Well, 5 pm finally came last Wednesday, August 31, and I was officially on vacation. I zoomed out of work as fast as I could and was never more happy to only have a 5 minute commute. I quick changed out into some shorts and a t-shirt and we started to load the car. I couldn’t believe we got it all in, but we did. We relaxed the rest of the evening and headed to bed around 10 pm. Thursday found us getting up at our normal time (6:15 am) and after quick showers 
and one last look at the checklist to be sure we had everything we were off. We hit the road right around 8 am and made it to the Mackinac Bridge by 12:30 pm. This bridge connects the lower peninsula of Michigan with the upper peninsula. The only other way to get to Michigan’s UP is through Wisconsin. We had already stopped to eat but we decided to stop in Mackinaw City to stre
tch our legs a bit before crossing the bridge. We’ve been to Mackinaw several times and everytime the lighthouse has been closed to visitors for renovation. Now you must understand that we are lighthouse freaks, especially Great Lakes lights. So imagine our surprise when the lighthouse was actually open and we were able to climb the tower! They haven’t finished all of the renovations but it is coming along nicely. After a short stop in Mackinaw, it was back in the car for the trip over the 5 mile long Mighty Mac. The views from there are spectacular!
After crossing the bridge we took US 2 west along the shore of Lake Michigan and hadn’t gone more than a mile when we saw the first of many pasty shacks. You will find these in the extreme northern lower peninsula but mostly in the UP. They are almost like little pot pies and quite tasty I’m told. I’ve never had one. I just giggle when I see the name.
About an hour and 45 minutes after crossing the bridge we made it to our campsite at Lake Muskallonge State Park. After setting up camp we fired up our campstove/grill and made dinner. We then made the short drive back to Deer Park to pick up some firewood. Deer Park is a very small town which is mainly just the campstore and laundry. Believe me, if you sneeze while driving through Deer Park you will miss it. We sat around the campfire for awhile and headed for bed early as we were pretty tired from the drive.
Ahhh blissful sleep! Nothing is better than sleeping in a tent out in the middle of nowhere. Too bad we couldn’t experience that our first night. It wasn’t too long after we retired that the wind started to pick up and the first raindrops began to fall. And it only got worse after that. There was 20-30 mph winds and awful rain. The bad part was the only flat place to put up the tent was also a low spot so we had water get in between the ground tarp and the tent bottom. It was sorta like walking on a waterbed. So we got very little sleep that night and woke up to a grey, chilly morning. We decided on scrambled eggs for breakfast and had no sooner finished cooking them and sat down to eat when the rain started up again. We grabbed up our plates and ran to the car and ate breakfast there. It rained off and on til around noon so we took a drive to Newberry (30 miles from camp) and hung out downtown and had lunch at Micky D’s. We finally got a good nights sleep. Well that is I was sleeping wonderfully until around 4:15 am. My husband had gotten up and he woke me up by standing over my cot and saying my name in a loud whisper. Kind of freaked me out. So he tells me that there is something I have to see and 
that he couldn’t figure out if he should wake me or not. He figured that I would be mad at him if he didn’t so I had to get up and see what he wanted to show me. I then debated whether or not to kill him where he stood but I crawled out of my warm sleeping bag and pulled on my sweats. When I stepped out of the tent he told me to look up. I did and almost fell over. You could see every star in the sky! It was incredible! We walked down to Lake Muskallonge to get a better look at the sky. We were able to see Mars and the spine of the Milky Way stretched from one horizon to the other. We stood out there for almost a half an hour just gaping at the sky.
They next morning after breakfast we decided we would make the 18 mile trip out to Crisp Point light. We started out by heading for 
County Road 410. Don’t you just love that sign? Seasonal road, not snowplowed. Well here’s why. Dirt. Nothing but dirt for 18 miles. We did 25 mph for 18 miles on dirt road. We drove and drove and drove and drove. This area is very remote and rugged. After driving for what seemed like 100 miles we found this growing in t
he forest. I was so surprised that I had to snap a picture. Yes, that is a phonebooth growing in the wild. I thought they were extinct but apparently not. But after driving for what seemed like forever we were 
rewarded with this. It was wonderful! They are working on restoring the light and several of the out buildings as well. They have painted the tower and built up the shore around it. Several years ago the tower was in danger of falling into Lake Superior. But they were able to save it and there is now a nice boardwalk around the tower with benches too. We enjoyed walking along the shore and the lovely views of the lake. Right before we were ready to leave we discovered that the tower was open and we were able to climb it. I never get tired of climbing lighthouse
e towers. The views are definitely worth the effort and you get a little taste of what being a lightkeeper might have been like. I love standing up there just looking out over the lake. It’s very peaceful up there.
On the way back we stopped by Taquahmenon Falls (both the upper and lower falls). I love the falls! Again, very peaceful. Someday I would like to see the falls in the spring after the snow melt. We have seen them in the summer and fall but never in the spring. Maybe next trip.
Sunday we spent a lazy morning around camp and in the afternoon decided to see the bears. Back down in 
Newberry was Oswald’s Bear Ranch. Everytime we drove by it I would yell out, “Look at the bears! Look at the bears!” I guess I watched too much Yogi Bear as a child. Anyway we spent an hour or so with the bears. They were so cute! A lot of them would come right up to the inner fence so you could see them up close.
Monday morning we didn’t rush to get on the road because Labor Day is always the Mackinac Bridge walk. We thought that they close down the entire bridge for the wal
kers but as it turns out they only close down one side and leave two lanes open for traffic. But it worked out fine. We did encounter a lot of traffic on the way back though. We ended up taking a couple of “detours” to try to avoid the traffic somewhat and finally pulled into our driveway around 6:30 pm. We went inside to see the kitties (who were pretty miffed that we had left them for five days and left numerous hairballs all over the house so we would know how mad 
they were) and hubby ordered a pizza. We had to wait 20 minutes for the pizza . . . just enough time to unload the car. Ugh! All the gear got dumped in our 4-season room to be dealt with later. I was still on vacation afterall!
(We had a great time but are really glad to be back. I’ll be even happier when my hair no longer smells of a campfire.)
Look! I made yarn! Well . . . ok . . . something that kinda, sorta looks like yarn. Some of you may recall that my wonderful, lovely, generous Knitty SP sent me a drop spindle with some roving in my first SP parcel. The parcel arrived right before my big camping trip so I was unable to fully enjoy it’s contents. Things are finally settling down some and last night I decided that I was going to give spinning a try. I did a little research on the web as my spindle is a bottom whorl with a notch instead of a hook. I finally figured out how to attach the leader yarn and set off to spin. My first attempt was a disaster. But I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. After a few more attempts, dropping the spindle numerous times and contemplating checking myself into the local mental hospital, I finally figured out that the roving I was trying to spin was just too thick. I removed the mess I had from the spindle, pulled the roving apart and thinned it out some and tried again. Much better! At least what I was making actually resembled yarn and not the hugest pile of cat barf you’ve ever seen. I worked on it for about 15 minutes last night and actually spun a little bit before I went to work this morning. I know I have a long way to go but I am very excited that I am actually spinning! Here you can see my slubby, over-twisted yarn on the spindle, closeup so you can see it in all it’s glory. 
of this. What a wide load! This is Roscoe (aka Roscoe P. Kitty or the Fat Manatee) our 20 lb. vampire cat. He tends to bite when he’s annoyed. I keep threatening to remove his teeth but he keeps biting anyway. But I digress. The whole purpose of this picture is to show just how fat this cat really is. I very rarely see him lay like this so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a good shot of his fat all spread out. Even on a diet this cat can’t lose weight. He usually lays on his side or if we’re eating, on his back. He’s so funny as he trots into the room with his belly swinging back and forth, then he’ll stop, bend his legs until his belly touches the floor and then roll right over on his side. We call him the Walrus or Fat Manatee and he doesn’t seem to care. But I think he wasn’t happy that I snapped a picture of his fat kitty bum. What do you think?
