Ludington

Last time I was here, I described our trip to Ludington. Here is some of the stuff we seen while we were away.

This is the Ludington lighthouse that I made look like an old photograph.
Here is a HDR version:

Ofcourse we seen way more than this light house, but something that was really cool about this light house was we actually got to go into it

We walked all the way out the break wall and there was a sign that said adults $3 and Children $1. This is the first one we have gotten to go into. Of course it's only the second light house that we have walked too.
So here is the light house up close:

When you walk through the door, there isn't much to look at. The "volunteers" have set up a table and spot for little souvenirs, they take your money which goes toward the up keep of the light house and what not, and they tell you some stories about it, and about how you yourself can be a "volunteer" and you can stay in the lighthouse for a weekend. I couldn't imagine staying in it, but I am sure it would be an experience! There really isn't much inside to see, and as you go up the space shrinks!

Here is a couple of shots that show the view from the top floor. There was four people and a dog up there, and I squeezed up there for a minute and that really took away from the elbow room! I say a second because I am terrified of heights, but I am trying to over come it, at least for photo ops!


This is what it looks like looking up! If you look closely you can see my famous dog! She is in the bag and famous because she got to go all the way up into the lighthouse. We took her out on the walk with us so she could get out for a bit and get some exercise, but when we were on the break wall there wasn't enough room to let her walk on the leash so we put her in my bag, she never complained!

This would be the third floor. This is the floor where the bell or whistle is blown. The signs there talk about how loud it is. There wasn't much inside to photograph, but this gives you a slight idea. Here is looking out the window of the third floor.
Here is the second floor, not much going on here:

The boat trip

Last Thursday, would have been the 23rd of July, we packed our boat full and waited for the morning to arrive. Rather early, we unhooked all the lines and shoved off for our very first boat trip away from our marina. We were heading for Ludington, 56 miles north of Grand Haven on a very smooth and calm Lake Michigan! This is Sarah and Harlins boat on the way to Ludington. Gives you an idea of how calm the water was.

That is the sand dunes behind them. Silver Lake Sand Dunes to be exact.
This is their boat again, and we are actually leaving Ludington and that's the light house we got to go up into, but more on that later.

While we were gone, I took over 400 photos and that's just with my big camera. For now all I have is boat photos, from the ride there and the ride back. We started to head home on Sunday, but we were facing five footers that we heard turned into eight footers (waves) so we turned into port at Pentwater. We had a lot of fun there, even though I complained a bit about the lack of luxury! It wasn't so bad and we had tons of fun in the one night we were there. The town was adorable and had tons of shopping. We left out of Pentwater at 7:30 because we wanted to beat the waves that were going to build, and the waterway would be shut down at 1:00 in Grand Haven for the Coast Guard Fest that would start last weekend!
So here is Rick and Kim on the way home! It was a very nice ride home, we were so glad we waited until Monday.


Here is Tu Dogs, Herb and Kathy, also on the way home. This was such a nice trip we can't wait to do it again. There is plenty more to talk about, as I said earlier, I took over 400 photos on this trip! More 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!