Week 20: Vacation!

Last week I went with some of my family on our annual trip "Up North" in Michigan to my favorite place, Ludington.  Ludington is on the west coast of Michigan, right on Lake Michigan, and is a really fun and beautiful town.  My family has been vacationing there since I was around seven years old, and it's a tradition that we love to keep!

My maternal grandfather spent his teen years in Ludington while his father worked for the CCCs helping to build the beautiful beach house at Ludington State Park.  As a result, when he was grown with kids of his own, my grandpa took my mom and her siblings to Ludington for a few visits, and my mom and her sister took up the tradition as adults as well.  We rent a cabin north of Ludington on Hamlin Lake, which is connected to Lake Michigan by the Au Sable River.  It's heaven on earth there, my friends!

I spent the week sleeping, sitting on the front porch reading, laying on the beach reading, laying in the hammock reading, hiking (too hard to read and hike), swimming in the pool with my nieces and nephew (also a difficult place to read), eating ice cream, playing games (charades, Yahtzee!, Cabby, Golf - the card game), kayaking, sitting by a campfire, eating s'mores, playing shuffleboard, walking out to the Ludington Lighthouse, watching sunsets...  Heaven.  Here are some photos from the week:

Kayaking with my nieces & nephew & sis

My favorite flavor ice cream at House of
Flavors (best ice cream place) - Eskimo Kisses 

On a sunset beat ride with my Aunt, Uncle, and Fam
(pictured with my nieces)

My lone peanut - on my last leg playing Cabby!

Big waves!! (...Come at a cost...high winds...) 

My nephew hiding from the wind with me on the beach

Changing of the flags from yellow to red....
A bit of a crazy day at the beach!

Skyline Trail at Ludington State Park

More ice cream...

"What?" :D

Carved on a tree on one of the State Park trails

Our favorite tree on the trails -
perfect sitting spot for a rest!

View on the State Park trails - gorgeous!!

S'mores + campfire + ghost stories = magical!
(My uncle's friend tells the best ghost stories!!!)

Hanging in my sister's hammock and
comfortable with my favorite view!

The view from the front porch
of our cabin

My uncle and cousin got some lanterns
that we released one night - it was pretty!

Swimmin' in the pool
(doesn't it look so refreshing?!) 

Sunset on Lake Michigan near the lighthouse

Can you tell why this is my favorite week of the year??  It relaxes me and brings me great peace.  It renews me!  I feel ready for what comes next after spending time there.  Sigh.  I miss it already!

Now it's back to work!!  Six more weeks...

Week 12: Half-Way!!

Oof.  I can't believe my residency is half over!!  Yikes.  It's been a real self-check week!!  Have I done all I'd hoped in the first three months of my residency?  Hmm... I've done a lot, but maybe not everything!  Will I be done in three months with all I have to do??  No, but I'm going to try!!  Since I have no idea what I'll be doing when the next three months are over, I suppose I'd better get on that, as well...

Anyway, this week was busy and a little odd, but mostly because I had no time in the studio.  This was through no fault of my own, but due to leaking pipes in the ceiling above the studio - boo!!  They're fixed now, the wall is repainted, and I can move back in on Monday, and hopefully not faint from paint fumes (that place has really bad air circulation...!).  

Here's some of what I did this week:

My week started out in the most GLORIOUS place on the planet (IMHO): Ludington, Michigan.  My family's been vacationing there since I was a kid, and I love it there more than I can say.  (Seriously, I could go on about it for hours!)  I was able to start of the holiday weekend at a Scottish festival in Alma, Michigan, then headed northwest and spent the rest of the weekend reading in a hammock, hiking, eating, hiking, sleeping, hiking, kayaking, and playing games.  It was exhausting, relaxing, and wonderful!! 

Massed Bagpipe Bands at the Scottish Festival

Ludington Lighthouse and SS Badger

Reading this book for the third time
and loving every minute of it!

View from some of the hiking trails

Ludington State Park has the pretties trails!

View from the hammock...!

Kayaking on Hamlin Lake

Walking along the beach to the
Big Sable Lighthouse

Possible my best game of Yahtzee! ever!!
TWO Yahtzees!! 

Skyline Trail at the State Park

Burger, fries, and lemonade at
our favorite little dive

Eskimo Kisses ice cream at House of Flavors!

The rest of the week I stayed busy!  I did an art lesson at the school where I used to teach (more on that another time), taught two private lessons, worked at Two Twelve a couple of afternoons, got sunburnt doing yard work (yay spring!), and spent some WONDERFUL time drawing outdoors!!  Since I didn't have my studio and the weather was so wonderful, I thought I'd take advantage!!  There was a bee dive-bombing me one evening, so I started a little campfire and smoked it out!  It worked pretty well - the bee got all sleepy-looking and sort of floated away! 

And I couldn't let a perfectly good fire go to waste without making any s'mores, of course!!

Aside from sketching animals for the book, I painted this thumbprint tree for my nephew's Baptism.  It will be full of thumbprint leaves from family and friends!

Next week I'm excited to be back in the studio and back on track!!