Give a little bit....

"Give a little bit... Give a little bit of your life to me....."

This song is repeating in my head right now. And so, with the morning shift done and brief access to the internet, I'll attempt to do just that and "Give a little bit..."

I'll spare you the details of the first day of travel through intense rain, thunder storms, a brief visit with an old friend on the other side of the state, downed power lines that caused late night detours and almost running out of gas because I forgot to look down....

The real fun came the second day. The real trip began once we crossed the bride into the Upper Peninsula (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite places on earth)



Our destination for the night was Munising, where we camped on the beach of Lake Superior for what would end up being two nights. After pitching our tent I lit a fire, cooked dinner, sipped some wine and enjoyed a beautiful sunset with my son.





The following morning I woke with a smile as the song of the loons was my alarm clock. Wanting to make the most of our day (after a proper breakfast of course) we started with a 5 mile paddle in the kayaks on a river that leads into Lake Superior. It was wonderfully windy and upon each and every turn a different form of wildlife greeted us... hooded mergansers, dragonflies, bullfrogs, belted kingfishers, great blue herons and muskrats... to name a few...



From there we decided to explore the coast by foot and hiked a few miles into one of the many waterfalls...



The trees were impressively tall and I wished there were a way to properly photograph the forest floor lined with ferns, greens and forget-me-nots as it was truly stunning... As I strolled through them I couldn't help but wonder if they were a sign to calm my fears, that by my being away for so long certain people would forget about me...



We ventured a bit further up from the trail location to view the coast from above...



So impressed were we, that we hustled to the docks to take the next "three hour tour" (I called Marian and Benjamin claimed the Professor) of Lake Superior and "The Pictured Rocks"...

Lake Superior has a large variety of minerals pressed amongst the sand stone... and as the waves beat against the coast line they release the minerals hidden within and make the rocks look as though they've been painted... the waves also carve the stone into impressive formations.













And so our day ended, with yet another spectacular sunset and the reassuring songs of the loons calling their loved ones close....