My Legacy: My Vacation to Michigan to See Andrea!

(If you don't know Andrea, you may want to pass the post up...but if you do and are curious about where she lives now, check it out!)

Just back from a week at Andrea's new home... somewhere in Michigan!... ok, where the purple pin is:

Thankfully, the weather was perfect and only required a light jacket. Andrea was bummed because she wanted me to see the snow she has been living with for the last five months! I wasn't bummed, I've seen snow and I didn't take a good coat for cold!

Pictures...in the order I took them:

Their back yard! AMAZING view of Lake Superior

The lighthouse that is 2 miles away at the far away point in the above picture:

Going down closer to the water

Back of the house

About 2 miles away from the house...no walking to these falls, just drive :-)

Tiny movie of the falls, click to start

Living room...birds...dog (Autumn Rose)

To the left, looking out the window from the livingroom (faces the lake)

To the right from the same standing point

(Sorry, I should have Photoshopped some of these but...you get the idea)

Then there was site seeing on the first few days...day one, I saw FOUR PEOPLE! ... ALL DAY LONG!!! THERE ARE NO PEOPLE THERE!

One of the highlights of the tour....for Andrea anyway, she insisted I take this picture:

The actual bar:

More Lake shore from another place

Another falls, taken from the car.

A lake that was still iced over:

The nearest store and gas pump ($4.40 a gallon)

Arbutus, the owner:

The shelves, if she doesn't have something she'll go to her home upstairs and get it off her own shelves...just charge less because it is used... :-)

The Refrigerator: LOVE! WANT!

They have tons of churches (ok, I saw about 15), all about this size... if you click on the picture you will see that the sign says the church is "Closed for the Season":

We had company over one night, for supper and playing cards, the bird counter from New York...there to count all the birds that migrate through the area. Seriously, he stands on top of a mountain, for 8 hours a day, counting every bird that flies by...extremely interesting guy... when he leaves here he then goes to Georgia (RUSSIA) to do the same thing there! Can you believe it? He goes to the top of the mountain, regardless of the weather and just counts birds...alone, all day!!! You can see his report and blog here: http://keweenawraptorsurvey.org/. We met him when we went up there to look for eagles (saw about 5 but they were too high to get a good picture) I wish now I had taken a picture of HIM!
He was purdy! :-)...and about 30 :-(

Anyway... this was dessert! DELICIOUS! And as you can tell, beautiful! Andrea is her happiest when cooking...and she did A LOT of cooking while I was there. MISS IT ALREADY! I'm back to cheese and crackers here :-(

1000 foot long ship passing by the house. (about 5 miles away) ... Taken from inside the house.

Sunset!

The sun, the moon, and Venus (According to Jim...I wouldn't have known)

Supper time.... 6 deer came by every night for supper, no bucks though

Birds, lots of birds....

There is a crow on the far off tree...you can't see it here

so I zoomed in....

Autumn Rose

The witch's circle in the back yard! I don't think Jim appreciated me calling it that but it reminded me of the Betty White scene in "The Proposal"!

The room where the four cats live.... She was only able to bring four of the 13 or 14? with her so she left half of her heart here in Georgia :-(

The garage...you have to park up there when there is snow because you can't drive down to the house. It is almost as big as the house! I was standing by the house when I took this so it is a little hike and climb to get to the car during the snow season.

The young Andrea!

Local post office

The biggest town we went to, about 30 miles away ... Houghton, where Michigan Tech, pizza and WalMart are!!!

A cell tower, Andrea REALLY wanted to climb up

Tiny video of the waves the last day I was there...it was calm most of the time but supposedly these are "3-4 feet tall ... you can't tell because of the angle" according to Andrea... but you can hear how hard the wind was blowing!

My view most of the week...LOTS AND LOTS OF TREES! I only saw TWO TRAFFIC LIGHTS the whole week... and we traveled around for hours and hours, all over the peninsula! Yes, Andrea wanted me to sit in the front seat so I could see better but you have to wear a seat belt up there!...I'd rather sit in the back.

Some of the houses...

The local chapel of the (5 miles away) a Catholic Monastery of the Byzantine Rite...the place where 5 Monk's live, "The Society of St John"

Phillip's Cabin...Phillip built Jim and Andrea's home...we went by there so I could see it...Andrea loves it because it reminds her of a gingerbread house...and the inside is really cool as well....lots of cool art pieces.

I can't believe I didn't get a good picture of the outside of their house! SHOOT!

The only "real" service station I saw the whole week...about 15 miles from where they live! $4.05 a gallon (I think it was $3.80 here in Georgia at the time)