We're back!

 PH and I are home from our trip to the Upper Peninsula.  I've showed you the map from previous trips and explained a bit about what the trip is about, but a refresher, it's the one thing he still does after retirement.  It's kind of his retirement project and only lasts a week.  I go along to keep him company and feed him snacks in the car.  We drove 1,500 miles in the week.  That's a lot but we circle half of the Upper Peninsula and it's a beautiful drive so it works.  

I am not a good passenger.  I get bored.  But I discovered I CAN do some hand stitch work while riding.  This has come as a surprise because all of my life I have been carsick if I try to do anything but look straight ahead. So this is a pleasant surprise.  I can get some tedious things accomplished.  Like making hexies, or yo-yos or knitting or whatever.  This is my work station, a pillow on my lap and thread in the handle of the car door, pieces and parts on the console and bits in my little lap container. It's not ideal but I don't take big projects.

 Still can't read but we listen to audio books.  This trip it was Erik Larsen's Demon of Unrest, his new book, and it was very good.  The second was A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva.  I tend to download books PH might like. Both were good car books. 

Here are the ornaments I am making for the kids this year and worked on while riding.  I cut the scrap fabric, made the hexies then made the wreaths by sewing the hexies back to back,  but they aren't done.  I'm going to stitch between the hexies to create a little pocket and stuff just a bit of polyfil to give them a little pudgie look then stitch them shut.  The most work is done.

This snow gauge is always fun to see.  No, the snowfall total isn't how high the snow is on the ground, though is can be close to that.  There is meltage and fresh snowfalls.  Last year saw the least amount of snowfall in the history of measuring it.  That arrow shows I think about 134 inches.  The U.P was hurting last winter from no snow.  At Christmas you could still see grass poking through the little they had. It's quite devastating to their economy because it's just snowmobile heaven up there.  The snow brings people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan to run the trails.  One account told PH that they could fill their motel every single night in the summer and not make what they do in winter.  

One of the things we do on the way home, on our last night there, is go pick the wild apples from the Garden Peninsula, a jut of land that juts out into the bay.  I don't know what varieties they are, I have an identifying app on my phone but the thing says the same variety for all of the apples, no matter how different they are so to me, it's not helpful.  I made an apple pie from them one year but usually I just cook them down for applesauce.  Because there are so many different varieties it's very, very good sauce! I just cook the apples, I don't season, spice or sugar them.

My trophy this year was this gin and tonic.  Isn't it beautiful?   On our second to last night we stopped at this beautiful little place right on the shore of Lake Superior in the little village of Eagle River.  You need to make a paid reservation early in the morning to get in but we were there at 3 in the afternoon and took the chance.  They had two seats at the bar and we took them.  We had a wonderful meal, but this was the star of my show.  The aromatics in this drink were rosemary, thyme, star anise,  a dried orange and lime, the marigold and violas and a slice of fresh lime.  Let me tell you, I held it with both hands and just smelled it.  I told the bar tender I didn't want to drink it, it was too pretty.  "Drink it!  I can make another one for you!"  I know they say you eat with your eyes first, then your nose and this sure proved that right.  Every sip was an experience.

So, we are home, I am revived and rejuvenated and started working on Elizabeth's BA again last night.  The square I'm doing now is giving me angst so I want to do an easy one next.  Plus plan and cut for taking this project to retreat in a couple of weeks.