Monday, October 29, 2012

L Michigan, summer travel

 Seems I have done a fair amount of
 traveling this year; will try to review a few of those trips. In July, we siblings went to my father's birthplace, Algoma, WI on L Michigan...now called the sportfishing capital of the Great Lakes-king salmon, brown trout, walleye and more. Feel like I'd like to do that sometime...it's quite more affordable than sportfishing on Isla.











When I stayed there in summers with my grandparents, I have good memories of the foghorn blasting away, day and night; now, they only use it in bad weather...suppose with all the new technology, boats can maneuver better on their own....but lighthouses on the Great Lakes are charming and each one so individual.  This is one of my favorites.




















There's a nice boardwalk all along the beachfront, with benches and lovely streetlamps. One is in honor of my grandparents, and I love to go visit it each time I come--keeps me connected...
 



I see they are trying to keep the beaches clean. They have these plastic beasts set in the sand to scare away the sea gulls, which are a bit too plentiful here.  My sister & grandkids were walking the beach at night, and when they first came upon one of these guys, they kind of freaked out. I think their eyes even gleam!














One unexpected occurrence was running into a famous personaltiy--Susan, from Seinfeld (which we all watch in reruns...) Imagine!
She is a singer/ukelele player with the Sukey Jump Band. If you google her under her real name, Heidi Svedberg, you can find fun stuff, a lot relating to her teaching and playing ukele.
I love her persona, and in real life, she is the warmest, friendliest person. What is shocking is her voice, her laugh, mannerisms, etc. were just so familiar to us, and we just could not separate the real person from her character in Seinfeld.
She agreed to pose with us...what a treat.
She was in Door County for much of the summer, I think, as artist in residence, or with the band, performing small gigs.




All in all, a fun vacation, one we take annually to stay in touch with our roots. It occurs to me that my early introduction to spending time near a large body of water led to my wanting to be by the sea.
Who knows...maybe that's why I now have an Isla connection!
And the good thing is... no winter there! While L Michigan doesn't quite freeze over, it's darn cold.

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