The beginning of my East Coast road trip!

The Beginning of my East Coast Road Trip - Part One
Detroit and Canada!

Well the time has come...I am off to the East Coast! I left home on July 8th and stayed in Traverse City for a few days to work and see friends. After that, I slowly made my way to Midland and Detroit to spend time with some other friends.

Before I left Michigan on Sunday, July 14th I had breakfast with a friend from GVSU near Detroit. It has been around 5 years since I seen her and was happy we could finally meet up. She was on her way to France that evening so it was the prefect time to catch up! 

After breakfast, I decided to wander around the old train station and Saint Anne de Detroit Catholic Church, because you can never get enough of them. They are my favorite places to visit while in Detroit, incase you didn't already notice from my previous photos:) While at Saint Anne's, I wandered in during mass. I decided to stay for mass and watched from the back. It was my first time inside and it was just as beautiful as I imagined!

Church from the outside 

Train Station

This older guy was playing bag pipes while I was there...It was nice to have a little music while I took photos:)

After photographing the church and train station, I continued on my adventure and crossed the boarder into Canada!! This was the only part of the trip I was concerned about...mostly because I did not bring a GPS and I could not use my Iphone for directions. I only had a paper map, and photos of the directions.  So, once I turned my phone on airplane mode, it was just me and my sense of direction. Yeah...I got lost.

 Once I realized I was on some random road away from civilization and no longer on the correct highway, I stopped for directions. The guy I talked to drew me a map of three lines to follow, so I was pretty confident I would make it back to the correct highway. Eventually I made it, and was on my way to Niagara Falls!

For a while this was my view. It was great to have the open road ahead of me!

While driving on the Queen Elizabeth Highway to Niagra Falls, I saw an old 'Pirate' ship from the highway near St. Catharines, ON. I quickly pulled off at the next exit and turned towards the water to see if I could find it. I am so glad I stopped! I asked someone fishing what the ship was used for, and he told me it was an old ship. I don't think he knew much English. I continued to take photos and decided to look up info on it later.
Over all, it was a neat find. Being able to stop and see things like this along the way is one of the reasons why I love road trips! No matter where you are going you can always find little gems on your adventure!
(It has been in Jordan Harbour, at the Beacon Hotel marina, since 1997.  The story has it that the ship was built in Lauzon, Quebec, 1914 and was originally used as a St. Lawrence River ferry. It was called Le Progress. In 1991 a wooden facade was built over the steel hull and the masts and crows nests were added to make her look like Jacques Cartier’s 1535 ship Le Grande Hermine. She was re-named Le Grande Hermine and used as a restaurant in Montreal. After a few moves and some unpaid dock-age fees, she was towed to her present location where she has been ever since. A fire in 2003 burned off all the wood finishing. Info taken from http://www.vineimages.ca/blog/?p=1864)

After about 7 hours of getting lost and stopping at random places along the way, I finally made it to Niagra Falls! In the past, I have only visited the falls during the spring and winter months so seeing it in summer was exciting. 
It was 90 degrees at 8pm when I arrived and there were a lot of people crowded around the falls. I snapped a few photos while walking around and enjoyed the beauty of it all. It was almost too pretty to leave, with the sun setting and bright colors of the rainbow around the falls. But I had to continue on to New York to visit my friend and her family.

A self photo of myself at the falls! 

Some more photos of the falls. 



Jake and the Dredge

   

      I don't always have an opportunity to take photos of people, so if I have an idea for a photo session, I tend to ask my friends for help. They usually agree and I always get excited for the chance to be creative and improve my photography skills.

   A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine came into town for a visit, and I asked if he wanted to help me with a little project. He agreed, so here are some of the photos from his sessions. 

    The first set of sunset photos were taken near the Fitz Restaurant in Eagle River, Michigan. It was the perfect Lake Superior sunset!

    If you know me or have been following my photos, you may have noticed that one of my favorite places to take photos in the Keweenaw is the Dredge on Torch Lake:) It is near Tamarack City, Michigan. I can not explain why I love this place so much, I just do. These photos are from inside the old mining building near the Dredge. 

The last stop on our photo adventure was the Dredge. 

Day trip to Chicago, Spring 2013

CHICAGO!

Growing up in the midwest and having family from Milwaukee, I often visited Chicago and it soon became one of my favorite places to visit! 

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a little break and get out of the UP. I took a drive down to Milwaukee to visit family and friends for a long weekend. While there, my friend Jenny, her son Crosby and I went to Chicago for the day. It was Crosby's first adventure and I was excited to be taking him!! 

We did not have much of a plan. I wanted to walk around a little bit downtown to take photos and stop at one of my favorite places, Sprinkles for some cupcakes! So that is what we did.

After Sprinkles we made our way to Lake Michigan to take some photos of the skyline. 

We were hungry, so we decided to look for some lunch. We wandered into a food court area and found a great salad bar! After eating we decided to walk back to my car and head back to Jenny's house. What a great day to visit! 

The U.P, a blizzard and snowshoes.. 4/19/13

Today is April 19th 2013. 

This is how I spent my afternoon.

I am probably one of the few people in the U.P that was excited to have blizzard today. I did not have many chances to snowshoe this winter because I was busy or was out of town. So, today may have been my last opportunity to play in the snow. (hopefully spring/summer is coming) 

Once I put my winter gear on, I grabbed the snowshoes and headed outside! I did not travel far, mostly because I had 26 acres to explore. I am very lucky to have grown up in this area, and to have a backyard like this. 

My brothers dog Sosa joined me and here are some photos from our adventure! This is what it looks like on Lake Linden Hill, in Calumet Michigan! 

Walking in the woods.

Old school snowshoes. My favorite:) 

Just getting started on our adventure. 

Sosa playing in the snow. Watching for anything that moves. 

I fell playing with Sosa. 

Our trail.