Today I went to St. Joseph to walk, take photos of the new fountain, and shop at the farmers' market.  What a great little town.  I've posted a couple pictures so you can see for yourself.    Fortunately for all of us on the western side of Michigan, hundreds, maybe thousands?..one can only hope, of tourists think we are a great vacation spot.   The unemployment rate here is still highest in the nation.   I had hoped for better, but the newspapers this morning were full of statistics, and there we were, right at the top of the list.  Sigh.   Without tourism, we'd be sunk.

     So, if you are looking for a wonderful vacation spot, come on over from Chicago, or up from Indiana.  It's a pleasant drive, and we love our visitors.

 

     I'm still in the throes of trip preparation.  There was a side trip to find "Alice" socks...a request from Diana...and described as a dire need.   Guess who has new "Alice" shoes, and MUST have those little white socks with the lace trim.  LOL   I had given her a pair a year or two ago, and she wouldn't even think about wearing them, but now she likes socks, and apparently couldn't find that pair, so SOS to Grammy.  Of course I found them...four different variations on the theme, in fact.  I can't remember exactly which ones I bought before, so I got them all.   They are now in the carry-on with the six books and two pairs of shoes.   This is going to be one overstuffed bag. 

 

     Well, let's see now: 

 

Alert the neighbors that I'll be gone:  check

Cover the air conditioner:  check

Get cash for the trip:  check

Have lunch with all my friends before I leave:  check    (still one to go;  I'll meet Pat for lunch on Monday.)

Get hair cut and colored:  check

Pay bills:  check

 

You'd think I was going to be gone a year!

 

This is the weekend of 'The Venetian Festival,' a three-day carnival that features some big-name stars and musicians, and attracts over 100,000 guests to little St. Joseph, Michigan.   And it's raining;  no, it's pouring!  

 

The economy of Michigan is so depressed we really rely on those tourist dollars, and this event usually brings in a bunch of them.  I don't know about the tourists, but I've only made it as far as my mailbox today, and even with a rubber raincoat, reentered the house soaking wet.   My guess is the movie theaters and restaurants are bursting at the seams.   Well,  that's money, too, isn't it?   But not spent in a way that makes  a tourist say, "I can't wait to come back for this event next summer."

 

I do hope all this weather will be over and done with by the time Di arrives in early August; and stays away throughout my three weeks of houseguests.   Oh sure,  we can do indoor things,  but who wants to?   Not here, not in Michigan in the summer.

 

    I posted some photos, over there to the left, of our parade yesterday.   This is SW Michigan's celebration of those three million fruit trees I've written about before.   This area is a virtual Eden with the orchards and vineyards that sustain our economy and feed much of the midwest.   The Blossomtime parade is amazingly big for a county with only 180,000 residents.  This event is a two-hour, 126-unit extravaganza, and half the county shows up for it.  Including us, chilly as it was.   In the midwest, we know marching bands, and every school sent one, a couple with close to 200 marchers!   And, of course, every town has a queen, one of whom is chosen as the Blossomtime queen.   Float after float showed us pretty girls with fluffy gowns and tiaras....a little girl's dream come true.  Fun, fun, fun!

 

    And the first drops of rain didn't fall until we were on the way to our car!

 

That title is a pretty good despcription of Michigan in the spring.  Yesterday it was 80 degrees; tomorrow we are expecting snow.  In the midst of all this,  Little League has their kick-off parade and first games today.   So, like all the other parents and grandparents, I'll be bundling up and heading to the field.  

 

I refuse to turn the heat back on, I don't care HOW cold it gets.   It just doesn't seem right to pay for lawn-mowing and heating in the same month.   Not that my lawn guy actually showed up this week as he was supposed to.   (@&($&)  But it will all work out eventually.  He is always slow getting on schedule in the spring. 

 

The garden work is about half done.  There is some pesky honeysuckle to get rid of.  That stuff just eats everything in sight; who knew?  I need a few more bags of mulch, a lot more weeding.   I have also made a commitment to weed my 84 year old friend's huge garden, as she really can't anymore.   I had hoped to do that today,  but 42' is too cold for this gardener to be outside.   So I'll run a few errands,  watch Austin play ball, work on the puzzle;  really, that sounds like quite a nice day, doesn't it?

 

 

ps lawn guy showed up late this afternoon;   looks great out there!

 

 

 

 

 

   It's 39 degrees right now;  tomorrow, it's supposed to reach 90!!!  Was it Mark Twain who said, "If you don't like the weather (here), wait a minute"?   Certainly apt for our little part of the world.  

   Living in the midwest really is different than living in upstate New York, where I grew up.  There, in the Hudson Valley, we were protected by the Adirondacks to the north; Catskills south; and smaller ranges to the west and east (Helderbergs, Berkshires).   Oh yes, we had weather changes, but I sure don't recall any this rapid or this severe.  So what's the deal out here?   First, of course, our part of Michigan is flat as the proverbial pancake, so if anything is blowing in from the west, it has a clear shot at us. 

 

  Second, we have that huge body of water, Lake Michigan, which modifies the weather according to some pattern I (and the weatherman either, I fear) will never understand.   So out here, it's "be prepared."   Flashlights in every room, because yes, our electricity goes out frequently due to huge thunderstorms;  a nice variety of summer clothes in the closet that includes sweat shirts, heavy socks, and boots right along with the sleeveless tees and cut-off jeans.  Good thing I was a Girl Scout!  

 

My brother Dan and his wife Debbie are visiting right now.  Last night we walked out on the pier.  Our intention was to see a sunset, but as there was NO SUN, that didn't work out too well. We had just this little teasing hint of pink as we looked towards the lighthouse.  Even with gray skies and equally gray water, that Lake Michigan is a stunner.  So we took our walk; sat a while at the end of the pier, and then came back when it looked like a storm might be approaching.

 

We're having a wonderful time together.   Is there anything quite as nice as rediscovering your siblings when you are all adults and past the kiddy stuff of childhood?   This is a photo of Dan and Deb on the pier.  You can't see them too well because of the approaching darkness, but I think you can kind of get an idea of them!  

 

 

We had dinner at Schu's in St. Joe, one of the few restaurants with outdoor eating and a lake view.  It was enchanting.  Good food, good company...really, can life be better than this?

 

We don't have too many days to spend together (they leave on Monday), so we're trying to make the most of them by doing every wonderful thing we can think of.  Today we hung out at the beach with Noel and the children; tomorrow we're off to Chicago for a day trip.

 

This last shot was taken from the beach about an hour before dinner.  At that time the sun appeared to be making an effort to break through, and in the process it provided us with this intriquing show of light and shadow.

 

If you've been to any of those charming beach towns on Cape Cod, in Delaware, in New Jersey, you may be surprised to learn that we have them out here in Michigan, too.  St. Joseph, the place we had the good luck to land when we came to Michigan twenty years ago, is just such a place.  Quaint shops, sidewalk cafes, a bluff walk overlooking the lake.  It's just about as perfect a place to wile away some summer hours as you can imagine.

 

This year St. Joe is featuring "Bears on the Bluff" ... statues of bears in various attire scattered throughout the downtown.  Tourists love them!  Heck, so do the rest of us.  I've made a little photo album of some of my favorites at the bottom of this page. 

 

If you live within range, you might consider a day trip our way.  From Chicago, it's an easy Amtrak ride.  The train station is just below the bluff in downtown.  Walk up the stairs, and here you are, sipping a latte at Tosi's cafe or maybe poking through one of the cute shops.

 

There are a couple of hotels downtown if you decide to spend the night.  That's not a bad idea if you want some beach time.  During the week it's not so crowded at the beach, and there's a nice little beach shack that sells hotdogs and wraps. 

 

I'm starting to sound like the tourist bureau, aren't I?   But I really do love it here.  You will, too!     

One of the best things in our state is Lake Michigan.   If you've never seen any of the Great Lakes, it's hard to imagine how huge they are, more like inland seas.

 

We have mile upon mile of sandy beaches; lighthouses; piers to walk out on;  and since the lake is to the west, glorious sunsets. On the weekends, the beaches are terribly crowded, but those of us who live here don't have to worry about that.  We can just go during the week.  (Lucky us!) 

 

When I was younger, I used to vacation on the Atlantic Ocean.  Unlike the ocean, Lake Michigan won't encrust you with salt, nor will it produce crabs to nibble on your toes..and certainly no sharks!

 

Once my idea of "lake"  was Lake George--which I thought was huge.  hahaha  Lake Michigan is over 270 miles long, and it's 60 miles across.   One could drop Lake George into it and never find it again.

 

One of my favorite things to do at the lake is walk out on the pier at sunset.  There is this wonderful sense of being someplace not quite of this world, a beautiful place of shimmering water and ever-changing colors.  Even during the daytime, a pier walk is lovely.  The pier is like a peninsula where one can just sit on the end and watch the ducks and boats go by, oblivious to the cares of everyday.  In St. Joseph, we have two piers.  The one shown here is the north pier, home to our lighthouse.  I usually walk on the other one, the south pier, which is on my side of the river.  The water you see here is the St. Joseph River.  Down past the end of the pier, the river blends into the lake.  Fishermen line both piers from early morning until late at night all summer long.   They're a friendly bunch, happy to tell us walkers what's biting.  I often think how much my dad would have liked to fish from the pier, but he died shortly after we moved here and never had the chance. I love to see the parents teaching their children how to fish, just as their parents had done for them. 

 

How lucky we Michiganders are to live with all this beauty.   Life is good near the lake!

 

 

 

 

I posted a new album below.  These are just a few of things blooming right here on my street.  What a great time of year!

Usually by this late in October our leaves have not only changed color, but most of them have dropped.  As you can see from these photos, not much of either has happened this year.

 

Our experts tell us it's the effects of the drought we've had for six  months.  The trees are too stressed to "do their thing."  

 

Since I"m heading back to LA on Tuesday (yes, I know, I was just there a few days ago--thank God for frequent flier miles!) ), I'll probably miss real fall when it finally shows its pretty face.  Oh, well.  Seeing a new grandbaby trumps that!  Of course the baby may not choose to be born while I'm there, so I may have another turnaround trip.   Right now I'm going to keep Diana company while she endures that dreaded last month of pregnancy.  Sometimes there are real disadvantages to living thousands of miles away from family.  This is one of them.

 

 

 

 

Our rural county in Michigan has 163,000 people;  3,000,000 (yes, million) fruit trees; hundreds of acres of vineyards; and thirty-four miles of sandy beaches along Lake Michigan.  It's Eden, truly it is...  

 

EXCEPT in the winter, when we get those "lake effect snows" and it suddenly turns into a white version of hell.

Oh, sure, a lot of folks around here actually like winter.....skiing, etc.   I, too, liked those things when I was younger.  Now  I don't even like to look at snow. 

 

A couple of years ago I announced to my girls that now that I had retired, it was my intention to never again drive in snow.   Seemed like a safe enough, even sensible remark, right?  Well, all three girls went into panic mode.  "Does this mean I'll have to start driving you to the grocery store?" asked one;  "You can't limit your life like that, mom;  you'll get old fast that way,"  said another.   And on and on it went.  I was stunned; then amused.  Just when I think they're not paying attention to anything I say!   hahaha

 

Anyway, back to our corner of Michigan:   we are only 90 miles from Chicago, so it's a simple matter to see plays and exhibits; visit the parks, etc.   And yet, we have all this beauty around us.  Truly, it's the best of both worlds.  And in May, when all those fruit trees are blooming, we're the best smelling county in the country.

The prairie begins in Illinois, one state west of us,  so technically, Michigan is not prairie.   However, we feel a lot like one:  flat land, strong winds,  little rain, and intense heat.  I was reading about prairie plants the other day.  Not surprisingly, they tend to have very deep roots.  If there's water down there anywhere, they'll find it.  What I hadn't known was that prairie plants typically have thin leaves.  This gives them less surface from which moisture can evaoporate.   Makes sense.......and explains my garden right now.

 

Grasses, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans.......these are the thin-leaved plants that thrive on the prairie and that are thriving in my garden right now.  The roses, with their intense water needs are struggling.  I'm just giving up on them for the rest of the year.  Those plump annuals I love are shriveling up in our 90+ degree heat.  And yet, the garden is far from bare.  The prairie flowers have multiplied and filled in most of the gaps.  When I sit out there in the middle of it all, I feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She must have gazed upon the very same varieties of flowers.

 

When I first moved to the midwest thirty years ago, several friends asked me WHY would I want to go to that wilderness.  But then, they'd not seen the prairie. 

 

Walking on the pier in St. Joseph is one of the joys of my life.  And every time I'm out there I wonder why this great body of water is only a lake.  It's not an ocean-- no salt; but why not "sea"?  

 

I've seen the Atlantic Ocean from Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Cape Hatteras;  both the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico from Florida;  and the Pacific from California.  Lake Michigan can hold its own.

 

We have beautiful sandy beaches, dunes, sea oats, piers, lighthouses, and the most glorious sunsets.   We don't have sharks, jelly fish or salt to wash off, making us a step ahead in my view.   But people who have not seen the Great Lakes tend to think of them as just lakes, like maybe Lake George or Saranac.  So I think our lakes should be renamed "The Great Inland Seas" or something equally magnificent.

 

When Dan and Deb were here last year, we walked out to the end of the South Pier and just sat.  With water on three sides, it's almost like being adrift on a raft.  Heaven, I think, must look much like this.

 

St. Joe actually has two piers.  The North Pier is the one with the lighthouse, but to get to it, I have to drive across the river and sometimes even pay to park.  So I habituate the South Pier.  I can park in downtown St. Joe, walk down the steps, past the Amtrak station and straight to the boardwalk and pier.  That is just what I did this morning when I took these photos.  Afterwards I poked around St. Joe window shopping--and even bought a couple of Christmas gifts.   

 

Two days a week St. Joe has a horse drawn carriage.  The rides are free, and it's a nice treat for the grandchildren.  They both love poking around town with grandma.  A few weeks ago I took them into one of the antique stores.  They were enchanted.  Austin found antique cars and trucks, and Emily couldn't keep her eyes off the jewelry.  It was their first visit to an antique store, but the way they loved it,  I think we'll be going back many times.  I've even promised Emily I'd take her Xmas shopping in one.  She found all kinds of things that "mommy would love." 

 

A favorite place to eat lunch is Shu's, especially if we get to sit outside and look at the lake while we're eating.  Not only do we have recreational sail and motor boats to watch, but huge commercial liners come into port to unload cargo.  The bandshell, which has free concerts on Wednesdays and Sundays, is located where both the lake and the St. Joseph River can be seen. 

 

So, come visit--enjoy the lake with us.  You'll be surprised--and maybe even delighted!