fire trucks (but we did pass the tractors), so we had some distance between us and them on the way back. I was actually surprised the ATV's in back of us didn't pass us, but they were content to stay behind.
We headed back down into Copper Harbor - determined to catch up to the fire trucks.
Steve raced down one of the side streets to intercept them at the waterfront. Success!
We got back in line and headed toward the final curve by our motel.
There's Marty & Donna snapping photos as we were about to round the curve. (Oh, our motel neighbors from Las Vegas - in the red shirts - were there, too. What a hoot!)
I took one final shot as we came out of the curve. These ATV's obviously got out of line and took a shortcut back to the motel.
Those were some of the photos I took. Now, I'll show you some shots Marty took. Since he was a parade spectator, he could capture things I couldn't.
Here's the start of the parade - led by the Grand Marshall from the Minnetonka Resort as usual.
She was followed by the Keweenaw County Sheriff and the Copper Harbor/Grant Township fire trucks and ambulance.
This group came next. I don't believe the kids walked the entire parade route - probably stayed in town - as that excited black dog was quite a lot to handle. Actually, I don't think any of the walkers or bike riders went the entire route.
Who are these nuts?
Yep, that's my hubby - smiling at Marty on one side and waving at Donna on the other side.
This guy definitely gets my vote for the best dressed award.
We had lots of ATV's participating in the parade - more than I can remember from previous years.
The 8-legged fish was back again.
This nice truck and trailer represented the Bella Vista Motel.
VertiYak - good idea and catchy name!
The king and queen of what? Or where?
Another truck.
Beautiful horses.
And these are the photos Marty took as we were heading for that last curve on the way back to the motel.
I took a photo of them taking our photo, and they took photos of us taking their photo.
All is well in the Keweenaw.
We awoke early on the morning of July 4th - eager to get the golf cart decorated for the parade through town. I put on a pot of coffee while Steve ran down to the little bakery on the waterfront to get some of their delicious bacon and cheddar scones for breakfast. He delivered 2 of the scones to room 19 for our buddies, Marty & Donna. (Remember, these rooms do not come equipped with a coffee maker, so bringing our own was definitely the way to go - so much better than getting a small foam cup of coffee at the Bella Vista motel office. I'm sure some of you are thinking: What kind of motel room doesn't come with a coffee maker? Hey, this is Copper Harbor! There are no motel chains in this tiny resort town. Vintage lodging is the norm here. The Bella Vista is our favorite motel in the Harbor - clean rooms with a refrigerator - on the waterfront. It's really ALL about the view and the experience of being IN Copper Harbor, so I'll gladly bring my own coffee and coffee maker.) Anyway, as I was getting ready for the day, Steve was out on the deck - sharing our coffee with several of our motel neighbors who also have standing reservations every year.
We decided to leave the Corvette at home this year and use the golf cart for the parade instead. I was a little more understated in the decorating this time. . .
but I didn't forget about the candy. I bought 14 lbs. last year, and I upped it to 18.36 lbs. (2,270 pieces) this year - still ran a little short! The best part of being in the parade is throwing candy to the kids. We always hope it helps create good memories of Copper Harbor for them.
OK, time to start lining up on one of the side streets.
The fire trucks are always at the head of the pack. They drive a short way down Hwy. 26, turn around and form a line to come back through town. The rest of us get in line behind them.
We took our place in line after these 2 tractors.
The man on the right lives on our road.
At first, the crowd is sparse.
We begin to see more people as we approach the traffic light at Hwy. 41.
Suddenly, we're so busy throwing candy that it's difficult to find time to snap pictures!
The parade route turns right off Hwy. 41 and heads through the Lake Fanny Hooe Resort.
When we get back to Hwy. 41, we turn right and head out of Copper Harbor toward Fort Wilkins.
Fort Wilkins has 2 campgrounds, and the parade goes through both of them. We were really rationing our candy by this point to try to have at least one piece for every child we saw, but we ran out just before the final curve of the last campground. Next year = at least 20 lbs.
This all took over an hour and the parade participants headed back toward Copper Harbor - full speed ahead. I managed to get a quick snap of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse through the trees.
It was impossible to get our electric golf cart up to the speed of the fire trucks (but we did pass the tractors), so we had some distance between us and them on the way back. I was actually surprised the ATV's in back of us didn't pass us, but they were content to stay behind.
We headed back down into Copper Harbor - determined to catch up to the fire trucks.
Steve raced down one of the side streets to intercept them at the waterfront. Success!
We got back in line and headed toward the final curve by our motel.
There's Marty & Donna snapping photos as we were about to round the curve. (Oh, our motel neighbors from Las Vegas - in the red shirts - were there, too. What a hoot!)
I took one final shot as we came out of the curve. These ATV's obviously got out of line and took a shortcut back to the motel.
Those were some of the photos I took. Now, I'll show you some shots Marty took. Since he was a parade spectator, he could capture things I couldn't.
Here's the start of the parade - led by the Grand Marshall from the Minnetonka Resort as usual.
She was followed by the Keweenaw County Sheriff and the Copper Harbor/Grant Township fire trucks and ambulance.
This group came next. I don't believe the kids walked the entire parade route - probably stayed in town - as that excited black dog was quite a lot to handle. Actually, I don't think any of the walkers or bike riders went the entire route.
Who are these nuts?
Yep, that's my hubby - smiling at Marty on one side and waving at Donna on the other side.
This guy definitely gets my vote for the best dressed award.
We had lots of ATV's participating in the parade - more than I can remember from previous years.
The 8-legged fish was back again.
This nice truck and trailer represented the Bella Vista Motel.
VertiYak - good idea and catchy name!
The king and queen of what? Or where?
Another truck.
Beautiful horses.
And these are the photos Marty took as we were heading for that last curve on the way back to the motel.
I took a photo of them taking our photo, and they took photos of us taking their photo.
As you can tell, this isn't a parade that takes itself too seriously. No marching bands or flower-covered floats here. Just a bunch of crazy and enthusiastic people celebrating Independence Day in Michigan's northern-most town.
Up next: Fireworks!
All is well in the Keweenaw.
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Saturday, July 23, 2016
Copper Harbor 3rd
It's that time again - time to fill you in on the details of our annual 4th of July holiday in Copper Harbor. This series of 3 or 4 posts (probably 4) may come off sounding like a travelogue or a lengthy sales pitch to visit our area, so I apologize in advance. It's just that we absolutely love living here, and we can't help ourselves from enthusiastically sharing that love with others.
OK, let's go. After church on July 3rd, we went home to finish packing the last few items for our 2-night stay in Copper Harbor. The Harbor is only about 17 miles from our house, so it doesn't take long to get there on either Hwy. 26 (a winding road following the shoreline of Lake Superior) or Hwy. 41 (a winding road through the woods). Both roads are beautiful. We chose Hwy. 41 that day, as it's slightly faster - and we wanted to take advantage of every minute in da Harbor that we could. It wasn't long before we were whizzing by the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. . .
and rounding the final curve down into the quaint and picturesque town of Copper Harbor.
We stopped at Keweenaw County's only traffic light before going straight down one block to our shoreline motel (Bella Vista) on the left.
Wait a minute! Did you see what it said on the back of that motor home?
"LIFE IS GOOD" - I agree!
Anyway, we stopped at the motel office. . .
and got the keys for good old room 25.
We have a standing reservation for this room every year for the nights of July 3rd & 4th. The accommodations are basic - standard for Copper Harbor.
There's no in-room microwave, hair dryer, coffee pot or even a telephone! Coffee is available in the office, but we brought along our own coffee pot this year (much better). We do get a queen bed, a refrigerator, a clean room. . .
and this lovely relaxing view.
Seriously, who could have high blood pressure in this place?
Our buddies (and 11-mile-away neighbors), Marty & Donna, also have a standing reservation at Bella Vista; and we met up with them after unpacking our vehicle. We lazed around a bit and had dinner at the Mariner North before heading up to the top of Brockway Mountain to take in the scenery. First, the big lake.
It was one of those days when it was hard to tell where the sky ended and the waters of Lake Superior began.
Looking the opposite direction, we see miles of trees and Lake Medora.
On the way back down Brockway Mountain Drive, we stopped at the Copper Harbor overlook. Beginning on the left in the next photo, you can see some of the buildings in the town of Copper Harbor and the harbor water with Lake Superior beyond. The large lake near the center is Lake Fanny Hooe, and the small body of water on the right is Lake Manganese. If you look closely, you can also see the Copper Harbor Lighthouse on the narrow strip of land curving around on the left.
I turned to my left a bit for the next shot. The lighthouse is now in the distance on the right.
I turned a little more to the left for this shot. See that small gap in the center of the photo? That's the gap between Hunter's Point and Porter's Island.
That's the very gap we can see - up close and personal - from our motel room.
Yep, that was a freighter going past the gap that same evening.
Wait, we had 2 ships! Can you see the second one?
We had the fixin's for strawberry shortcake in our refrigerators, so we snacked on some dessert before watching another peaceful Copper Harbor sunset.
Aaahh, beautiful colors in the sky painted by the Lord.
Stay tuned for the second installment in this series next week.
All is well in the Keweenaw.
OK, let's go. After church on July 3rd, we went home to finish packing the last few items for our 2-night stay in Copper Harbor. The Harbor is only about 17 miles from our house, so it doesn't take long to get there on either Hwy. 26 (a winding road following the shoreline of Lake Superior) or Hwy. 41 (a winding road through the woods). Both roads are beautiful. We chose Hwy. 41 that day, as it's slightly faster - and we wanted to take advantage of every minute in da Harbor that we could. It wasn't long before we were whizzing by the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. . .
and rounding the final curve down into the quaint and picturesque town of Copper Harbor.
We stopped at Keweenaw County's only traffic light before going straight down one block to our shoreline motel (Bella Vista) on the left.
Wait a minute! Did you see what it said on the back of that motor home?
"LIFE IS GOOD" - I agree!
Anyway, we stopped at the motel office. . .
and got the keys for good old room 25.
We have a standing reservation for this room every year for the nights of July 3rd & 4th. The accommodations are basic - standard for Copper Harbor.
There's no in-room microwave, hair dryer, coffee pot or even a telephone! Coffee is available in the office, but we brought along our own coffee pot this year (much better). We do get a queen bed, a refrigerator, a clean room. . .
and this lovely relaxing view.
Seriously, who could have high blood pressure in this place?
Our buddies (and 11-mile-away neighbors), Marty & Donna, also have a standing reservation at Bella Vista; and we met up with them after unpacking our vehicle. We lazed around a bit and had dinner at the Mariner North before heading up to the top of Brockway Mountain to take in the scenery. First, the big lake.
It was one of those days when it was hard to tell where the sky ended and the waters of Lake Superior began.
Looking the opposite direction, we see miles of trees and Lake Medora.
On the way back down Brockway Mountain Drive, we stopped at the Copper Harbor overlook. Beginning on the left in the next photo, you can see some of the buildings in the town of Copper Harbor and the harbor water with Lake Superior beyond. The large lake near the center is Lake Fanny Hooe, and the small body of water on the right is Lake Manganese. If you look closely, you can also see the Copper Harbor Lighthouse on the narrow strip of land curving around on the left.
I turned to my left a bit for the next shot. The lighthouse is now in the distance on the right.
I turned a little more to the left for this shot. See that small gap in the center of the photo? That's the gap between Hunter's Point and Porter's Island.
That's the very gap we can see - up close and personal - from our motel room.
Yep, that was a freighter going past the gap that same evening.
Wait, we had 2 ships! Can you see the second one?
We had the fixin's for strawberry shortcake in our refrigerators, so we snacked on some dessert before watching another peaceful Copper Harbor sunset.
Aaahh, beautiful colors in the sky painted by the Lord.
Stay tuned for the second installment in this series next week.
All is well in the Keweenaw.