May 20 - June 9
The past three weeks have been filled with meeting our coworkers, learning about Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in general, and, specifically, learning about the history of the 4 buildings we are docents at. We rotate between: the Cannery, which houses boats that historically would have been on the lake and surrounding waters; the Maritime Museum, home of the US Life Saving Station and boathouse where we tell about how the surfmen and keeper lived and the equipment they used; the DH Day museum, which tells the story of the most influential man in this village, and his ventures in logging, canning, tourism, conservation, and farming; and the Blacksmith Shop, where we explain the process as the volunteer blacksmith works. Matthew and I have signed up to apprentice and have our first introduction to blacksmithing next week.
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| View of Pyramid Point and, very faintly, on the left is the North Manitou Shoal Light (The Crib) |
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| The Cannery window; our first 2 weeks here everything was swarmed with non-biting, nevertheless annoying, midges |
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| The US Life Saving Station and boathouse |
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| The beach is home to the endangered piping plovers (can you see it?), who lay their eggs amongst the rocks on the beach. |
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Demonstrating the breeches buoy rescue
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| Model of the breeches buoy in action |
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| Killdeer babies have hatched from their nest on the boat rail tracks behind the boathouse, mom in front and baby to the back left |
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| Fawn left along fence of boathouse while mom is off foraging - this isn't zoomed in |
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| Surfboats and surfcar above in the Maritime Museum boathouse |
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| The forge |
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| The blacksmith made this for a visitor |
On our days off we explore the park by car and by hiking
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| View of dunes off Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive |
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| View off Stocking Road |
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| North Bar Lake |
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| The dune on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. If they have to rescue you it could cost $3,000 |
Alders
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South Manitou Island and the Crib viewed from Pyramid Point
The meadow hike from Pyramid Point
The dune rising behind Matthew
Those white dots are seagulls - this, Pyramid Point, is the steepest dune we've seen
Alder growing into another tree
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Fog rolling in over Pyramid Point
Sometimes we just hung out at our campsite
Or we'll explore the village of Glen Arbor and shop in Traverse City
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| ???? |
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| Signs from the Cherry Republic Brewery and Restaurant |
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| We are good at following directions |
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| The Cherry IPA was yummy |
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| We enjoyed a beach fire on Cathy's last week with us |
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| And celebrated the 40th anniversary of our first date with live music at St Ambrose Brewery |
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| And came home to this |
