That's A Wrap

The season of Michigan trips and hikes is sadly at a close for 2022. Boats and docks are being removed for storage weekly, and it was recently our turn to do the same. We are fortunate to coincide this task with the fall break of our adult children who offer great help to this yearly task. It only seems this way I’m sure, but the outdoor furniture and “toys” that are stored away during the harsh Michigan winters are so much heavier on the way to garage in the fall, than to their shoreside places in the spring.

BTW, what do you do when the electricity goes out during a storm?? Make Ice Cream Sundaes.

It’s a bittersweet process; it’s sad to see the carefree summer days in the rearview mirror, but not having the additional responsibilities “up north” does offer a respite from the long drives and of course ahead on the horizon are the string of family holiday and birthday gatherings. Plenty to look forward to. But I mustn’t get ahead of myself. W still had plenty of fun collecting and stacking rocks on the shoreline, just too cool to swim on this visit. Also we did squeeze in a fun adventure in Roscommon before closing up. Several of us have a tradition of heading to a small local zoo. Over the years they have expanded and now they even have a lion, tiger and bear, oh my, in addition to some other great residents. There’s the horse that year after year we recognize because he kicks the fence waiting, impatiently, for his snack of carrot sticks.

Typically, we make our zoo visit in the summer, but since that didn’t happen this year due to illness, we were happy to make the trip this fall instead. Being cooler it seemed like the animals were more energetic, for instance the kangaroos were bouncing all over the place where normally they are snoozing in the shade. Several of the animals that are usually napping when we visit were out “playing.”

The tortoise is a regular sight, but he had a new roommate, an African Porcupine. That seemed like a funny match up, but once it occurred to me that he couldn’t really hurt the tortoise with his quills I understood the logic of putting these fellows together. The animals know that carrot treats await them if they come to the fence. It’s been fun watching, not only the zoo grow, but also to see the same animals year after year. W always enjoys the animals, but we have noticed with each passing year the time he spends at the playground increases. He loves to drive the car and plane and to climb up into the fort and go down the slide. The walk around the zoo was my only “hiking” adventure this week, so not too much to elaborate upon, but we look forward to expanding our hikes to yet another state soon and I will share about that next.