Going on 2013

We had a busy holiday week with company up for the Christmas break. Everyone had a good time and lots of great food and good times. The kids got to open gifts again and we also celebrated Ben's 8th birthday. We got a little bit of additional snow, but just a coating to keep the Christmas white.

Jenny and Murphy romping in the snow.

Opening gifts on Saturday morning

The rest of the room

The kids were sledding and snowboarding in the back yard.

Ready for another great meal

The gingerbread house factory

Winter Blast

Winter made a hearty return to the north country on Thursday and Friday. We wound up with near a foot of heavy, wet snow and the trees were all bent over and our power shut down. It reminded us of last March when we were blasted with twenty inches and lost power for two days.
This time our power went out at 8 pm on Thursday and we kept the house as warm as we could with the fireplace and an LP heater in the kitchen. We brewed coffee in the garage on our Coleman stove and heated water to wash our hair and sponge bathe.
We took a ride to Goodfallows in Leland on Friday to see how they were coping with the outage, and their house was warm, but they lost their power just before we got there. We helped them get the candles lit and flashlights ready and then went back to our house for the night. We met them on Saturday in Traverse City when we met for Jakob Olson's birthday lunch. They told us the power went on for them as soon as we left on Friday! (Makes me think this outage was following us around)!
We left Traverse City on Saturday and drove over to Empire. The power there had just been restored at about three in the afternoon. We drove to Glen Arbor and the power there had been restored at about four o'clock. Looks promising! We then drove home and our power was still out at about six thirty. We got settled in and I started getting the fireplace going and then the power came back on! Hallelujah! It really makes you appreciate what you normally take for granted.
Needless to say it was a happy evening. We called our holiday visitors to give them the all clear and let them know the Inn was back in service! Come on up!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

This was the view out the back window on Friday morning.

 

Ho, Ho, Ho...Snow!  It took several hours to blow the wet heavy snow off of the driveway.

 

Countdown to Christmas

Christmas is only a week away now. It hardly seems possible! We put up our first Christmas tree at the new house over the weekend. It is so nice to have a tree after two years without a place to put one!
The weatherman is predicting a major winter storm for Thursday and Friday. That's just in time for many people's holiday travel. If you are going away for the holiday be extra careful out there. The roads could be a mess. Well, maybe we will have a white Christmas after all!

We hiked along the south shore of Good Harbor Bay this afternoon. Looking across the bay you can see Whaleback and the Leland harbor.



This is Sugarloaf Mountain from the west. If you zoom in you can see the ski lift on top of the hill.

Looking west along the shoreline. North Manitou Island in the background.

Another view with Sugarloaf in the distance.

Winter Days and Avoiding Cabin Fever!

The days have been cold and snowy in the north country. We had about four to five inches of snow Sunday and Monday and it is sticking pretty good! We had a good weekend with Bev and Gary at Houghton Lake and had fun visiting and hiking at Marl Lake near South Higgins Lake State Park.
We continue to do holiday prep and get the Christmas shopping finished.
Today we took a hike at Port Oneida and enjoyed being outdoors and the spectacular views in the hills.

Hope everyone is well and having fun!

A spectacular sky at Port Oneida

 

 

Art's Tavern in Glen Arbor. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

TGIF - Getting ready for the weekend!

All is well on the home front. We have been putting up Christmas decorations and little by little we are getting ready for the holiday. We spent a day in Traverse City this week and did some shopping and had dinner in town. The downtown area s still busy with foot traffic and people walking around and shopping.
We've been taking our daily walks and trying to stay active. Glen Arbor has slowed down dramatically since the fall color season. Very few cars in town and the stores are dead. It's amazing how quiet it gets in the off season.
We are heading to Houghton Lake for the weekend to visit with Bev and Gary. The weather has been holding steady in the high thirties and no snow, although they are predicting it for the weekend.

Here are a couple of pictures from the past week..

Downtown Traverse City and Michael Moore's State Theatre

The Christmas tree downtown.

Wheeler Road on a sunny afternoon

Lake Michigan at Glen Haven

This building is now used by the park service as a museum for the rescue station at Glen Haven 

The old inn at at Glen Haven circa 1857

How much was gas per gallon from this fuel pump?

All is well Going into December

We spent a quiet week in the north country. I finished the deer season with no venison in the freezer, but did manage to see a few does while sitting in the blind. We had snow on the ground until Sunday when the warm spell melted everything. Today we are supposed to be in the fifties and then cooling off  again into the thirties for the rest of the week.
The days fly by as we make plans for the holidays and for our winter camping. Here it is December and it seems that Thanksgiving was only yesterday!

Hope everyone is well.