I spent the last few days out in the woods relaxing and thankfully getting away from technology for a little while. I took the trip up to Mackinac from GR and spent Monday-Weds with Tod and his family out at Wilderness State Park. It was a nice little campground, and a little different from what I would have expected in the campground, though I guess family camping is more inclined to trailers and sites with “hook-ups”. The weather was a little bit of a downer on the trip, but really it just made the time out there a little different from the norm. They were camped at a site not too far from the beach, but what good is that on the overcast windy days. My normal staying up late and waking up late schedule did not work well while camping. Since I could not fall asleep well on Monday night, I got up after an unsuccessful attempt counting sheep, to find that the clouds had cleared and there was nothing but a starlit sky above me. I took a few pictures of the moon above the clouds, the Big dipper, and as I sat on the beach I was just happy to be there out in the woods and not working. I came back and played a little bit with the dwindling fire, and then I figured I might be able to fall asleep so I did.

Tuesday was more of the grey skies and threats of rain. While sitting around camp with Tod, waiting for it to clear up and his wife to arrive back at the site with the children, we sat chatted and just had some good tiems around the fire, still remaining from the previous night. After a lunch of Smoked sausages and fried vegetables, we took the “short trip” over to the Old Mission Penninsula to go visit the Chateau Grand Traverse Winery. The truip became exceedingly long due to the pissing of rain and people not signaling turns, as well as people just not knowing what to do in rain and how to keep a constant speed. After a 3 hour drive from the campgroud to the destination, we spend maybe 25 minutes there sampling and buying, then turn around to come back. The return took closer to the estimated time putting us back up in 2 hours, but still just being generally frustrated by the rain and stupid drivers. Tod was amused by episodes of Futurama on the laptop. We arrived back to camp to make some dinner and relax and enjoy the “fruits of our journey”. After waking up with a sore back I decided that I would attempt to nap the night away in the Hammock, and luckily it chose nto to rain, as I lay in the hammock wrappen in my woll blanke staring up at the clouds.

Wednesday was to be the day of the excursion across the bridge into the UP. I had the fun job of navigating this time. We headed up to Taqhamenon Falls and spend some misting time out there. the first stop was to the Lower falls, which I almost think look nicer than the Upper falls, but what do I know. I just enjoyed the smaller falls, and the row across to the island. Next we traversed up to the Upper falls and tookin both angles, the gorge and the brink. I believe I captured a few photos with both the digital camera and the analog SLR. After that little venture and talking to some people, we visited the gift shops and I picked up another surprise for Dad and Jon. I wish I could remember what year it was that we took our family vacation up there, I vaguely remember the Toonerville Trolley, and I seem to even remember being able to walk out onto the lower falls, I may be mistaken though. I cannot even beging to place the year though. After leaving the falls, we headed to Cut Rock to see the bridge and kill a little time before stuffing our faces on some burgers from Clydes drive in. The 3/4lb burger was definately delicious. A trip into the city to pick up some things for people and then back to the campsite. I was unfortunately not able to stay another night, but I needed to make it in to GR to get to work today. Which I really don’t know how I feel about that.

The title of this post may sound familiar to some, it may not. I was at the Upper falls and I saw it on a sign that contained some more poetry. I was never really aware of the source of this quote before, nor which source I now knwo it from to be the original. This is a quote from Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha:

…..
Ye who love the haunts of Nature,
Love the sunshine of the meadow,
Love the shadow of the forest,
Love the wind among the branches,
And the rain-shower and the snow-storm,
And the rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees,
And the thunder in the mountains,
Whose innumerable echoes
Flap like eagles in their eyries;–
Listen to these wild traditions,
To this Song of Hiawatha!
…….