The Curmudgeon

The Homestretch July 24, 2011

Posted by civ4freak in 1.
Tags: silver lake sand dunes vacation sun deserts sunsets summer mears michigan coast line orchards fun family trip memories colorful deep peaceful
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As suggested in the title, summer is winding down.

I only have a few more things to accomplish up here in the city.  Aside from finishing my “dope” internship with Triple Threat Mentoring, there’s an online college course to finish, and lastly the grand, summer finale at Lollapalooza.  The course ends one week from now, so essentially, this is my 168-hour dash to the end.  After that, things only get better.

I’ve enjoyed my time here, but I’ll be honest:  drama comes in different shapes and sizes. Some of the family occurrences up here have been less than stable.  I won’t go into specifics, there’s too much to cover.  I can only hope that things straighten out for the better before my leave.

So what to talk about?  Well, for one, I have a whole hard-drive full of Michigan photos just waiting to be shared;  two, more stories to accompany that; and three, a new video just released today!

Barely a precursor to the true excitement and beauty of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes.  You can see the inspiration for this video HeRe.  Eric Prydz is the bomb.

Tink and I took pictures-a-plenty between the both of us, so you’ll probably be able to find some of those up on her DeviantArt account, my DA, and my Flickr as well.  Of the pictures I put up today, these bear memorable significance.

No time was wasted the next morning after our journey up.  Nothing like starting of a vacation with a mile hike across barren sand and damp forests.

The trail begins about a third of the way across the general dune area;  areas with high pedestrian traffic.  Few people, however, would bother to hike to the big lake.  The trail’s sand doesn’t blow around too much, meaning that it’s hotter with blister potential.  One portion also goes through a forest, which riddles the ground with sharp, dry pine needles.  It’s not excruciatingly painful, but it smarts if you step wrong.

After arriving at Lake Michigan, shown above, it’s a roughly 2-mile hike to the outlet.

Personally, I would say that I spent more time on the sand than on water.  Not really a bad thing.  The wildlife has much to offer.

Later in the week we took a hike to another memorable spot:  Southern Vista.  This tower dune/hill embankment is the highest  in the southern region of the dunes.  And it wasn’t extremely easy to scale.  The top, however, is something to behold.

Simply an awesome panorama.  Speaking of which, click here, here, and heRe to see some real panoramas of the vista lookout on Flickr ( just click the magnifying glass on the upper right above the pic to see it in full view on Flickr).

What else?  How about sailing?

Don’t forget the crazy sunsets (lots up on Flickr!).

Can’t forget water activities.  Unfortunately, there weren’t too many tubing photos.  I am not in possession of those at the moment.

Jet skiing, pleasure cruising, running the dogs, so many to mention.  One of the best unforgettable moments started out rather serious.  See below.

Towards the center of the picture, you might be able to make the outline of a green snake…a big one too.  This sucker was perched upon some driftwood right next to the MacWoods Dune Ride road.  We carefully made our way around it, giving a good measure of 20 feet between us and the reptile.  Once a safe distance, I threw some wood, rocks, sticks at it.  Turns out, it was one of those wooden, augmented toy snakes.  The kind you can flick with your wrist and it’ll look like the real thing.  Let’s just say that after the fact, we played a few pranks of our own with the relatives.

If you’ve never been to Michigan, I’d highly recommend it.  Too often I think the state is shunned for the turmoil of Detroit.  Please, get a better perspective and go take a road trip up the western Route 31.  There’s not only sand dunes, but orchards upon orchards and winery wazoo.  Lake Michigan coast lines, untouched forests, local wildlife, bike trails, etc. you’ll never get bored…as long as you like the outdoors.

And last but not least, some classic dune jumping for the scrap books.

No audio version this time, didn’t really have time to record anything.  Too much fun.

As I mentioned before, you can find tons of photos not shown up on the Flickr account and various DeviantArt links.   Adding me as a friend on Facebook also helps, lots up there too.

I’ll definitely write a future post after Lollapalooza, and perhaps one or two in-between here and there.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, and be sure to check out the Twitter, YouTube, and Curmudgeon time after time!

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

-civ4freak