Tunnel Park

We've been to Tunnel Park about every day since arriving. It's a short walk to the north and there's the dune to climb. On the other side of the dune there is a place to run down the dune, a place that is often the destination site of our treks up the beach.

Sometimes we take the tunnel, which is the source of the name of the park. It's a nice tunnel and it makes getting past the dune a lot easier.

The beach side of the tunnel.

It was a beautiful day and we had a walk north past Tunnel Park. There was a group of about 30 high school athletes on the beach when we got there. I think they were football players. They were running in a circle about 50 feet in circumference and the coaches were yelling at them to not give up, and to work hard because their rivals were surely working harder than they were. They continued to run in the small circle for at least a half hour as we walked by, up the beach and returned. When we went by again, there were a couple of the weaker members of the team who were lying on their backs holding onto cramped leg muscles. I haven't seen this particular conditioning drill before, but I'm not adding it to my regime. Maybe it's good for team building. It was just an odd occurrence on an otherwise beautiful, ordinary day somewhere east of Milwaukee.

One last time.

Big Red

We had three nice walks on the world's nicest beach. The middle one was what has long been known as the death march, a nice southerly saunter to the lighthouse in Holland State Park. It took the usual amount of time, but in September the park is nearly deserted.   The red flags indicating dangerous surf were up and swimming was "forbidden." Unky Herb, GFTNC and I made the trip today. Big Red looks about like it has every time I've trudged down the beach to see it.  The dreaded pink color from the spring has been overlaid with brick red.

Today was pretty much a cooking day, I guess. The GFTNC baked rye rolls from scratch (and flour) and Santini made Lillie's Red Devils Food cake.  And we had spaghetti dinner with Nancy, Brad, and the grandkids.

After dinner we made our usual Friday night trek to Tunnel Park. It was nearly sunset by the time we reached the park, but most of the willing made a run down the dune. Herb ran down a few times and ran back up a few times.  TJ and Nicki, and even Nancy had a trip down the dune run, too.

The end of another day, Santini turns to face the camera as the sun sets in the west.

"I blog for comments."

Here's Santini, wearing her newest and truest tee shirt, which expresses a sentiment she penned a few weeks ago on her blog, a sentiment which was turned into a wearable quote by the GFTNC. I think Santini likes it.

It looked like rain was going to overtake us today, so we took a tour of Hope College and the lake area around the authentic wind mill in town.  It didn't result in much in the order of dramatic photos, but we got some exercise and a chance to see where the tulips grow around here in the spring before tulip time.

We then went to the store for ingredients and came back to the mountain for some serious cooking, followed by some tasty food.   PW cooked a pork tenderloin roast, roasted sweet potatoes and a batch of popovers.  Unky Herb made one of his delectable salads with lots of "flavor edges" and we ate what we could and saved the rest.  There will be leftovers for several more days.

The rain has not yet made it across the big lake, but it's still pretty cloudy.

Santini took this photo with my camera a day or so ago, and it's on the beach on the way to Tunnel Park. The Prairie Princess has named this beach the most perfect in the world - better than any ocean front beach and possessed of the very best sand - the sand that sings when you slide step through at the requisite velocity.

This next shot is from our trek to Kirk Park yesterday. As you can see there were a few, actually quite a few steps to climb to get to the good parts. This is the second of the two steepest and longest of the flights of stairs.

This photo from a day or so ago was an experiment in reflections. It's a shot of a perfectly good sunset reflected in the front windows of Santini's mountain abode with an outline of the photographer getting the rabbit ears treatment from PW.

It was another day well spent in southwest Michigan.

Serendipity

Sometimes when you least expect it, a photo will just jump into your lens. Tonight on a trip to downtown Holland, we got so caught up in the sites near the waterfront that we were too late to get back to the mountain for the sunset. I fully expected it to be the best sunset of the week, but we stayed around downtown to catch the sunset from a new location. As I was about to snap a photo of a really nice sunset, a boat towing a water skier came into the frame, and, just as I snapped the photo, the skier jumped and my camera caught this shot. I think my career is made.

It was a nice day and it's only possible to abbreviate the activities. I'm actually reasonably knackered right now. This morning GFTNC, Unky Herb and I took a trek around Kirk Park. I had been there on a bike some years ago, but the hiking path was a different experience - up and down a sandy trail, lots of stair steps and green trees.  It was a nice place to exercise our legs and view the scenery.   Then back to the mountain for lunch - home made soup and leftover Chinese food from the Great Wall.

Next an afternoon hitting tennis balls for about an hour with Herb at the James Street tennis courts.  We got back to the highlands in time to fix vittles - some of Herb's Chinese eggplant and ginger with turkey burgers and salad.

Then, since I had a hankering for the aroma of fresh pickles, we went to the other side of Lake Macatawa.   There are lots of things there that I hadn't seen before - statues and parks and strolling citizens.  I have photos from there, too, but three seems like enough for this venue.

The GFTNC was standing among a group of solid citizens who immigrated to this part of Michigan quite a long time ago.

During our walk along Holland's downtown, we came dangerously close to the Heinz pickle factory, reputedly the largest pickle factory in the world. The aroma was out of this world - dill pickle heaven.

It was a beautiful day in southwest Michigan. I only wish the Prairie Princess could have been here for the fun, and also probably the aroma of pickles being processed.

Patriot's Day in Michigan

The school children at Waukazoo Elementary School do this every September 11. Each class sets some American flags into the ground near the school to remember the victims of the terrorist act in 2001 that took down the World Trade Center towers. There must have been about 500 of them. We stopped here on the way back from a walk by Lake Macatawa early this afternoon.  It's a nice way to commemorate the event that took place eleven years ago today.

PW and I went to Howard Dunton Park to walk about, see some new territory, and perhaps catch a whiff of the pickle factory across the lake.  Unky Herb and Santini took the opportunity for a bike ride through the countryside.  Dunton Park is one park I had not visited before, but it was a pleasant experience walking along Lake Macatawa on quite a windy afternoon.

On windy days like today the gulls face into the wind, even when the wind is coming from the Heinz pickle factory in Holland.  That's a huge pile of coal in the background that will be used by the local utility to generate electricity.

After a dinner of take-out Chinese vittles we were able to get most of the tribe to take a walk to Tunnel Park.  It was my third trip there in the last two days.  The trek to Tunnel Park got us to the top of the dune where all the running up and down can be done.

Most of the same group clowning at the top of the dune at Tunnel Park.

There was some running up and down the dune and even a sprawling face first dive by Nikki, without damage, before we made our way back to the cottage on the mountain where we meant to watch another sunset.  Even I, as the oldest member of the group, ran down and then up the dune again as I had earlier promised.  The run up was quite a bit harder than anticipated, but it encouraged Nikki, Nancy, and T.J to duplicate my run.  No one got hurt.

We made it to the deck in time for sunset and for some photos.  The sunset photos were pretty good, but I don't think as good as last night's.  I left them on the cutting room floor this time.  Instead I like this shot of our hostess sitting on the deck just a few minutes after sunset.

It was a fine day in southwest Michigan on one of my many vacations from retirement. I'll be playing tennis again soon.

Murray wins US Open

Sunset comes every night, but sometimes you can't see it, perhaps because of cloud cover, but sometimes it comes after one of the nicest days of the month, or of the year, and possibly any year at all. This is a new venue for my relentless urge to take photos as the sun goes down. We - the four of us, Unky Herb, Santini, the Girl From the North Country (GFTNC) and I - were at Holland State Park, just down the lake from here. We went to check out the paint job on Big Pink (which has reverted to Big Red after a new paint job), to show GFTNC the state park in September, and maybe take a shot of Old Sol as he set in the west. The pier provided a bit of extra detail to the photo and the jet trails in the sky some extra finery.

Photo taken by Unky Herb just before sunset at Holland State Park. Big Red can be viewed in the immediate background.  The pink has been replaced by a deep red as one can see.

Last night at Tunnel Park we had the traditional evening trek to the park and stopped just inside the park to get a wind swept photo of the group. Even the photographer's shadow can be seen. We're all in the photo. We have been to the top of the dune there and both Unky Herb and I have done the traditional run down the dune. Herb also ran back up the dune, a feat that I may try to replicate later in the week.

We've mostly stayed on the mountain so far this trip. We took a trip to the grocers for excitement and entertainment, but returned for a home cooked meal and then the previously reported journey to the big park for the sunset. It's been an interesting two days so far, good food and lots of laughing and talking. We had so much fun that I forgot about the US Open finals until it was already over. It's pretty nice to see that Andy Murray won, the first British man to win a major since 1936. I think he would have rather won at Wimby, but at least he has his first major, and has a somewhat better chance to be the first Scotsman to win Wimby.

It rained today

August, too, is winding down. Tomorrow the Minnesota State Fair begins, pigs and all, and well over a million visits will occur to the fairgrounds on Snelling Avenue by the end of the day on Labor Day. The powers that be have decided to ignore the swine flu outbreak taking place in the USA and allow the appearance there of the state's largest pig and others of assorted smaller sizes. They have made provisions for places to wash your hands when leaving the hog barn. The virus, I am informed by my favorite radio station, is transmitted though the air. I think I'll be avoiding the livestock area, and perhaps the entire Minnesota Get Together.

It was a scheduled tennis day today. Four of us older gentlemen showed up at the appointed time. It had just begun to rain. We considered our options and decided to go to Caribou Coffee to wait for a break in the drizzle. A break that came too late to be able to go back and play, so we rescheduled for Friday. The geezers are experiencing a series of injuries that seems to be keeping a few of the regulars out of action for a while. A groin pull and a rotator cuff injury requiring an MRI are the most serious of the maladies, but I realize that this is the sort of problem that will continue as these aging athletes try to keep on keeping on into their seventies.

The photo of the day is a vine covered wall that stands next to Minnehaha Falls Park in Minneapolis. I took it a couple of days ago when I walked in a different part of the park than normal. I like a little variety in my exercise regime.

The middle of August

It felt like autumn today. It was nice to get a coolish breeze and an opportunity to once again wear long sleeves and long pants. The Minnesota State Fair is barely a week away. Summer is coming to a close and it seems like it just began.

I mowed my lawn, circled Como Lake on foot, and walked to the grocers to buy some fresh fruit. Not a bad day, just an off day from the tennis wars. A day to recharge my camera batteries.

Primary election

It's primary election day in the People's Republic of Minnesota. It's mostly a non-event in my part of the state because there are no controversial races in doubt. The people who predict such things think that about ten percent of the eligible voters will exercise their franchise. The main contested elections are in the northeast part of the state and the southwest part, too. The members of the House in those districts will likely have more primary voters than here and also can expect a vigorous campaign before the November election. I voted this morning at Lyndale Community Center where I was the 56th voter of the day. I was the only voter in the room with about six election judges. They were chatting and eating "fat pills" (rich pastries) when I arrived. They seemed happy to see me, checked my eligibility and gave me my choice of the voting booths. And one of those "I Voted" stickers.

The community garden at Hamline Methodist Church, which is planted, maintained and harvested by Hamline students, still exists. PP was one of the group that organized the garden while she was a student there. I walked by there a couple of days ago and took the photo, partly to show PP that her efforts weren't wasted and there are still students with a similar environmental bent carrying on the project.

It's been a nice stretch of pleasant weather. Our Wednesday afternoon tennis group competed yesterday in playable weather - not life threatening like it was for much of July. We played for about two hours and I still had energy left later on to be able to fix a nutritious dinner. I am sorry to report that there was no blueberry cake on the menu.

Historical Bench

Although I do have more recent photos, I decided to post this bench photo, especially in light of the current focus on benches in at least a couple of blogs. This old concrete bench sits next to the Visitor Center at Fort Snelling State Park. I suspect it may have been moved a time or two, because it sits flush against a building that is much newer than the bench. It's concrete, too; not a popular choice for benches these days, but pretty resilient to the forces of nature. It commemorates the veterans of the Civil War of Minnesota and was erected by their daughters. This bench clearly had to be preserved, but it's in a kind of out of the way place where few visitors would stumble across it.  That's about all I know about the bench - even a google search failed to reveal much other info.

A photo from yesterday, taken on a walking tour of my alma mater. It clearly shows that the old athletic field has been upgraded since my leave taking forty-seven (!) years ago. I also noticed a new building that was to open today for the first time - the Anderson University Center. I may have to take a tour there sometime soon. Perhaps in October during homecoming when my old tennis coach, Ben Lewis (Doc) is inducted into the Hamline Athletic Hall of Fame. There will be a banquet and speeches, plus a chance to see some of the guys that I played tennis with 45 or so years ago, some of whom I haven't seen in the meantime.

It rained a bit on me after I took the photo and made my way across campus to where my car was parked by the big church on Englewood.

I played some tennis today - just hitting ground strokes and volleys with Tennis Dennis. It was a most pleasant morning, a clear improvement on the weather in July which, so I've heard, was the hottest July in the history of Julys. There was a gentle breeze and a temp in the comfortable 70's.