Quick Getaway Part 1 Sault St. Marie and the Soo Locks

Last Wednesday Rich and I, along with my brother Don and sister-in-law Linda,  took a quick, 4-day trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

We started at our house in Plymouth. My brother drove so he picked us up a about 9:00 am.  We went all the way to Sault St. Marie (pronounced Soo) on the first day, about a 4-5.5  hour drive. It's about 4 hours to the Mackinaw Bridge and another hour or so to Sault St Marie after that. 

We took our time and got to the Mackinaw Bridge at about 1:30 or so. We had lunch at a restaurant in Mackinaw City called Dixie Saloon. 

Here is Linda and I in front of one of the ferry docks to Mackinaw Island. We did not go to the island this trip. 

After lunch we drove to a park that has a good view of the Mackinaw Bridge so we could take some pictures before crossing it. This just happens to be the season for midge flies up there and they were swarming so bad in the park and by the water that we could hardly stand to be outside of the car more or less get a good picture of the bridge! Yuck!

This was the best I could do really quick before I was covered with bugs! Luckily they are not biting bugs!

We crossed the bridge and arrived in Sault St. Marie about around 4:00. The first thing we did after we checked into our hotel was go to the Soo Locks. These are locks built between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. 

Just a brief history: Before the locks were built there was a rapids between Lake Superior and Lake Huron that dropped 21 feet in less than a mile. Therefore, ships could not pass between the lakes.  The Soo Locks opened in 1885. 

Can you see the difference in water levels here? That is Lake Superior on the other side of the gate, so much higher than Lake Huron on the inside of the canal or lock chamber as they are called. It looks like it's going to spill over! 

The bridge in the background is the Sault St. Marie International Bridge between Sault St. Marie, Michigan and Sault St. Marie Ontario Canada. 

We were lucky enough to be there when a freighter needed to go through the locks. The picture at the top is the gates opening on the other side and the bottom picture is a freighter entering into the lock chamber from Lake Huron. 

Once the freighter is all the way into the lock chamber, the gates close and the filling valves are opened. There is complicated machinery involved but the locks rely on gravity to fill and empty the chambers. 

These two pictures are of the freighter from the same area. The top picture is of the deck when it first entered the lock chamber and the second picture is the same area after it has been raised 29 feet! 

The freighter is now at the height of Lake Superior. 

The gates open and the freighter can continue on it's merry way! 

The whole thing took about a half an hour from the time the freighter entered the lock chamber to when it left the other side. Those things move slow! 

Although I've been to the Soo Locks many times in my life, it's always fun to watch. Rich and I even took a boat tour through the locks several years ago and it's even more exciting to be on a boat in the chamber going up and down!  Unfortunately, they hadn't started running them until after we left! 

Next time I'll tell you about Whitefish Point. 

Until then stay safe and well my friends! 

Mother's Day

 I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. 

We had Shauna, Brad, the boys and Brads parents over for a Mother's Day Brunch. 

I did this in 2019 to make things easier on Shauna and Brad so they wouldn't have to haul the kids to both places. It worked out well but unfortunately due to COVID I didn't have them over in 2020. 

This year I've decided to continue the tradition. We've been getting together with them for holidays and birthdays for the past year anyway so why not Mother's Day too! 

I only put a pink plastic tablecloth on the table with some flowers. 

I have this serving plate that I bought at a garage sale a long time ago. I like it because I can decorate it for different occasions. 

I had this pink ribbon with lace so I used to to decorate the plate I used to put little brownie bites on. 

I didn't take a picture with the brownies on them but didn't last for long anyway! 

Speaking of decorations, here is my latest dollar store holiday sign. 

Since I'm pro USA every day of the year I figured this will be good to stay here until at least Halloween when I replace it with a Fall decoration! 

Instead of leaving you with a picture of my grandsons, I will leave you with a picture of a cat on a hot tin roof! 

Well, I don't think the roof is tin or hot either but hey, it's a cat on a roof!

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Son Shine and a Clock

My son Christopher has lived in New Hampshire for the past three years. He tries to get home as often as he can and last summer we took a strange pandemic road trip to visit him. He also comes home for deer hunting with his dad every November and that was the last time we saw him until last Tuesday. 

Rich picked him up at the airport and within a few hours we were at Shauna's so he could visit with his nephews.

They are always so excited to see him! Especially because he brings them toys! 

It was a nice day so we spent a lot of time playing in the yard!

Here Maxwell and Levi were telling Uncle Chris about the dogs that live next door!

While he was here he was finally able to pick up the rest of his belongings from his ex-wife. One of those was a clock that he made for me in shop class in Middle school. 

In 1991, 30 years ago! 

I gave it to him to hang in his house when they first bought it. It's a long story as to why it took so long for me to get it back but now I have it again so it's all good! 

I  hung it up in our living room. I told him he can have it back when I die! 

It was so nice to have him here for a few days! 

We took a few selfies before he left. He was being his usual goofy self and had me laughing! 

I'm always a little depressed for a day or two after he leaves but he'll be back in mid June for Maxwell's T-ball game.  And he's also going on vacation with us all of us in July! Plus he wants to fly us out to see him in the Fall so I'm looking forward to lots of  son time! 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Smoothie Time

I love smoothies and make them often.  My go to is frozen blueberries, frozen banana chunks, a handful of spinach, a tablespoon of peanut butter and cashew or almond milk, I use to make one several times a week and take it to work with me. 

I have a old blender that I have been using but it's kind of a pain and doesn't work very well. I have to shake the container and stir it and keep adding liquid before I finally could get a smoothie that was the right consistency. 

Anyway, one day I had had enough of this blender and it's shenanigans and went to Amazon and ordered myself this! 

This is one powerful little smoothie maker.  First time I tried it using my go to smoothie ingredients it blended everything up in about 5 seconds! 

I thought I would make a smoothie using one of the recipes in the little booklet that came with it. 

It's frozen mangos, strawberries, pineapple, half of an orange and orange juice. It's called a Sunset Smoothie. 

It was pretty good but next time I may replace one of the fruits with banana because that gives it a slight sweetness. 

Plus I like to put some kind of vegetable it it, too! 

It also has a attachment to make smoothie bowls, which I actually never heard of before. Apparently its a super thick smoothie that you top with something like granola or chia seeds or oatmeal and eat it out of a bowl, kind of like a parfait. Doesn't sound like something I would be interested in but you never know! 

In other news...

Maxwell and Levi got haircuts the other day. They looks like such big boys now!

My son is coming into town from New Hampshire on Monday for a week. We haven't seen him since November so I'm looking forward to it. 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends. 

Chugging Along and A Spoiled Cat

I can hardly believe it's already the middle of April. This year is flying by!

I'm not complaining though because it's Spring and what's not to be joyful about that?

My Azalea that I planted last summer is coming back nicely. I always worry about new plants surviving their first Winter but it did fine. 

It even has wee little buds on it! 

My lilac bush is also coming back nicely with wee little buds! 

The white dogwood trees that line a street by our house are in full bloom, too!

This is just one section of the street. They actually go on for a mile or so. 

When we had the boys over last week we gave then containers with sand in them to play with. They love playing in the sandbox at the park and we don't have anywhere to put one here, so this is the next best thing!

They like to make forms with little cups and Levi gets more sand on the ground than anywhere else! 

Finally, our cat Coco has taken a liking to the cushion I made for my office chair.  She's spending a lot of time laying on it so I have resorted to using my stool I made for a desk chair!

Nothing spoiled about this cat!

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Easter and Stuff

 We had a nice Easter celebrating with Brad's family. 

Brad's mom, Sandy, had plastic eggs hidden all over their back yard. They boys had a blast running around looking for them! Then they were "cracking" them on the table and opening them up! 

Then she brought out two buckets full of little toys and candies and a few wrapped presents for each one! She definitely went overboard! 

We had a good time though and it was a beautiful day outside, too! 

There is a house not to far from us that has the whole back part of their yard planted with daffodils. This is the best picture I could get without stepping on to their property. If you click on the picture and make it bigger you can get a better view.  It's really pretty and I look forward to seeing all of them flowers every Spring! 

I've been scanning old pictures and this one was taken in Grand Haven back in 2005 when we went for a visit. The stone is there in memory of people who have lost their lives after being swept off the pier and in honor of those who tried to save them. 

This is a view down the pier with the lighthouse. When it's stormy the waves on Lake Michigan can get huge!  If you are  on the pier they can come up and sweep you right off! It happens a few times every year on various Lake Michigan piers. 

The sunsets with the pier and light house silhouetted are so beautiful! My header picture was also taken in Grand Haven several years later.  

This is a close up of the GM tower at the Renaissance Center that I talked about in my anniversary post a few weeks back. It was taken in 2005 when the baseball All-Star game was at Comerica Park in Detroit. 

They had a picture of a baseball smashing into the tower with "4,612 Ft" which is the distance from home plate in Comerica Park! I thought it was pretty clever! 

That's about it for me right now. We have had beautiful weather the last few days. Got our deck furniture all cleaned up and am looking forward to many hours sitting out there enjoying the beautiful weather!

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends! 

Easter Eve

Easter Eve? Is it officially Easter eve or maybe it's just called Holy Saturday. 

Friday we went to Shauna's to help the boys color Easter eggs, 

I bought them these cute little aprons to wear so they don't get dye on their clothes. 

It was fun. Maxwell was dying eggs like a pro

Levi was having fun mixing the colors until all his tubs held the same color. Luckily we got him to dye a couple eggs different colors first! 

I made their Easter baskets and we brought them to them on Friday because Sunday will be getting baskets from the Easter Bunny and also from Brad's parents! 

They liked all the little toys I put in there and of course, the candy. Plus we were all helping them eat it! 

Tomorrow we are going to Brads parents for Easter brunch. They invite us every year. We haven't gotten together with our families for Easter for several years, and especially not the last two years!

I hope you all have a blessed and Happy Easter. 

Until the next time stay safe and well my friends.