The days go quickly...
And I want to live them well...
I pray for wisdom.
Valerie
Words can deceive folks, but the actions that we take reveal our true selves. Sheri Eichhorn
As we plan our annual trek to the north shore, I always reread my own version of Psalm 23.
The Lord is my Shepherd I shall thank him. He allows me to be on the shores of Lake Superior And hear the calming waves. He restores my soul. He guides me on trails of the Superior National Forest, And leads me along the rocky shores of the big lake. Even when the waves are rough – even when the lake is calm, I am content to be near the water. And the Lord is with me. His creation and His majesty, they comfort me. He anoints me with many blessings My cup overflows and I am grateful Surely, I will praise him and follow him All the days of my life, I am grateful to dwell in His presence On the shores of Lake Superior.
Below are just a few favorite photos (from hundreds!) I’ve taken over the years, of Lake Superior.
Visiting someplace new is always fun. And staying in a private home instead of a hotel is delightful. And having grandchildren at that home is the best!
We spent eight days in a suburb south of Charlotte, North Carolina visiting our youngest son and his wife and two children. They recently moved into a new home there, leaving a two-bedroom apartment in Colorado. It was great to see their new house and their neighborhood, to actually see their faces to know how they are doing, and to hug the grandchildren.
I enjoyed choosing a photo – or two – every day to send a “Photo of the Day” to our other son and his family back in Minnesota. It gave a glimpse of some of the things we were doing during our time away…like going to a fireworks display on the fourth of July, or going to the neighborhood swimming pool, building a workbench,
working on art projects, playing dominos, going to parks and playgrounds, going on a picnic, going out for ice cream.
And simply sitting on the front porch every morning, drinking our coffee, waiting for the kiddos to wake up and come down to greet us each day. Hopefully creating memories for the grandchildren.
Their house is next to a wooded lot so we saw deer several times, and lots of birds. We heard interesting creatures (insects and/or frogs) at night when we ate dinner on the veranda, in the back of the house.
As we sat on the veranda on our last night before returning to Minnesota, we saw two fawns and a mama deer in the woods. We talked about how curious we were as to what was over the hill and down the road in the wooded area.
A “Private Drive, NO TRESPASSING” sign was posted at the entrance to the driveway leading into the property, at the end of the cul-de-sac, next to our son’s property. We had seen little activity there over the past week. Our son and daughter-in-love had not ventured past the private property sign since they moved in, about a month ago. We had been there only a week and were curious!
So Andrea and I decided to venture down the drive that last night. We bravely walked down the road, arm in arm. The deer saw us and ran away. We approached a modest house on a lake, and took a look at the surroundings. Our curiosity satisfied, we turned around and walked back up the drive. Just then we saw a car’s headlights! The occupants were coming down the drive.
We were busted!!!
After all the times of no activity… and then…here they come when we are trespassing.
The car stops, of course, and two young men in their 20’s rolled down their windows. We greeted them and told them we are from the house right past their driveway and we were just curious to see what was down the gravel road. Thankfully they were very nice about it. After a little small talk we continued on, walking very quickly back to the veranda where our guys were waiting, curious to hear what happened. They had seen the car go into the drive and wondered what kind of reception we’d get.
We settled back on the veranda, let out a sigh of relief, and then had a good laugh.
My friend and I spent a couple of days up at her place on Daggett Lake on the Whitefish chain of lakes in northern Minnesota. The weather was hot and humid, so being by a lake was a good place to be. Her husband liked to call their place “the porch with a cabin attached”.
There is a screened-in porch, with a dining table and two double beds in it…so it is large, almost as big as the cabin. We spent a lot of time on the porch, on the dock when the shade covered the dock bench, and under the shade trees.
My friend told me of a new “cabin” being built one lake over. She said it’s worth seeing, but only from the lake…so we decided to go take a look. We had two choices…an old-fashioned paddle boat or the jet skis.
I have been on her jet skis before… I kind of have a history of mishaps with them so I was a little nervous. Also, because of Covid I was not up at her cabin last summer so it had been a while since I had been on a jet ski. However, that seemed the most reasonable way to see the new cabin from a lake view…it was way too hot to paddle across the lake, through the channel and into another lake. So we decided to take the jet skis.
As I got on a jet ski, and got a refresher course, I asked my friend, “At what age are we too old to be doing this?” And we laughed.
But, we did it! And without a mishap too.
We backed out of the lift, accelerated fast, creating a refreshing breeze as we skimmed across Daggett Lake to the “no wake zone” to get through the channel and to the next lake. Once there, the new house stood out from the shoreline, big and beautiful. It was stunning…not a cabin at all, but a rambling, lovely lake home with amazing features, that you can only see from the lake (unless of course you are invited into this estate.)
We made our way back to my friend’s cute little cabin and I said, “So, really, what do those folks in the new mansion have that you don’t have in your cabin?!”
It was fun to be on the jet skis again. And it was fun to see the new “cabin” from the lake.
I don’t have any pictures documenting our jet ski ride, or the castle cabin. At one point I mentioned I should get my iPhone so I could take a picture, but my friend politely reminded me I should not bring any electronics near water. O yes, I remember…A few years ago I capsized in a kayak and ruined my camera, and then a few years after that, up at this same cabin, I was on the dock, pulled my iPad out of the cloth bag and it slipped right out of my hands into the water.
With temperatures predicted to dip way below zero (15 to 25 degrees below) over the weekend we decided it might be a good time to find a project to work on inside our warm house.
The one that came to mind was…photos! The ever-looming photos, a project we kept saying we’ll work on when we retire – even after we were retired.
But, at last, the timing felt right.
Since 1982 (when our first son was born) I dutifully put photos in albums in chronological order. I have several mismatched albums of all different sizes, one for each year, through the kids high school years. Then digital cameras became the norm and now photos are stored on the computer.
But still we had a few photos printed, plus my mom had duplicates of our sons that she gave back to us, and Gary’s sister gave us back all the photos we gave her of the kids when they were growing up, and there were stray photos for various reasons in different areas of the house and some old, framed photos to take out of the frame, some very old black and white photos that date way back etc., etc., etc. We had a lot of organizing to do.
So we set up our six-foot folding table in a downstairs room, unfolded two folding chairs, found archival pens, extra envelopes, a scissors, notepad and pen, and started in. We brought everything to the central work station. working diligently for several hours the first day. We stopped for lunch and a quick walk in the subzero temperatures, and then back at it. (Won’t the kids be glad someday!)
The next day we started in again and did get the organizing done, cleaned off the shelf area in the closet where the albums are kept, and put the albums back in place.
Our next step is to go through each album and weed out the unwanted/not-so-good pictures…and who knows, maybe even combine a few albums together?
The next steps may be more enjoyable. However, there are still many hours left on this project…but the weather forecast is for continued cold temperatures for a few more days, so that will be a helpful motivator.
And then there are the slides………