slow ride.....

Thursday we rested after we got the boat all set up.  After some resting we walked over to Summerfest, which was like a five minute walk from our dock.  After that we came back and rested some more.  Friday, our boating pals took us around the city.  Herb and Kathy were so nice to let us ride with them in their dinghy.  Ron and Pam carried the coolers, and Sarah and Harlin rode with Bob and Leann.  It was a little rough getting to the river but not bad. 




I was trying to take a picture of the bridge, but there really isn't much room to move around in a dinghy, and I asked him to take a picture for me but he "couldn't turn around"!  I took his picture and when he asked me what I was doing I told him nothing!

There is Kathy!!
The Milwaukee train bridge



Our first stop:




Oh my we had so much fun! Then we went on down the river after we had lunch, and stopped at Rock Bottom for more drinks and ice cream that was super Delicious--It tasted like coffee and I love coffee!!! More on the river later!

Thought I would share this link with everyone: Lyra M. 
She is scheduled to get her first portraits next week, and I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a benefit lunch on July 25th, and I will be donating a photo shoot for the auction as well as attending the lunch.  If you can not make it, there is a link where you can donate:Donation Link.  All the funds will help the young couple pay for doctor bills and anything else they may need help with. 

When in Milwaukee....

Catching you up----here we go!  Last week, my husband and I took our boat from Grand Haven, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the Holiday.  Oh my gosh, we had such a smooth ride over.  It took 3 1/2 hours to get across Lake Michigan! 


The view from the water, isn't this amazing!

The sunset on our first night there, and I took this from the back of our boat!
Here was my view after the sun went down:


We went for the Holiday and Summerfest, which was totally awesome! I seriously can't wait to go next year!

I will get you more ASAP!  There is MUCH to tell!  

Here again!

In these next few posts I wanted to share some trees. 

This one is another one from the air boat ride. These trees were fascinating to me. The shape of them and they are kind of creepy looking!


This was a night time shot while we stopped at Flaglar beach. You might notice the palm trees, tee hee!


This tree is not from Florida. This is a Georgia tree. It was along the highway. What I found interesting about these was the vines covering it.  It was also cool that the trees were not really close.

Where have I been?

Sick, along with the rest of the world!  My husband was sick and I was lucky enough to catch it from him.  It's possible that he may have got it from my son.  So I am going to try to get back on track and at least one photo a day!



I am going to give you some trees. This one is one I seen while we were on the air boat in Florida.

Redemption

My last post seems as if it happened so long ago.   It's only been one day but I have intentions of making up for that!  Yesterday we were in the car all day!  We had to leave Florida, to come home to cold weather!  Last blog I left you with was my husband wanting to drive on the beach and what came of that.  Yesterday he said, I have to redeem myself; I laughed.  We were driving up A1A and decided to stop in Daytona, for a bit before we got back on the Interstate.

It was here that I let him redeem him self.

It's a very packed down sand and set up to be driven on, not as easy to get stuck in.

He felt much better after this, so much better that when we got to Tennessee he wanted to go up this

I know it doesn't look like much here, but it was a trail that went up the side of the mountain. The only reason I talked him out of doing it was because it was a trail for 4x4's and 4-wheelers, which was posted on a sign along with the tickets you could get.
Now that he's redeemed himself, I can get on with my blog! Here is me and him on Daytona Beach

Here we are in St. Augustine at the Fort

We seen tons of stuff which I plan to tell everyone about, but right now I just want to get home!

My Husband

On our trip to Florida, my husband said, I would really like to visit North of St. Augustine and see the area where I lived as a child.  He said he would also like to drive his car on a beach.  Well we sure did drive on the beach.





It's such a small world, these men who stopped to help pull the car out of the sand, originally lived in Michigan, in the Ann Arbor area. How funny is that! Well, not as funny as my husband stuck in the sand!

Gators

When you come to Florida you expect to see alligators, right?  We haven't hardly seen any.  We have seen more things you wouldn't expect to see, like the manatees and we seen a dolphin.  Well on our boat ride we seen a couple gators and here they are:






The locals tell us that gators really start coming out when it starts to cool down, but when it is really hot they tend to stay more in the water. I suppose it's really better that way since I have no interest in being bitten by one!

One last shot before I go, just because it's beautiful!

Tuesday

Today we had a very busy day!  Let me tell you, I don't know why people think that a vacation is rest!  My husband wanted to show us things in Florida that he did as a child as well as do the space center and see the ocean.  Well as you may remember we left the house Thursday afternoon, and pushed down to Florida checking into our resort by 2 p.m.  Well needless to say we were tired!  I have to tell you, it doesn't seem like it has slowed down at all!  Today we started at 6 a.m.  Our air boat tour was scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. and we figured we needed to give ourselves 45 minutes to get to our destination.
We went out on an air boat tour for 1 hour and a half.  We didn't get to see a lot of alligators, but we did get to see a bunch of birds, and I got to see a pink bird, which I believe was a spoonbill of some sort, but I didn't get a shot of him because he took off as we were buzzing by.  Here is a bit of what we seen today:


These were the first birds who didn't fly away as we came by.  I am pretty sure that they actually put forward their best side.


It's a small world, this shot was taken in Florida, I live in Michigan, about 30 minutes away from Litchfield, and we actually worked for the owners of this company.


We seen these just before we got on our airboat.


This was the last thing we expected to see while out in the wet lands and swampy areas.

This was out on a refuge trail, we didn't see a lot of animals or many exotic birds, but it was very cool to see the areas we did see.


And finally, we did see the Manatees on Sunday, but we didn't get great photos because we were quite a ways away from where they were swimming. We did find another area thanks to some locals, and these Manatees were really close, but the water is murky and they don't surface very often and when they do they mostly just take a breath so it's quick and not a lot to see! Here's some noses:


I did get a tail. But most of the shots are of noses.
That's all for now!

More from Florida

My version of "footprints" except I think I will call it, "Webprints"



On the beach there are tons of seagulls, and there are many other birds as well, I don't know the names of them, but here is one:


Then there was these cute little fluffy birds, and they just run and pluck from the seaweed and they will fluff up thier feathers and sort of "cuddle".


And if you get out to the beaach really early, or late in the night you will see these little cuties:

They are FAST!

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!