My Daily Walk, a.k.a "I never knew there was this much green in the whole galaxy."

Hullo there! I have just returned from a Very Long car trip! That is, I suppose it was only 5-6 hours, but it was Very Long when 6 of us kids were riding in the back of a large van with only 7 seats between us. Along with all our cargo: backpacks and duffel bags, sheets, towels, a guitar (yep), seventy boxes of food and drinks, and a bunch of board games, books, and things. Oh, not to mention our pillows. All 8(ish) of them. And my younger siblings' stuffed animals. And...well, you get the idea. We went up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula (or the U.P. if you prefer) to spend a vacation week at a little cottage on a tiny, private lake called Piatt Lake. It's owned by a Bible conference society or something, and is quite a nice little place in the middle of Hiawatha national forest.

It is sooooo beautiful up there! I'm just going to share a few highlights from our trip.

• The lovely view from our cottage deck, where I could just stand with a cup o' tea or coffee, listening to the silence.
• Eating tons and tons of tasty food, getting ice cream at a small place in Newberry called "The Scoop." Living on the water makes me hungry.
• Hearing somebody call their kid "Lando."  Like, as in Lando Calrissian? 
• Two chipmunks, affectionately named "Teedo" and "The D.L.F" (by me) who would annoy us when we ate outside--one time, one was so close to me it was eating out of my hand. They didn't seem overly afraid of us. 

Aren't they adorable???

• Hiking through the beautiful, lush green woods of the Upper peninsula (even if it was a bit muddy) and being blown away by the beauty of God's creation

The pictures don't do the lighting justice by a long road.

• Chillin' with the guac from my chip hat, or rather, sitting inside with my notebook (I drafted like 16 pages!!!) and listening to my brothers' stir-crazy rainy-day madness. Somehow it was decided that Cinderella would henceforth be known as Cinderooble. Not sure how that happened. 
• Jumping off smallish cliffs of sand and bouncing down the sand dunes! 
• Reading books: "Out of the Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis and "The Secret-Keepers" by Trenton Lee Stewart
• Standing on a giant dune with 500 feet to the waters of Lake Superior beneath me, the closest to flying I'll ever get. It was majestic. One wrong step and we would fall, on the edge of a precipice, but with such a glorious landscape. It was awe-inspiring indeed, and I plan to return someday so I can run down the huge dune. 
  
  
  
  
• Seeing two Bald Eagles sparring in midair and getting it on video! Seeing a little baby bear in the wild (from a distance, that is) as well as hearing the eerie cries of loons.  
• Kayaking across our "home lake" to a place where the water seemed like glass and all was silent. It's called "the lagoon" by the residents of the lake, and I can truly say that some of the places seemed magical. 

A view of the lagoon

• Just...doing stuff...I guess....getting totally carried away in my book that I was writing and hardly being able to stop. It was lovely. 

Although I loved it up north, we didn't get to swim, really, it was already too cold (which is why I wouldn't want to live up there all the time--wouldn't be warm enough for my liking), and I was exceedingly glad to be home! To sleep in my own bed that doesn't smell like a stranger's house, to have the comfort and convenience of home...it's good to be back.