A Dream Vacation

I fell in love with the city of Petoskey here in Michigan. This is one of the scenes that sealed the deal of this love. Although I have only been to visit the area twice. I typically use my vacation time to visit family and since I have no family near by it has to be an excursion trip. This image is from my first visit and it pre-dates my conversion to digital. I long to visit again with my digital camera. Also in case you are wondering the building depcicted here is The Inn at Bay Harbor - A Renaissance Golf Resort. I would love to stay here the next time I visit, being right on the water would be awesome.

Here is a photo from Sleeping Bear Dunes near Empire, MI. I was there a little over three years ago and would love to go back again. I visited here on a day trip. I was out to capture images of Michigan's Covered Bridges. I remember when I arrived at the Pierce Stocking Bridge I was a bit underwhelmed. I took pictures anyway and I am glad that I did because I now really like the images that I have of this bridge. Feeling a bit let down, I decided to drive the circle route through the park. And boy I was sure glad I did. I was able to see an area of Lake Michigan that I had never seen before and it was close to sunset, about an hour away at most. The scenic outlooks along the trail were well worth the stop. The nice thing about being there at the beginning of November was not a lot of tourist traffic as I am sure they are bustling in the summer months. I was able to just stop on the side of the road if I saw something that caught my eye. Have a wonderful weekend. I am going to try and get a couple of auto posts set up for this next week. I have a busy week ahead of me and I'm not even cooking a big holiday meal. I'm maybe making a side dish but nothing else. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. Remember to be grateful for what you have now because you never know what the future holds.

History Museum

This is the history museum in Petoskey. Obviously by the name on the building it is kept by the Little Traverse Historical Society. This museum is a great little place to relax and learn some interesting facts about the Odawa Tribe. Most refer to them as the Ottawa but they prefer Odawa. Something I learned at the museum. I wish I had pictures of things from inside the museum. But this was before I joined the digital revolution and so while I took numerous pictures seven rolls to be exact I was conservative in what I took pictures of. This is little museum is an old train station. There is even a portion of the tracks running behind the museum. This is definitely a place to visit if you are ever in the Petoskey area. It is located close to downtown shopping and it is close to the local marina.

The Resort

This is the resort that I would love to stay at one day. Well at least I believe it is a resort. It is located right on the water and has all of the beach paraphernalia that you would expect to see at a resort. This is the area that I thought I might be trespassing on when I took the image of the chairs. Even though I was here in July the weather was very nice. Not too hot, not too cold. I think it has something to with the whole lake effect on the weather. It was perfect weather to go swimming in the early afternoon but by late afternoon the wind was so pleasant that you felt comfortable out in the full sun.

At The Docks

So I decided for this week to share some of my favorite Petoskey pictures. I have needed to wade through these images. Some of them will be straight forward others will be creatively enhanced such as the above image. Petoskey is one of my favorite places in Michigan. Yeah one out of like a hundred. Let's just say if it has beautiful nature views it is in my favorite places to go. Not that I don't enjoy some of the things that the cities have to offer, it is just that I enjoy my nature venues much more. I need to get out into the great outdoors more often. I know that as my boys get older this will happen. Right now it is difficult with two small boys and a husband who is working third shift. I look forward to this Friday though. I will trek across state to visit family and a nature center in the area to boot. I am so excited about this and I hope and pray that the weather is nice for us so that I do not have to cancel the nature center trip. Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Take A Seat

One of my favorites from my Petoskey visits. I am sure I got the idea for the shot from somewhere else but I couldn't tell you where. I came across these chairs and I just loved their set up. I would have loved to have stayed here longer and watch the sunset but we had to get to dinner and I think we were actually trespassing on the grounds of the resort nearby. We weren't staying at this resort but would love the opportunity to go and stay here. The grounds were beautiful and right on the lake.

Sunset over Lake Michigan Sleeping Bear Dunes

Skywatch Friday hosted by Wigger's World

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Yet again another fall image. I have a few of these so be prepared. I think the colors of fall make it my favorite time of year. Although I enjoy the warmth of summer much more.

And The Waves Came Crashing In

I love that I was able to capture the crashing effect of the waves. Granted these are small compared to those on the ocean, but I have only been to ocean once in my life and that was in 1995. I was in Ocean City, NJ and was able to walk in the Atlantic. However, I still love this image. I even like how the tree line in the background just blends itself into the water not jumping out at you.

Petoskey Sunset #3

This is my last sunset image for a while; although, it won't be my last. I think sunsets and sunrises are my favorite things to photograph. I don't get as many shots of the sunrise as I do the sunset but I do like to shoot both. I am not a morning person so this would explain the whole sunrise sunset thing. I will still be posting my Petoskey images for a bit but only for a few more days and then I will move on to something else for a while.

Petoskey Sunset #2

Okay so this image was actually taken before Petoskey Sunset #1. But that doesn't matter. I love both images. This one is a favorite because the trees look like sort of like cardboard cutouts painted black and the colors of the sunset are just gorgeous. It was fun trying to find a spot to take this pics. There are not a lot of spots to pull off the road where we were. I guess in actuality we were somewhere between Harbor Springs and Cross Village. We were across the bay from Petoskey. The next few days will be of images that I took while we were on our first Petoskey vacation. I am sad to say I haven't developed the film from our second trip. Enjoy.

Petoskey Sunset #1

This is one of my favorite images. It incorporates two of my favorite things, sunsets and landscapes. I enjoy nature photography whether it be landscape taking in a whole scene or an up close image of a leaf. (You'll see this later).