When the weather turns craptastic, go to the beach!

Change in plans! The plan? Head north and west to hike a bit of the North Country Trail, then continue up to Traverse City for dinner at Bode’s Bum Steer and an overnight. For various reasons — weather and logistical stuff too complex to write about coherently, we bagged that plan and headed over to the west coast. The west coast of The Great Lake State, that is, Lake Michigan, where they were predicting 12-20 foot waves in some places. We chose Manistee because it is pretty much a straight shot west from Houghton Lake. Was it windy? Yes. 12-20 foot waves? Not so much. Beautiful anyway. The GG walked out on this structure.

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I was a bit more reticent although later on I kind of regretted that I didn’t walk out there too. There were fishermen out there sitting right next to The Dreaded Edge.

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These great lakes crashers are nowhere near as freaky as the swells we encountered when Cap’n Ed “nosed” us out into the Gulf back in April. Still, even the GG did not walk out on this particular breakwater (most of it is to the right off the frame, waves crashing everywhere).

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Safely on the beach now and we have had banks like this at the moominbeach the last couple years. I made the GG pose for this so you can see that these banks are taller than us medium-sized humans. The ones at the moominbeach not so tall and I remember visiting beach dog MiaPet scampering up and down them with aplomb.

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We were certainly not the only people at the beach today. We exchanged pleasantries about the beautiful weather with these fishermen, who had already caught a bunch of fish.

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Just some more waves… Oh… I guess I didn’t mention the dead deer just to the right out of the frame. I didn’t even notice it at first. Back when The Engineer was still walking the earth, I used to post dead aminals on my blahg. I don’t do it any more. I *have* a pic. I thought it would be fun to text it to the GG but he was too busy to look at it for eons and when he finally did, his phone momentarily malfunctioned and wouldn’t let him embiggen it so he thought it was a bird or whatever and I finally had to show him *my* pic. So much for that wee bit of fun.

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After the beach, we headed to the main street with the goal of finding lunch and a beer. We had a place in mind but we decided to look around the shops first. Then we encountered Mary Ann’s antique shop. I did not want to go in any antique shop. I am flinging, don’tcha know? Okay, just let’s not stay in here long. Wouldn’t you know *I* ended up spending $60 and coveting a peacock blue glass candy dish that would be great up on top of my cabinets with the other colored glassware… As I was chatting with Mary Ann at the checkout, I thought to ask, “Where’s a good place to get a little lunch and a beer?” TJ’s was the enthusiastic answer. Just down the street. As we walked across the street to check out TJ’s, a young woman who obviously worked there was heading in our direction and she was so friendly we knew we were in the right place. And we were! Craft beer for Bill and cab for me and BLTs for both. And what do you think of this building? TJ’s is on the bottom level, the other levels seem to be a B&B, once a bank, given that there is a vault or two in there. It was reminiscent of the bank I barely remember my old coot working in when I was a small child.

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Mini-vacay or not, Thursday is a business day and so I found a missed call and voice mail as we were rattling around Manistee. For once it was something good — Dreammaker Bath and Kitchen calling to schedule a pre-production meeting next Friday. We are back at the group home now scrabbling dinner together with The Beautiful Liz (who has made a loverly faaaaar in the faaaarplace) and looking forward to more Downton Abbey tonight. More fun is on tap for tomorrow. You’ll have to stay tuned to know what it is. Hope y’all are having fun too and that your weather is as craptastically beautiful as ours is! Seeya on the beach! (But not tomorrow.)

3 Responses to “When the weather turns craptastic, go to the beach!”

  1. Margaret Says:

    The beach in bad weather is better than the non-beach in the same. 🙂 At least there are beautiful views. That building is very cool and eclectic! Love it! Our weather is windy and rainy and generally craptastic also.

  2. isa Says:

    Jealous!

  3. jane Says:

    you missed the ‘first snow’ this morning. it was just a thin layer of corn snow, but still. the winds continue to blow here – lots of scudding clouds. 😉 I love ‘weather’! and I also love a hot sunny day on the beach with a slight breeze.

    I hope you are enjoying Downton Abbey! I found season 5 – just let me know when you’re ready for it.