Tonight

This evening I have four photos to share.

 



These were of course taken while at the boat, in Grand Haven. There are these little islands or clumps of grass that are in the middle of the Grand River. There is always some kinds of birds hanging around these areas. Birds are one of my favorite things to take photos of. Maybe because it's such a challenge, I'm not sure. One day, I plan to have an owl in my collection of birds.  Back when I was shooting with film, I seen and photographed a bald eagle right here in Hillsdale!  Someday I'll have to scan that and get it on here!

Okay my bird book says these are, to the best of bird searching abilities, top to bottom.  People around the marina call them wood ducks, but according to Sibley's field guide to birds these look most like a double crested cormorant.  Now I could be wrong, so if you know otherwise, please tell me what they are!  In the second and third shot, I was aiming for the bird standing there in the back.  Now I have always believed it was a white heron , but it seems--according the the field guide--they are rare in these here parts so next best bird with the closest matching description is a great egret.   Again, I could be wrong!  I did have a shot of a blue heron, but it was flying away from me, so it didn't turn out real great. 

There is one more shot to share tonight


Just because!

Spam fest videos

Saturday at the marina was our 2nd annual spam fest. What is spam fest you ask? One of our fellow boaters, Harlin, thought it would be fun to have a sort of pot luck buffet of food all made with spam in it. Last year was the first spam fest and I have to say the food, all laced with spam, was much improved this year!! My Husbands Spam 4 Cheese noodles won second place! Here is last years video, and it was shot  by Kim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz-EQbzYNMA . This years was shot by Kim with some help from her husband Rick, and it is also available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuhWyOL1zfA . Here are the winners--http://www.youtube.com and there are tons of photos of the dishes that I am aiming to get available tomorrow.

Why we didn't go....

So last weekend we head for the boat with thoughts of coasting down the shore to South Haven dancing in our heads. Ha ha! Thursday night we left our house and set off to Grand Haven. We had reservations for a slip in South Haven, which is the 2nd time my husband has made reservations. Checking the weather before we left, there was a chance, a rather big chance, that we might not be able to make the trip due to the weather. First thing Friday morning, my husband and I went and got coffee then made our way down to the beach to see how the lake was looking. The website I checked for wave heights said 6 to 8 footers, but I didn't really expect to see them:


The beach was empty, except for the seagulls, who didn't seem to mind us being there;




It was so windy that when the seagulls would try to run away from the water, they would get all fluffy, which they didn't seem to like, so they would run then turn around very quickly! They were also hoovering in the wind, a few of them right next to us as we were walking toward the shore. Even though our trip was out of the question we had quite an experience on this morning and we had an awesome day just checking out things in Grand Haven and Muskegon and Whitehall. All of which I will talk about later!

The birthday.

So Saturday, we had a pretty good day. Chuck and I went over and looked at a couple boats, we are thinking of moving up. Then when we came back and everyone was down at Herb's boat chatting so I said if you are all ready for cake, let's have cake! They were, of course, who doesn't love cake? It turned out to be the best cake I have ever bought from Wal-Mart! It was really delicious!

And it was super cute! I didn't make any plans, but we had a good turn out. These are the ones who stood still for the shot, except they all looked down? There was more people on the other side, but they dispersed when I turned around to take a photo!

Of course I didn't have 31 candles, so we just made them worth 10 + 1, which was actually aunt Sarah's idea!


Bob and Leeann got Chuck a pretty cool card, and gave him some of Bobs beer!

After all this, we ate dinner that Chuck made at home and brought with him. We were so full with cake and stuffed noodles! Aunt Sarah made a comment about walking the pier. I am still not sure how we managed to get the guys going but we did! It was the first time I had ever walked out there! I have rode by it on the boat, but never walked it. It looks really far, but it's really not so bad!

Even though it was kind of crowded, it was really peaceful.


At the end of the pier, the waves crash up against the wall and it's pretty awesome!

They are pretty strong and can drag you right in. It's pretty rough at the mouth of the river and the lake, not a place I would like to fall in! That is my son Jaden, he kept saying he was going to get wet, but he kept moving back! Saturday turned out to be a wonderful day!

Day 8

It's starting to feel like we're stuck on a deserted island! My husband keeps getting later and later. Originally he was going to come on Thursday, but for some reason, I got the impression that he was just saying that! Well anyway, Thursday night he had no idea if he was going to have to work all day Friday or if he would be able to leave Friday morning! It's looking more like it's going to be Friday afternoon. Who knows-I sure don't! Tomorrow is his birthday and my son and I were so excited to get him up here with us, plus it's really lonely when no one else is here!

Last night Jaden and I tried a new restaurant because it was so windy we couldn't keep the grill going and our chicken was frozen. Mr Scribs it is called. I think it is a great place for pizza and subs, but you might want to pass on the ribs and seafood-my opinion-I am not an official food critic so don't take any of that to heart and put me in the papers!

While trying to make sure my son has a memorable week with his mommy, I have been diligently working to whittle away at the stack of photos awaiting edits so I can also remove the ones from my cameras so they can be added to a new stack awaiting edits. Some of these have been waiting so long I forgot I took them!

I call this one "love birds".

I call this one "bashful"

This one is "Three IS a crowd"

This one is called"stop pooping on my car please"
These were taken at the marina. We have a tree that has a couple branches that these birds seem to prefer over the hundreds of others. Everyday I have to wash my car because it seems to have a big bulls eye on it for the birds!

A few weekends ago, when my husband and I brought the truck and the jet ski up here, we went by the old fur tannery factory, I am not exactly sure what it was because it's been closed for about 5 years, and I haven't been here for five years. I am told though that it smelled horrible! Anyway we went by this and I added a wash and hdr, gave it a new feel


The top one is hdr and the bottom is a washed version. I think the wash version makes it look like an old photo.

Last weekend-is when most of these photos were taken, I was having camera withdraws, so I walked around the marina to find some interesting things to shoot.

People are complaining about the lily pads, but they have these flowers that I personally think makes them okay. Sometimes they form hearts and make feel a little squishy inside.


Now I can unload my cameras and have some more for tomorrow! Happy 8 day!

Late

There hasn't been time lately to blog. Surely I was afraid that this would happen. There wasn't any photos to blog about, since I hadn't even had time to get out and shoot. Explanation: working. We were loaded with work, not so much any more. Hillsdale is suffering drought like conditions, therefore no green grass and nothing to mow. Last Thursday we all left for our boat, and my son and I stayed here, and are still here in Grand Haven. I started to blog yesterday, but it wasn't saving right so then I decided that I should probably take Jaden to the beach like promised. This was our mommy and son week, and now it's Wednesday, I am ready for my break! It hasn't been bad, Monday we had to get groceries and went swimming in the pool, Tuesday we went to the beach. We tried to make sand castles but that didn't go well, the sand wouldn't come out of the garbage pail we took. So then Jaden just swam for 2 hours, in the what I thought was freezing water! Oh, I also got sunburned on the front of my legs, and the middle of my back. Sunday all of us had sunburn on our legs from the knees down, how? Riding the jetski. Oh, crazy stuff happened right here in Grand Haven Last Saturday. About 9:30 p.m. we started hearing tons of sirens and what not, and we were sitting at the neighbors picnic table watching the coast guard and police boats fly by. Turns out there was a boating accident, a man who was supposedly drinking hit another boat causing the other boat to sink. There were two people on the sinking boat, a man and a woman, the woman managed to cling to the side of the boat until anther boat picked her up and she was in serious condition and the man was thrown from the boat. The search lasted for 4 hours in the dark. At that point they were not doing search and rescue, it was search and recovery. The man was found 17 hours after the accident. Isn't that just said, you would think people would learn not to drink and drive, let alone boat and drink-bad news for the man on the boat that didn't sink, the coast guard does not tolerate drinking and boating! Here is a link to the newspaper story: http://www.grandhaventribune.com/paid/299112414869642.bsp
No pictures this time, the picture uploader isn't working. I will try to get some more on here as quickly as I can.