At the Edge of the Water...

There is a certain way being next to the water leaves you feeling.

The repetitive motion of the water and the lullaby of the waves is hypnotizing.

It's like a welcome home...this scenery is here every single day in some form, but I am not.

I relish my chance once a summer to see it, to smell it, to hear it, to enjoy it with my senses.

If it's summer, I need to make my way to one of the Great Lakes and smell it, see it, hear it, dip my toes in, even if it is cold.

Here, the sense of how small I am is overwhelming.

It's a favorite spot, slightly lonesome, just as we like it.  We are thankful we can go.  I know you probably have a spot like that, too.

This year, for our shooting weekend, Luke had his own camera and we shared our extra lenses.  

I enjoyed watching him find the photos to take, and today I am sharing with you his photos; I have enough to last several days...

He is good, and I found he has a creative streak when he shoots.

It's always a good day when you can relax with sand between your toes and your face just a little bit pink from being in the wind all afternoon.

Let's all resolve to cherish the good things left of summer--while we can!

Shootin'!

Luke and I have been on a shootin' adventure.

We learned this trip that it just ain't good shootin' if you don't have some bad weather.


Too much sunny beautiful weather makes for boring photos.

Very boring.

We had fun anyway...

And I am learning that Luke is a much better photographer than I...

And on our last night, we found some weather to make our pictures much better and I'll be sharing those photos with you shortly, when we get back home and I have time to edit them!

Meanwhile, we are working our way home, the long way, and hopefully the scenic way.

Do You Remember ... 15-cent Hamburgers?

Last week my sister Mary and I took our youngest to the The Henry Ford (Museum in Dearborn, Michigan).  

Now Henry was a smart and industrious man, and he ended up being quite well off, and with some of his money, he left a museum and a village there on the ground near the huge Ford factories--Henry preserved the history of the industrial revolution for all of us to see. 

It's a great place to visit, you could spend days seeing it all.  Greenfield Village is also gorgeous and very full of interesting buildings like Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brother's home, and is on the same campus.

I would one day like to do just that: spend days there to see it all, because I still haven't seen it all yet, and I have lived in Michigan my whole dang life!

Anyway, Henry had this big old museum built, it's a gorgeous and historical building in a beautiful setting...a great place to visit and it's all about the vehicle.  

Henry bought up and brought to the site all kinds of neat old things that have to do with the car and the road.

It basically shows you the birth of the vehicle up through the expansion of the highway system and the wonderful things that popped up along the roadside with the growth and popularity of the automobile.

So while we are meandering through, we see the GOLDEN ARCHES.  And boy did that bring back memories.

We sounded like old farts, telling our kids about only drive up service, no sit down tables inside...

And, the most astounding thing of all?  Yes, it was hamburgers for what, maybe fifteen cents apiece?  

I remember this because my dad would pull up and order thirty of them, there were nine kids in my family!  We'd have to share fries, but us girls could eat a couple hamburgers each, three each for the boys.  

We shared a few fries out of one bag, and a small orange pop with a sibling or two.  We didn't have a lot of choices, life was simple then, man!  But it was really a treat, it didn't happen often.  In fact, I never ate in a sit-down restaurant until I was in my teens with our church youth group!

How about you?  

What are YOUR memories of McDonald's ...

in the EARLY DAYS?