One More Time

 PH and I just returned from our annual trip to the Upper Peninsula.  It's a work trip for him and I'm along for comic relief. We discovered when we returned the rental car that we had driven 2,145 miles in 9 days.  The worst of it is the going up and coming back.  In between there are more stops in small towns and those little towns are far apart.  We aren't sure, every year we say "this one is our last" but we keep doing it.  Each year, we treat the trip like it's our last and visit our greatest hits, discover new places and say goodbye as we cross the Mackinac Bridge going home.  You never know.

As we started packing up the car I said we would never be able to backpack through Europe. Not the way I pack.  The good thing about driving is I can take everything.  Flying is more of a challenge.

These hexies have been everywhere and the project is growing in size.  As I take the paper piece out of the back of the hexie, I drop them into the cup and just choose with no rhyme or reason.  The only thing I try to stay away from is two reds or two navy blues next to each other.  This keeps my eyes on the project and the scenery and eliminates my tendency to back seat drive.

The population in the Upper Peninsula can very very sparse. That's why many move up there. They almost shudder when they think of living down state in a city.  

We decided Fitzgerald's restaurant in Eagle River is our favorite in the whole state. The food is wonderful, the gin and tonics are too pretty to drink.  But the view! Notice the vase sitting on the window sill and Lake Superior on the other side of that picnic table. Every time we go I ask how the building survives the November storms (on Lake Superior November is a fierce month.) The lake is RIGHT THERE.  But they say it's never an issue.  Huh.

One thing I've wanted to see in all the years we've been going on this trip....well, two things....I've wanted to see a real Moose and a bear.  It's never happened.  But this is evidence those bears are there and they know what's inside a cooler!

There is a dear little bookshop in Copper Harbor - the farthest north you can go and be on mainland Michigan - and every year I take my birthday money with me to shop in Grandpa's Barn.  The owner knows me by now, I trust her judgement and recommendations and walk out with a pile every time. 

The bottom two books I found in two Little Free Libraries along the way. Father Brown I took with me from home.   I'm not in to going to every gifty shop we see, but I can't pass by a bookstore.  This one I save up my money for.

Our last night, our last sunset.