The Climbing Frog

Lisa noticed this on the outside of one of our UPSTAIRS!! windows this evening. The very cunning frog was hanging out (well was “sticking” out on the window pane, ambushing bugs attracted to the light inside the window!!!

The Underside of a Gray Tree Frog

Excuse the apparently dirty window. (click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

A photo gallery of some other shots from both inside and outside follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Cass River Walk

After looking at the petroglyphs, we spent about an hour walking the 1.5 mile track that follows parts of the Cass River through the Historic State Park. It seemed for the most part eerily devoid of wildlife – apart from tiny flies and mosquitos!!!!!

The occasional Lobelia cardinalis – the Cardinal Flower – brightened the forest, and a few fungii on the trees and forest floor provided contrast to the greens we saw along the way.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Petroglyphs

Lisa wanted to visit the Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park, so we set off on Wednesday to go over to the “thumb” area to see the Petroglyphs – quite a drive from Grand Rapids – 200 miles, plus afterwards another 150 miles down to Saline to stay the night with Lisa’s Mum!!

I was a bit underwhelmed by it, but it was interesting to see it. We also took the 1 hour walk around the track through the State Park.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

Lyon Street Water Slide 2010

Amid much publicity and hoopla, Grand Rapids became home to what had been billed as “the world’s largest inflatable water slide” over the weekend of 21 & 22 August 2010. This community event was organised by Rob Bliss and was free, with the costs of setting it up apparently covered by various sponsors. Thanks to Susan Dmytrusz who happened to be standing near the top when we got there for our turn, to whom I gave a card with my eMail address on it and asked her if she’d mind taking a couple of pictures of us and then eMailing them to me – Thanks Susan!!!! (I hadn’t taken my camera as I couldn’t think of anything to do with it while going on the slide).

The Slide - Looking Uphill from the Middle

The Slide - Looking Downhill from the Middle

Things got off to a slow start on Saturday, with the start delayed from 9 AM to 2 PM for technical, and weather reasons, and once running things seemed slower than expected. People were waiting up to 6 hours for their ride. One of the bottlenecks was the tubes needed for sliding – a “chain gang” was in place to return them from bottom to top, as can be seen in the two pictures above, but the reality was that people walking up the hill were actually travelling faster than the mis-thrown, dropped tubes were.

Lisa and I decided to head down earlyish on Sunday morning to see if we could get a ride with a shorter wait time. We got there right about starting time of 0800, only to find things already behind schedule. We had to line up below the bottom of the slide on Lyon Street, in what turned out to be very nearly a 4 hour wait.

Lined up waiting our Turn

Thanks to Nathan Vandenbroek for taking the above photo on his cell phone and eMailing it to me.

As we slowly made our way up Lyon Street to the start, the slide ran, then stopped for repairs, was delayed waiting the return from the bottom of the needed sliding tubes, etc etc

A description of the mornings events might have gone something like this…

Waiting, chatting, waiting, idle chatter, waiting, “why don’t they do it this way”, waiting, waiting shuffling slowly up Lyon St, waiting, “oh the sun has come out” waiting, waiting….

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thok!!

$10 Tee shirt

Been There Done That

A photo gallery with a few more images is below.

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Camaro Superfest 2010

The Camaro Superfest 2010 was held July 2, 3 and 4 at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and (on Friday afternoon) at Michigan International Speedway. Lisa and I, along with friend Kristie, her 3 kids and her parents went to take a look at the cars on Saturday.

A panorama made by joining 15 photos together

Not far in from the entrance - a line up of red Camaros - 2010 models in front, and a couple of the earlier ones up to 2002 bhind.

White 69ish Camaro and Black 2010 Camaro in the shade.

This 1970s Camaro was an amazing orange colour.

A photogallery with a lot more photos follows: Read the rest of this entry »

Ypsilanti July 4 Parade

The Camaro Superfest 2010 was in Ypsilanti on July 2, 3 and 4. July 3 was also the Ypsilanti July 4th Parade, which went right by Riverside Park where the Camaro Superfest was being held. So we got there in time to see most of the parade before going down to see the more than 150 Camaros.

I guess it wasn’t quite what I was expecting – too many politicians “on the stump”, and not enough celebration of America’s history I thought, but we did manage to make our own Red, White and Blue…

Brenden after eating a red candy.

Roger after eating a blue candy.

A number of different groups were handing out promotional bubbles – the bottles all seemed to have a sticker on them for some politician or religious group or school…

Kristy blowing the bubbles while Lisa looks on.

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Carriage Roads by Bicycle

Friday was a nice sunny day, so after some “getting ready for Murder Mystery Dinner on Saturday” chores in the morning, Steve, Don, Lisa and I set out to rent some bicycles and then ride them around some of the carriage roads in Acadia National Park on Friday afternoon.

We picked up the bikes and loaded them into Steve’s Honda Ridgeline truck for the ride out to a car park at the north end of Eagle Lake. From there we set out south along Eagle Lake, and then Jordan Pond to Jordan Pond House for Popovers, then back north on different roads to the east side of Eagle Lake, and back to the car park.

Roger poses beside the bicycle with Eagle Lake in the background.

Eagle Lake

Seal Cove Auto Emblems

Thursday was supposed to be “ride a bicycle around some of the Carriage Road” day, but it rained pretty much all day, so that idea got put on hold (or probably actually cancelled for 2010). The afternoon saw us heading off to see the Seal Cove Auto Museum – “The Brass with the Class”.

We had been before in 2008 (I think it was), just as they were getting ready to sell a sizable portion of the collection in order to be able to settle the estate of the founder of the museum who had died.

While there we took the opportunity to become “Charter Members” of the museum.

Firestone Wheel

White Wheel

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Sargent Mountain Ramblings

Our first day on Mount Desert Island we decided we would take a hike up Giant Slide Trail to Sargent Mountain, then back to the car we had pre-positioned at the car park near Upper Hadlock Pond. There were lots of wildflowers and lots of rocks and lots of trees and some great scenery.

Lady Slipper Orchid - Frauenschuh - Sehr Schön

A photogallery of images from the day’s walk is below.

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Cultivating with Giants

Mid afternoon yesterday the distant sound of a diesel engine alerted me that someone had decided it was time to cultivate the large corn field behind our house. This field was last cultivated in almost the depths of Winter on 21 December 2009 – see this post for images of the 4″ thick ice that was being “cultivated” along with the dirt and mud.

Looking out I see the now familiar 480 horsepower Case IH coming, with a truly massive cultivator behind it.

The cultivator was at least 50 feet wide I think - 16 long paces across the swath of tilled land it left behind.

A photogallery is below.

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