Pretty Flower in My Back Yard

Does anyone know the name of this flower? It's so pretty, and it's in my back yard. Actually, it was, and I'm glad that I caught it when so pretty.

Traverse City & Torch Lake

This is my final post of our vacation photos. It's hard to believe that it was almost one month ago that we left for Manistee. Even more difficult to swallow is that university classes begin in just a couple of weeks!

We drove from Manistee to Traverse City on the Saturday of our vacation. We were going to spend just a couple of hours in Traverse City, then drive on to Torch Lake, where we were attending a post-wedding party of Mike's friends who got married in Florida earlier in the year. Seeing as I had never heard of Traverse City before moving to Michigan, here's a map. It's a beautiful town on Grand Traverse Bay in northern Michigan. It's a major exporter of cherries, hosts a cool summer jazz festival as well as a film festival, and is a haven for tourists given its location on the water.

Like many of northern Michigan's cities, the early 20th century saw quite a bit of money and building of beautiful Victorian houses. Here is the largest home we saw, a 32-room house built by Traverse City founder Perry Hannah. It's now a funeral home.

We walked up and down a historic street, where there were several beautiful Victorian homes, built in the last decades of the 19th and early decades of the 20th centuries.

The house above also had these beautiful flowers in front. I really like the fact that many Michiganders plant flowers. It reminds me of northern Europe.

This house had an interesting look to it with its tower. The brochure we had said that another tower had been removed. We couldn't imagine what one would do with two towers on a house.

On our way to Torch Lake, we drove by the water in Traverse City.

On our drive from Traverse City to Torch Lake, we saw row after row of cherry trees.

Mike's friend, Rita, who works at Chrysler (where Mike used to work), got married to a guy named Jim back in the winter in Florida. His parents own a house on Torch Lake, which is where they had a party for their friends. It was a really beautiful site.

It was a sunny day, so I decided to wear the hat we found at the cottage for a while.

Rita and Jim even wore their wedding clothes when we sat down to eat. Notice how they're not wearing shoes. They got married on the beach and are duplicating that here.

There you have it -- these are the best photos from our vacation. It was a great vacation, and I'm sad that not only our vacation is over but that summer is almost over, too! I hope to be posting some fun photos in the next couple of weeks, as my friend, Robin, is coming to visit at the end of August. I'll also be going to visit my stepsister, Amanda, in Louisiana over Labor Day, which I'm also really looking forward to! Til then!

Another Day in Manistee

On Friday during our vacation week, we decided to stay close to "home," as the weather forecast didn't look too great. It actually turned out to be a decent day, and rainstorms visited us that night. Anyway, we decided to visit this steamship, the City of Milwaukee, which used to carry freight trains, passengers, and cars across Lake Michigan from 1930 until 1981. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1990, and it's been docked in Manistee for the last decade or so.

Next to the ship were some empty condo lots. We thought it strange to put such lots so close to the ship, wondering who would want to pay top dollar for a waterfront property right next to an old steamship, with the highway on the other side.

It was actually a pretty cool ship to take a tour on, as we caught a glimpse of what it would be like for the sailors and passengers. This is the indicator to allow the captain communicate with the engine room.

Now, engine buffs might know what this is; I can't remember. But I do remember that whoever worked at this particular station would get especially dirty and hot. Conditions in the engine room weren't the most comfortable, that's for sure.

I was a tad bit more familiar with what they did on the bridge, like steer the ship with its wheel. Those hours of watching the "Love Boat" seem to have paid off somewhat, I guess. :-)

The officers'/passengers' quarters on the left compared to the crews' quarters below. We were surprised to hear that the ship will soon be offering some Bed & Breakfast spaces. Although the tour guide indicated that while it wasn't luxurious, it would be memorable, I'm not sure that back pains are the memories I want to have after staying here. It didn't even look like they replaced the mattresses.

Hmmm, I hope breakfast is Continental-style. This stove looks like it needs about a ton of Comet.

I take it that asking about wireless internet might be a silly one; Facebook updates will be difficult from this old typewriter. :-)

Here is where the train cars would be loaded. Before seeing this ship, I had never even heard of such train ferries!

Once an engineer, always an engineer. :-) This was taken at the exhibit of the ship inside the ship. Mike got to tinker with this model.

This concludes our tour of the S. S. City of Milwaukee. On the right there is an exhibit of various crew members throughout its 50-year history of sailing Lake Michigan.

We then decided to head to Manistee's public beach on 5th Street, which had a lighthouse. Go figure!

We had also heard of a sandcastle building contest, so we then drove to the 1st Street public beach for a look. There weren't that many spectacular ones, but I thought this one was interesting.

So, now I have a photo of our feet in Lake Superior from our trip to the Upper Peninsula last year, and now Lake Michigan.

We bought this shirt for Mike two years ago in Grand Haven, and it was really appropriate for this trip. It's amazing all that Lake Michigan has to offer!