Anne and I kayaked on Friday. We paddled over to Cedar Point, which is across the bay from Birch Point, where the ospreys are hanging out. I should say thank you to my Courtois out-laws for the loan of one of their yellow kayaks, but I’m sure that they saw it all on their birdhouse security camera, the Bill-Cam. We just thought it was too, too much to haul another one of our purple kayaks down to the beach, but I’m sure that they will understand, right? [Ooh-ooh, Sally, Teri, Anastasia and friend just arrived.] 

The objective of our voyage of discovery, were eagles, bald eagles. Jay and Carl had previously posted photos of the Cedar Point eagles. On their expedition, they had rock-hopped around the point. We chose the water route instead. It was unusually calm, so I felt comfortable bringing a camera with me. A waterproof canoe bag to put it in was an additional comfort. We set sail for Cedar Point. It turned into a three hour tour, but the weather never got rough, there were no movie stars either, but we had fun anyway. As we passed around the point, with all its many jetties and bay-lets, we continuously scanned the shore’s tree line for eagle signs. Eventually, we saw an eagle. It was on the beach of one of these little bay-lets. It saw us and flew off around the next jetty. We continued on and saw it roosting in a dead tree. I drifted into shore, quietly, snapping pictures.

A salty passed by, the Barbro, out of Malta. On the way back, we headed towards one of the rock piles in-between the shipping channels. It was covered in cormorants and I hoped to repeat my success with the eagle, but they got spooked before I could get a shot off. Continuing back along the coastline of Cedar Point, we saw a pair of mature bald eagles soaring and wheeling in the thermals. We never did find their nest though. It will be something to look for when we return.

Saturday, today, we head south. We’ll pick up Kelly, a Saint Louis biking buddy, in Mackinac City. Our next stop will be Saugatuck, where we’ll pick up Dan. Then it is on to New Buffalo and the start of our big bicycle ride. Dan will drop us all off and keep the Prius. Nine days later we’ll be back in Mackinac City and Harry will drive the Corolla down to pick us up. It ought to be an adventure. In addition to Kelly, his wife, Dawn, Tom, Stew and Nancy, all Saint Louis cyclists, will be accompanying us on this bike tour.

It was actually hotter here (Brimley) than it was in Saint Louis. The lake is still refreshing, but it is not as cold as it used to be. Anne has gone swimming with me every day. While out in the lake, she happened to remark, that her vacation was more than half over. I pointed out that this was only the third day of my vacation. This exchange reminded me of something that I had heard from a manager years ago. After working a month of Saturday, the boss announce to the team one Saturday evening, “Guys, everyone else’s weekend is already half over, yours is just getting started, enjoy it!”

This is another post from Anne. Last week, she and some of her relatives drove to Canada, for a hike to Betty’s Cove. This cove is on Lake Superior. Near the cove is a large wind farm, several hundred wind turbines large.

Here are six pix from the hike to Betty’s Cove with the Soo Naturalists. Betty’s Cove was named for Betty, my dearly beloved aunt, in the 1980′s. The Naturalists have been going there for a long time, and aren’t about to let the arrival of the wind farm stand in their way. We parked our cars before the road turned private, then hiked in. Bushwhacked might have been a better word. Arriving at the cove, we quickly decided that with the wind and waves it was not a swimming day. It was a gorgeous spot for a picnic, with sparkling wine raised in toast to Betty, followed by a poem by Ron, our ringleader, and Betty’s favorite chocolate from Aimee.

Traditions were followed, such as flinging banana peels over one’s shoulder. (If your peel landed in a tree, you were declared to be “well hung”. We could almost hear Betty chortling along with us.) Another tradition was skipping rocks, but instead of picking flat rocks and skipping them off the water, you chose round rocks, about fist-sized, and you bounced them off the bigger cobbles. A good toss could result in seven or eight bounces.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the cove. Returning, we took a different route back, which was not as steep and rocky as the way down. With only a bit of backtracking, we came out on the road between three of the wind turbines. The breeze they generated was welcome after climbing the hill. The noise was not as loud as I expected, although one was squeaking, as if it needed some WD-40.

When we crossed back into the good ol’ US of A, the Customs Agent asked, “So, are you all from Missouri?” Anne answered, “No, Sir, I’m the only one from Missouri, and we have two from Washington, and two from Michigan.” He looked at the passports, then says, “None of the last names are the same, are you related?” “Well, we three are cousins, and he’s my brother-in-law, and…” “He’s my husband”, says the other Anne from the back seat. Ask a silly question, get a silly answer! He’s lucky, we didn’t do all the begets.

Anne sent along the couple of pictures with this post, both showing tracks in the sand and the following bit of text: “I love all the different sizes and shapes of these people tracks and (possibly) dog tracks. I also love these tracks – seagull and mouse?” It is a beautiful beach, about a half-mile long and perfectly sandy from end-to-end. Just like expert pathfinders reading trail signs or the neighborhood dogs checking their pee-mail, people walking the beach monitor the tracks found in the sand.

I was sick all weekend. I came down with an earache on Thursday, missed work on Friday and pretty much alternated between the couch and bed throughout the weekend. I did make it out for food gathering and retrieving by bicycle from the shop. I had a new bottom-bracket and crank arms installed. This leaves the bicycle’s Ti frame as the only original piece of equipment and it should outlast me, unless we go together. It pained me over the weekend that I could not ride it, sometimes more than my ear.

Today, I am on the cusp. I am on the cusp of my summer vacation. Today is my last day of work before vacation. It has been a long time coming and I am so, so looking forward to it. This will be a Michigan vacation, but with a twist. The centerpiece of this year’s vacation will be a bicycling tour of Michigan’s Lake Michigan shoreline, 500 miles from the Indiana line to the Straits of Mackinac. There will be bookends at the Cabin, so there will be some downtime in this “working” vacation.

Anne sent the pictures with this post. They show many of her relatives from her extended family. Last Thursday, they had a potluck party called, “Thanksgiving in July”. She also sent along the following text. Alas, I’ll miss seeing most of these most of these folks, but I have a cruel mistress, I mean my bicycle, not Anne, my wife.

Here are some pix from “Thanksgiving in July”. These are from the potluck part of the party. Also, here are some pix of the triplets and William kayaking and Ana and Lila on the beach. It’s fun having some kids on the beach. Brandon ran by our cabin with some of Kevin Mullin’s grandkids. We told him that the old cabin belonged to his grandma’s grandfather. It blows my mind, if not his. I also sent a picture from today’s sendoff, but none from the Courtois crew, too impatient to go.