Summer's Last Fling

I haven't been here for awhile, but I thought I'd like to share with you a bit of our summer's last fling vacation.  First off, let me tell you how and why we ended up here.   As some of you know, my husband and I celebrated our 40th anniversary in May.  Our two sons and daughter-in-laws surprised us with a week on Beaver Island in northern Michigan.  Why there?  Well when my sons were little boys, we used to visit Beaver Island at least once every summer and sometimes in the fall too.  You see, my Dad used to own a cabin up there.  When he became sick, he had to sell it.  We were all very sad and yearned to go back.  So many fond memories!  And so many new fond memories!

When we first arrived at our cabin (below), we went down to the beach and this (above is the scenery there.  The cabin sits on Font Lake.  It's a beautiful little lake with loons and other waterfowl.

You may wonder what this empty lot is.  Well, we're looking at it from the lake, Lake Michigan that is.  This is where my Dad's cabin used to sit.  You see a few years ago, we rented it to take our sons and their families to see.  Someone forgot to turn off the water in the winter and pipes froze and flooded.  It was so full of mold, they had to tear it down.  Now we can just imagine an A-frame cabin sitting there with all windows on the side that faces the lake and a huge deck.  So sad.....

One of the most fun places to get photos is this old rusty truck.  We had our grandson Jonah, sit (actually he's standing) in it for this photo.  I love this shot!

This is the story of the island.  I hope you can read it because it's really interesting.  Below is the museum.  Tells us a lot of history of the island.

One of the first nights we were there, we climbed Mt. Pisgah (above) to watch the sunset.  This was a tradition!  Something we always did when we went to the island.  It was wonderful!

Something we always had our children do was to go "snipe" hunting.  Now keep in mind there is no such thing, so Grandpa is telling Jonah the story behind it.  I love this shot!

And here's the sunset we saw over Lake Michigan!!  Well worth climbing that dune to see!

This is just another spot we walked to out to the lake (Lake Michigan) one day.  It was so warm and calm.  We really enjoyed it!

The name of the town is St. James.  This sign sat at the end of our driveway.  It's an awesome sign!  My dad's cabin was on Donegal Bay.

Strange rock.  Looks like an alien.

We had kayaks available to use.  Here is my son and grandson.  They really enjoyed it!

Something that we always did when our sons were little is to take a trip over by Fox Lake and climb on the "big rock."  That's what it is known as.  We had to go back and take their photos on it once again.  

Another favorite stop on the island is the Beaver Island Toy Museum Store.  Our sons loved it when they were kids.  It hasn't changed one bit!  It still had mounds of inexpensive fun toys for all ages!  The glasses below are just a sample of some of the fun things we got. We loved this so much we went back 4 times!!  AND as a bonus, she had strands and strands of beads!!  Very well priced too!!

Behind the toy museum store was the owners studio and garden.  My son and his wife are sitting on a bench in the garden, and my granddaughter is sitting by a cute little playhouse on the path leading to the art studio.

Ahoy maties!!  Jonah the pirate!!

One last look at the lake (Font Lake) before we had to go home.  It was a wonderful week, one I will never forget, but it went by way too fast!!  Sure wish we could stay longer!  Maybe next time.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post!