Roses 1.0 Van Life

Athens

The flight here was uneventful, I think of it as “that which must be endured”. Sleeping in a sitting position is a skill I haven’t mastered. We got between two and four hours of sleep. Took a cab to hotel, The InnAthens, pronounced the inn in Athens but spelled as one word, our room was ready so after lunch at “The Victory” cafe we came back and slept until 4:30 PM Athens time, then walked to the Acropolis museum. The Acropolis of Athens (most cities in Greece have an acropolis) is the third highest hill in Athens. Unlike the other two it has a flat top suitable for building. Its structures include the parthenon, the erechtheum, the theater of Dionysius and other smaller structures. The museum, located near the base of the hill holds many of the artifacts or fragments that remain. We took the self guided tour using our phones, my separate ear pods worked well, one in my right ear, the other in Noel’s left ear. We arrived at five, left at 7:15, not enough time but ok. Pictures were not allowed inside the Acropolis museum but I took one before I realized that, a dog sculpted 2,500 years ago. It is in a pointing position, one much like our Sammy would take:

After the museum we walked to a hotel with a rooftop view of the parthenon, after an elevator fail (the elevator door opened to what looked like a steel wall and I didn’t know to give it a good hard push) we had a nice leisurely meal:

End of first day, at the Acropolis select hotel. Parthenon in the background

Thursday began with an excellent breakfast buffet at the InnAthens then a short walk to Hadrian’s Arch to meet our tour guide, Marika:

Marika in front of the ancient agora, acropolis over her left shoulder

Hadrian’s Gate or aka Arch, the symbolic entrance to the new city built by Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD

From there we walked to the Acropolis. Despite winning the war(s) with the Persians the structures on the Acropolis were destroyed by the invaders. It was Pericles who led the effort to rebuild in the 5th century BC. Much of the subsequent destruction was due to neglect, Christians felt indifferent to or actually embarrassed by the pagan worship, or to war, with the Ottoman empire, WWI etc. This restored theater located about halfway up the hill is still used:

Built second century AD odian heroditus theatre, Pavarotti, Mariah Callas and others have performed here

This much larger one, theater of Dionysius, is no longer in use. It could seat 17,000. The wall surrounding the acropolis is in the background.

On the acropolis itself was very windy, and the views of Athens were super. There are three notable structures on top, the parthenon, the Erechtheon (sometimes spelled Erecktheon) and the entrance gate, the Propylaia. Here are some pics:

Erechtheon, parthenon is behind the photographer

Athens as seen from the acropolis, 360 degrees of this view. A big sprawl with no skyscrapers

We walked back down the acropolis hill to the temple of Haephestus, then the ruins of the ancient agora, the latter are in the picture with our guide. We walked though the very crowded contemporary agora, the monastiraki, full of restaurants and souvenir shops. Very unlike Rome where every other store seemed to be a designer outlet. This place left the biggest impression, Peggy insisted I put it in the blog. It had pillow sized pastel-colored mounds of gelato and this display of gelato popsicles:

Mona Lisa gelataria. I think this is one store in a chain of gelatarias in Europe

Had lunch at Ydria then returned to the hotel for a nap before walking through the national gardens, basically a park, where we saw Monk parakeets, and heard Rose-ringed parakeets, both introduced species foreign to Athens. We then watched the changing of the guard, a Monty-Pythonesque display reminiscent of the ministry of silly walks (sorry but can’t help it) at the parliament building’s tomb of the unknown and finally ate at this place, pictured below on right:

Venice

BYOB*

We had no trouble getting the train from Florence to Venice. Most europeans know at least some English but we didn’t need any help, the arrivals/departure boards were easy to understand. Getting to the hotel from the train station was another matter. There are no taxi cabs, in fact there are no cars, there aren’t even streets just sidewalks. We walked to a lunch place, originally we were going to get a water taxi but finally decided to hoof it the whole way, just under 30 minute walk. Many of the sidewalks are narrow and the near universal cafe tables outside in Rome and Florence become a bit of an uncommon site here as there often isn’t room. We feared the water would be brown and littered but that is not the case at all. The water is clean and blue/green with nothing but sea-air smell. Here are some pictures to get a flavor of Venice.

Gondolas seem suited for this, although you do see them plying the waters of the grand canal

The grand canal, only a few foot bridges over it but 100’s over the smaller side canals

We spent most of Wednesday, our only full day in Venice, in water buses. It was difficult, gondolas and even water taxis are too expensive so take the buses. But it is confusing. Buy an all day or multiday ticket from a machine, study the lines on the posted schedule outside each stop but don’t expect to understand them. Figure out what stop you are at and what stop you want to go to then look at the list of stops on the side of the boat. If your stop is there get on. Pay attention to the line you are on, most are numbers, some are letters. You’ll get comfortable with it after a few trips. One last thing on boats, forget the Traghettos, small boat ferries that supposedly take you across the grand canal for a small fee, there NEVER was a boat at a Traghetto, never. As for walking it’s navigating a labyrinth. The sidewalks vary but are often so narrow two people can barely walk abreast and they rarely go straight because there is always a side canal to find a foot bridge over. There’s a picture of a typical sidewalk above, not all are that narrow but many are.

Basilio Santissimo Redentore, on Isla Giudecca (Jewish island), across from the main island

The only tour we took was St Mark’s Basilica at night. Built in 1097 after the first church burned down, it is a marvel. Old testament scenes are around the narthex, new testament scenes decorate the nave and alter, finishing of course with Christ’s resurrection. The ceiling frescoes are gold, 400 sq meters of hammered gold leaf cut to fit into intricately drawn images. Here’s the ceiling:

There are three domes, father son and holy spirit. This is the central dome, Christ.

The detail throughout is spectacular. This is one of two 12 ft tall alabaster columns carved with biblical themes. This is Judas hanging himself (why isn’t it white, it’s 1,000 yr old):

The floor is undulating, and cracked. The church like all of Venice is built on marshy islands in what was an estuary lagoon. That helped fend off invasions, mostly barbarians from the north who were fierce on foot but not so great in boats. Wooden pillars were driven into the mud to support the buildings. Over time the buildings have sunk, and large very heavy buildings like this church haven’t sunk evenly. The solid marble slabs in the picture above right crack more than the tiles, both sink and undulate. One last picture, the Bridge of Sighs. Made of limestone it connects the Doge’s palace to the prison. If convicted in court, which was in the palace, the condemned man was marched across this enclosed bridge to the adjacent prison. St Mary di Salute can be seen across the grand canal as well as a foot bridge over a side canal with a gondola crossing beneath.

Our guide in St Marks said the gold and jeweled screen behind the altar was built by Turks in 1104 in Byzantium. Byzantium was Greek in 1104, it wasn’t until 1453 that the Turks conquered and colonized it. This historical inaccuracy bothered me but Peggy insisted I keep quiet about it, was she right?

We had several good meals here. I plan to do a general Italy post on the flight home tomorrow.

* BYOB in Venice stands for Bring Your Own Boots. Flooding is a regular event here December to February.

Florence Y’all*

Florence is nothing like I expected. And it’s hard to describe. Imagine the French Quarter of New Orleans but more than 50 times bigger, with buildings 6 stories instead of 2, and without the debauchery and your close. The city is ancient, many of the buildings date to the middle ages, most of the streets are alleys, a modest sedan can get through but an SUV struggles to fit. There are few green spaces but lots of squares, or piazzas, and there are lots of people out walking, and it doesn’t seem to slow down at night. There are no high rises, no malls, just small shops, many of them specializing in designer goods. Two of the most famous, and best, museums in the world are here, the Ufizzi and L’academia, open 6 days a week but closed on Mondays. This is Monday. We made the best of it by going to three churches/cathedrals, each spectacular in its own way, two are essentially art museums, the third had a separate museum attached. First a few pics to illustrate what Florence is like:

Three typical streets in Florence, basically alleys

Our hotel pictured above, just a door with a small sign to its right with Hotel La Casa di Morfeo on it. You get buzzed in to find an empty stone hall and a stone staircase in the opposite corner. On the second floor you can find another door with a smaller hotel sign. Once again hit the buzzer and the door opens onto a front desk and people. There are about 10 rooms on the second floor, that’s the hotel.

Statues abound in Florence. A replica of Michaelangelo’s David is in the Piazza Signoria, a giant Neptune spouts water from various orifices nearby and a statue of Dante sits outside the Basilica Santa Maria di Croce. That latter was our first church today. Inside are the tombs of Galileo, Michelangelo, Machiavelli and Rossini. Tomb-like monuments are present honoring others, such as Dante, Da Vinci, Fermi and Marconi and others.

Michealangelo’s tomb left, Galileo’s right. This church had a few Donatello sculptures in it.

Next we went to the main Basilica of Florence about half a mile away, The Duomo with its bell tower and baptistry next door. The three are each stunning to see:

The marble is naturally white, pink and green as taken from each different quarry

Peggy says “I ain’t climbing that”, and thus we decided not to.

And inside the Basilica:

The Duomo has so much art a separate museum was created for it. That museum held a dozen or so sculptures by Donatello, one by Da Vinci and the 4 ton brass door to the baptistry. A replica is in place, this is the actual door. We had fun trying to recognize the scenes from the old testament. Can you get any (hint, David and Goliath is the lower left)

Bronze doors to the Duomo baptistery , they weigh 4 tons

This was the most moving piece in the Duomo museum, it’s called “The Penitent Mary Magdalene”, by Donatello carved in wood, legend has it she became an itinerant hermit after Jesus death, this is how Donatello imagined her:

Mary Magdalene the penitent in wood by Donatello

There’s so much more but I will close with Ponte Vecchio. A pedestrian bridge over the Arno. Shops line the bridge on both sides, mostly highly expensive designer stuff, and there is a gap in the middle through which the first picture is taken.

We also went to Basilica San Lorenzo which had several stunning works of art, the two pulpits designed by Donatello were the most impressive (the guy was prolific). Also Peggy discovered it is possible to have a bad meal in Italy, more on that later. Train to Venice in AM.

* readers who have traveled I 71 to Cincinnati will get it

Rome day 2

Our second full day in Rome was much more relaxed. We slept late and the day became a self-made walking tour. Took a cab to Ristorante Pancrazio where we had a very good brunch. It’s one of several restaurants and outdoor markets located on the site of Pompey’s amphitheater. About half the size of the colosseum it was built in 60 BC. The restaurant’s basement has some of the original wall

Inside Ristorante Pancrazio. Original wall of Pompey’s amphitheater in back

One shot of the huge outdoor market in the piazza created
on the ruins of Pompey’s amphitheater
. Ristorante Pancrazio is behind the photographer

We planned a walk to the Pantheon, Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps, stopping into churches we found along the way. Many of these have renaissance masterpieces inside, also it was amazing to see plaques in so many of them saying “this is a copy of the original taken by Napoleon and subsequently lost”. Apparently his conquering army took, stole, over 120,000 works of art from Italy, many from churches. We also stopped to rest and replenish with gelato periodically.

The Pantheon, built by Hadrian circa 120AD on the site of a previous temple. This temple was dedicated to all the Gods (Pan Theo). It became a church in 609 AD and has been in continuous use for nearly 2,000 years. We didn’t go inside, the line was very long

Trevi fountain, so named because it is at the junction of three roads Tri Via – Trevi. Unfortunately it was under repairs when we visited it

The Spanish Steps seen from the top. Built in the 1720’s they take walkers from the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Plaza) to the Trinita del Monti church. This photo is from the plaza outside the church and looks down on the small fountain in the Spanish Plaza. We went into the church of course. Pictures are allowed but we took few if any of the church interiors.

From Trinita del Monti we walked back to the hotel stopping in one more church. The walk was about 2 miles. We got back to the hotel about 6 PM, had our evening meal at La Culinaria.

ROME !!!

We had an easy gettaway, the drive from Charlottesville was uneventful, traffic manageable. The flight was the usual necessary evil, 8.5 hrs., fortunately it was only half full so we both could lay down, me across three seats in the center row, Peggy in two seats by a window. We left on Wednesday evening in Virginia but it was 3:30 AM Thursday in Rome. We arrived about 12:30 PM Rome time but it took us too long to decide how to get to the hotel. We finally picked taxi, the line for one was easily a city block long. We ate at La Famiglia a super crowded, super noisy, totally Italian place. And learned a few things about ordering and eating out in Italy (mentioned later)

The next day, Friday, was our day for official tours. AM was vatican, Sistine chapel and St Peter’s Basilica, PM was the coliseum and forum.

The vatican is a walled city state, its own country, visited by 30,000 people a day. Here are pictures of the old entrance and the new one:

Our tour guide, 49 yo Debra Diego, a visual artist and producer, as Rider Haggard might say “She who must be obeyed” New entrance at right was created only a few years ago.

We payed a little more for the “VIP skip the lines tour”, well worth it. 12 people is all there were in our tour and the guide was really good. She cares deeply about art, and knew so much. She was bossing us and total strangers around the whole tour “don’t stand there you’re blocking the aisle”, “there is a time limit here you must move on”. And she herded us like we were sheep and she a border collie. We sped through the vatican museum first. Her theme was to show us Michaelangelo’s influences. The greek statues of Apollo are his models for Jesus, Hercules is God the father, a statue of Glaucus is the model for the face of agony (hell). Here are some pictures:

Apollo, his face used by Michelangelo as the model for Christ’s face. But he gave Jesus a six pack, not the soft abdomen seen here

Glaucus, a greek who sided with Troy in the Trojan war. The face of agony, used as a model for those in Hell by Michaelangelo

Fragment of a sculpture dug up in Greece, thought to be Hercules. Michaelangelo’s God the father is built like this guy

We sped through the vatican museum, there was so much to see it could have taken days. It’s kind of a blur in my memory already. We were taken to the door to the Sistine Chapel and told we had 12 minutes, to be quiet, take no pictures and meet her at the opposite end. Peggy and I were so into studying the images on the walls and ceiling that 10 minutes into it we were still just inside the door when a priest came to offer a prayer. We couldn’t walk to the back of the Chapel meeting place while he prayed, – we were late. From there we walked through St Peter’s square and then to the Basilica. The Pieta is there:

Michaelangelo’s Pieta, The Pity, Mary holding her son immediately after the crucifixion.

Our guide saying good bye in St Peter’s. The wooden structure in the back is directly over the tomb of St Peter. Six members of our tour are here.

After lunch at Osteria delle Comare we took a cab to The Coliseum and Roman Forum. We were to meet at the Arch of Constantine at 3:00. At 2:54 I started to panic when one minute later a woman with a yellow flag showed up and 10 other people instantly congregated around her. Our guide was a 45 yo former professor who had a PhD in anthropology. Originally from Rome, he lived in England, Columbia, Peru and Brazil. The latter two countries were as part of his phd work. He lived with an indigenous tribe in the Amazon for a year, knows that language as well as being fluent in Italian, English and Portuguese. The four hour 15 minute tour was 3hrs 55min on the colisseum, 20 min forum. The coliseum could seat 70,000, was free and bread was handed out free. Built between 70 and 80 AD by Vespasian and his son Titus, it was used as entertainment for the people of Rome, entertainment that usually included death of many animals and people. The seats were marble or brick, it had a retractable canvas roof. Here are some pictures and recreations of the original as it is really hard to imagine how it was from the ruins:

The tunnel-like archways you see above our heads would not have been visible from this position inside. There was a solid row of seats in a nearly continuous circle broken only by a few entrances. Each of the arches you see above us had a statue in it visible from outside (see the model at the end)

The marble on top was the original height, it no longer extends entirely around. Wooden posts like telephone poles stood vertically on top of that marble and ropes from those posts holding a retractable canvas roof extended out to nearly the middle of the circle

The white marble just to the right of the emperor’s entrance is all that remains of the original marble seats. But what’s going on with the floor??? You are looking at the remains of support for the wooden planks that were covered with sand to create the “playing field”. Gladiators and animals in cages stayed in the tunnels and hallways under the floor. The sand was to soak up the blood. Wood covered with blood would be slippery and the blood difficult to remove. Bloody sand could be shoveled up, removed and easily replaced. The latin word for sand is arena, thus the nickname “the arena”. It stuck around.

how the original coliseum looked from the outside

one of those marble seats with a 2,000 year old name of the patron family still easily read

A Recreation of a 50 50 fight animals vs men, a common event. Notice the coliseum seats are a continuous circle of marble and brick, the wooden floor covered with sand. The gladiators were not allowed to turn their backs on the emperor so must fight the animals facing him or be punished. A referee wearing a white shirt with blue stripes called fouls and decided the punishment

The forum was a large gathering/meeting place on the palatine hill adjacent to the colosseum. Rectangular, it stretched roughly half a mile and had government buildings on one side, religious temples on another, and market places on a third. The residential city spread out from all sides of it. Unfortunately the forum was not well preserved.

Ruins of once impressive buildings are all that is left of the forum today.

Home and Attack of the Killer Muskrat

August 19 and 20, 2024 Nine hours to home from Empire is two days of driving for us. From the CG, near Sleeping Bear, we drove to Saugatuck Brewing Co. for a very good lunch and a really good beer. Afterwards we walked on Lost Rock beach, Sammy loves wave chasing and he entertained several beach goers. Next stop for the night was a Harvest Host site, Twin Maple farms.

It is primarily an apple orchard, 20 varieties, many tree limbs drooping to the ground and some broken under the weight of the apples. They also have blueberries, cherries, strawberries, pumpkins, summer squash, a couple of acres of tomatoes, and lots of flowers. The sunflowers are $1 apiece, you pick. The owner said “I bought this place two years ago knowing nothing about growing apples”. Talk about a leap of faith. They have an open air store by the road, operated by his wife and daughter. He and his sons worked in the orchard until sunset. We made our purchases and then strolled around. Here are some pictures of the farm…..

Me with Sammy just before “the attack”. The muskrat was in the sunflower field but moving toward the cattails which are just ahead of me.

A field of you-pick zinnias, apples in the background

Attack of the killer muskrat

In the sunflower picture above, a muskrat charged at Sammy seconds after the picture was taken. My guess is he had kits in the cattails, assumed we were a threat and was protecting them. The “fight” took about 2 seconds, Sam inflicted a bite on his back, he bit Sam’s nose. I pulled the leash hard and separated them. Sam bled a lot, took 20 minutes or more to stop.

Before and after Small cut above the nostril, larger cut beneath at 5 o’clock. .

Had lunch in Lafayette, IN at D T Kirby’s downtown, a road food rec. Peggy said it was the best hotdog she’s had in years, maybe ever (wrapped in seasoned bacon and deep fried). Kevin texted with her to help her with her order choice. Just left there, should be home in about 4 hrs.

Sleeping Bear

August 18, Left Petoskey SP and drove through both Petoskey and Traverse City. Beautiful small towns on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Ate brunch at Bayside restaurant in Petoskey. Finished the day at Sleeping Bear NLS. Campground was full of course so we found a spot in a county park called Empire CG then we drove the scenic drive within Sleeping Bear. Each scenic overlook was nice but the last stop was spectacular. About 450 ft above Lake Michigan atop a sand dune, we watched the sun set.

That clump of trees Peggy is pointing at is the sleeping bear. It served as a landmark to native Americans and traders navigating the lake in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It looked from the lake like a bear curled up asleep.

It’s hard to show the enormity of this sand dune. Those are people coming back up the dune. It’s about 450 feet.

Mackinac Island

Saturday August 17 Ferry over to Mackinac Island, only 4 miles wide the island is famous for not allowing cars, everyone walks, bikes, rides a horse or takes a horse drawn carriage/taxi. This was the location of an important fort in colonial period to shortly after the war of 1812, known as Machilimacinac (spelling varies), it changed hands from French, to English to American. Very touristy, of course, beautiful landscaping, lots of flowers everywhere, we spent about 6 hrs walking around and eating lunch (at Kingston Kitchen). Here are some pictures to give an idea of what it is like………

A Mackinac taxi goes by

A mixture of private residences and vacation rentals (mostly the latter)

From Mackinac Island we drove to Petoskey SP. For us it was just a place to stay the night but we were impressed by the extensive bike trails linking small towns along the lake, Petoskey to Traverse City e.g.

Finish the UP, start south

Friday August 16, 2024

Left Tahquamegon SP around 9:30 and drove to the upper falls parking area. My opinion, upper falls much more impressive. No one swims in the upper falls. Here it is…..

Next drove to Whitefish point, known for two things: it’s the graveyard of Lake Superior, and it’s where migrating neotropicals tend to congregate as they cross the lake going back south. There have been over 500 shipwrecks off this point. Most were in the late 19th to early 20th centuries when there were as many as 3,000 commercial ships on the lake, there are only about 200 now. Whitefish point is where the lake narrows before the entrance to the St Mary’s river and the Sault (Soo) locks. It’s also where the lakes famously huge waves break as the lake becomes more shallow. The great lakes shipwreck museum is here. Regarding the neotropical’s fall migration, it is just now starting and one checklist submitted two days before we were there had 40 Cape May warblers on it. We unfortunately saw only a few Redstarts and Black-throated greens, and a Lincoln sparrow. After walking the sand beach studded with many colorful flat skipping-stone rocks, and walking the birding trail back along the huge sand dunes, we headed for Sault Ste. Marie. Had a late lunch of poutine at “The Antlers”, look at this picture of the interior and you’ll know why the name,

I don’t usually photograph my food but this was something altogether different (and basically a bowl full of leftovers, but still good)

Mostly local or at least north American game but also African Kudu and gazelle, and many unrecognizables, no jackalopes however.

The Soo locks were worth seeing. There is a museum, free, and behind it a viewing platform. Only two locks are there, one small one large. A third larger lock is under construction on the Canada side. We watched a tour boat and an ocean going container ship go through. The bridge to Sault Ste. Marie Canada is a site to see but I couldn’t get pictures to do it justice.

We watched this descend perhaps 10 feet before taking the pic. By the time it was ready to lock through we could look down on its deck. Notice the bridge to Canada in the background

Tour boat heading upstream lock water at highest

Tour boat coming upstream through the lock, water level down

Sault, pronounced Soo, is an archaic French word for rapids, so Rapids of the St Mary river. Many times in my life I have looked up Sault in a french/english dictionary never to find it, learning the meaning took a deeper dive. The river is about 74 miles long and empties into Lake Huron, which is really the same thing as Lake Michigan btw.

From there we finally started south, camped in Straits SP which is literally on the shore of the strait between lakes Huron and Michigan. Tomorrow Mackinac Island and later Petoskey, Traverse City the day after, then home, at least that’s the current plan.

Yoopers here we come

Aug. 10, 2024 We decided a “beat the heat week” was in order so we left this morning for a few days circling lake Michigan with the UP, upper peninsula of Michigan, our primary focus. Our first night was spent at a Harvest Host site, Beans and Barley, a family owned restaurant just off I57, about an hour south of Chicago. The owner was washing dishes when we arrived, his wife and adult son were cooking. Very friendly, they visited us at our table at both supper and breakfast. I’m always amazed at how hard people work. He and his son have full time jobs during the week. His wife does the cooking, he does all sorts of odd jobs for the restaurant, he was mowing the grass Sunday morning when we left, hollered “hope to see you again soon neighbor” as we drove away.

Sunday Aug. 11 we drove to American Family Field to see the Reds play the Brewers, got there at 11:30 for a 1:10 game and there already was a line of cars at the entrance. We were turned away because of our dog, went to downtown Milwaukee, parked in a lot, ate at the Brat Haus (shout out to Craig and Laura for the rec) and took the shuttle to the game. Arrived as the National Anthem was ending. I tipped the parking lot attendant to let me park in a handicapped spot, it was the only spot completely shaded. The game was great despite an obnoxious Brewer fan who taunted the small number of Reds fans near him, but only when Milwaukee was ahead. He quietly snuck out when it became obvious the Reds were going to win, final score 4 -3. (Peggy wanted to taunt him back as he left, had to restrain her).

American Family Field, home of the Brewers (photo bombed by some random person)

Great place to eat before the game, then shuttle to and back. Definitely better than driving there.

Shuttled back to the Brat Haus, then ate at the Red Lion. We had very good impressions of Milwaukee. Noticed that few places are called restaurants, but there are lots of breweries, pubs, bars and “Haus” places, so no shortage of places to eat. We had a little time to walk around on the river walk, very nice. There were lots of new apartments and condos close to the city center, a sign of a healthy city.

The Red Lion, ate there because they allow dogs on the patio.
small sign on an otherwise nondescript door, never would have gone there but for that,
never would have noticed it in fact. Food, and beer selection was very good.

Drove to a Cracker Barrel in a northwest suburb for the second night.

Door County

Monday drove to Peninsula SP in Door county, had time to eat lunch at Al Johnson’s goats-on-the-roof place, and to walk along the lake. Then we checked into our spot in the park CG. The Northern Sky theatre is a short walk from Nicolet CG, we saw “Belgians in Heaven”, a slapstick, silly comedy about immigrants to Door county from Belgium. Peggy loved it. All the plays here are new plays, commissioned for this theatre.

Upper Peninsula at last

Tuesday was a driving day, Tuesday and Wednesday nights we stayed in Michigan’s Indian Lake SP. Indian Lake is 6 X 3 miles but never more than 15 ft. deep. CG almost full, beautiful sunsets over the lake. Wednesday was spent at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, essentially a National Park.

Supposedly you can make out pictures in the cliffs, mostly landscapes, wheat fields in snow, distant mountains, etc.

Getting started on the Pictured Rocks tour. A Lake Superior sandy beach is in the background, my lovely wife in the foreground

The southern shore of lake Superior contains a long escarpment composed of two layers of sandstone with various colorations creating “pictures”, thus the name. The upper white layer of sandstone is hard, the lower darker layer is soft. The subsequent faster erosion of the lower layer leads to unusual, interesting formations, overhangs and the eventual cave-in of the unsupported upper layer, seen in the above pic. The cliffs are 200 ft high, the overhang on the right side in the picture above juts out as much as 50 ft, the cliff on the left side no longer has an overhang, instead it has a mass of sandstone rocks and rubble at its base. I’m told some kayakers were present when it collapsed, caught it on video and it’s available on youtube, I haven’t checked yet.

Lovers Leap and the Caves, two of the formations in Pictured Rocks. The former won’t be there much longer as the lower sandstone wears away it will eventually collapse.

Thursday 8/15 morning was spent at Kitchitikipi, or Kitchi-ti-kipi or Kitch-iti-kipi, or, the Ojibway language being so foreign to our ears, just Big Spring. A small, deep pool of crystal clear water it is Michigans largest natural spring. 10K gallons a minute flow into it, at a constant year-round 45 degrees, it flows into a stream that empties into Indian lake. The fish are mostly lake trout but I was told some are brown trout, they come and go between the spring and Indian Lake.

there are 3 springs in the picture, 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock and one between them. The sand boils up and moves to the left with the current

The raft is attached to a cable, someone hand cranks it across the pool and then back. It is a square with an opening in the center that has glass between the surrounding decks. It was in the center that the view to the bottom was best. After this we went to Seney NWR and did the wildlife drive, a one way, one lane gravel road. Takes about two hours, once you start you’re committed, no turning back. Very scenic, we saw trumpeter swans, loons and a merlin. Only 10 species total but the views alone were worth it. Here’s a picture……

the white stippling on the water in the background is created by water lillies in bloom
.

Finished Thursday by droving to Taquamegon SP, set up camp and walked to the falls, a loop about a mile each way. Picturesque, but I expected taller, also didn’t expect to find it full of people swimming.

The river splits above the falls creating an island, with two falls, one on each side of the island. The picture with Peggy and Sammy is looking upstream above the falls.

Screen shot from a video on the right. Cold but not beyond-immersion cold. Not too slippery, but an uneven bottom which can suddenly drop two feet deeper. Sammy loves the water and of course was squatting down in it frequently. He always attracts a lot of attention, as in “Oh can I pet your dog” and “what breed is that”. Still more to see in the UP before heading home. Turns out Tahquamegon SP is the second most popular in all of Michigan. We could only stay one night, there were only 3 of more than 200 total spaces left when I went online to reserve one and none left for the weekend.