In case you haven’t already guessed, I am talking about Michigan. The state motto for Michigan is “If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you”. I would probably amend that to “if you seek a beautiful peninsula, look about you”. Most people think only of Detroit when they think of Michigan, but I can tell you there is so much more to this state, especially if you head “Up North”. Most people from Michigan (myself included) know that once you get out of the big cities in the southern half of “the mitten”, and travel northward to the “U-P” (that’s Upper Peninsula to all you non-Michiganders), that’s where it’s…

So, for Trip # 2 in 2024, Trace and I went to North Carolina. This is one state I had never been to, other than to fly through Raleigh a time or two en route to another destination. Trace spent a short time at Fort Bragg (now known as Fort Liberty) just outside Fayetteville, but that was many, many moons ago. Thus, North Carolina was a perfect place to check off on our USA bucket list. We spent eleven days in this gorgeous state and literally went from one end to the other. We started out in Wilmington, which is right there on the east coast. We spent four nights…

Well, Trace and I decided to whittle away at some of our USA Bucket List. There are so many places right here in the US that we have added to our Bucket List that we thought in 2024 we would just do the USA. Ok, so for Trip #1 of this year, we decided to go to St. Augustine, Florida and Savannah, Georgia. Neither Trace nor I had ever been to St. Augustine and Trace had never been to Savannah, so we decided to check off two bucket list places in one trip. We flew into Jacksonville, FL and then drove to St. Augustine. We spent four nights there, and…

Well as you may have heard, we here in Central Texas just happened to be right in the middle of the totality path for the eclipse of April 8th, 2024. Weathermen were telling us we could have cloud cover, but I think some powerful prayers must have been prayed because the clouds parted just in time for us to be able to view the total eclipse. I decided to photograph this “once in a lifetime event” as who knows if I will ever have the opportunity to view it ever again in my lifetime. For all you photo buffs, I used my Olympus OMD-EM1 Mark II camera with a 300mm…

Well, it’s a little early, but the bluebonnets are out in full bloom here in Central Texas. Hard to believe that these things are actually weeds. They are prettiest darn weeds I have ever seen! Anyway, there’s a lot right here in our subdivision that is spectacular. Every morning as I walk past it during my normal workouts, I keep saying how I have to take some pictures of it. So I got my camera out and here are the photos that I took this morning. You will notice that along with the bluebonnets there are some reddish-orange blooms out there as well. Those are Indian Paintbrush plants (also a…

Well, it’s been on my bucket list for a long time, so we decided to take a trip to Nashville in late September. While I don’t profess to be a huge country music fan, there are some country musicians that I really do like (Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Dolly Parton, Jason Aldeen, and a few others). And I really did want to see the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Grand Ole Opry. But I gotta tell you, as far as I am concerned, you can keep downtown Nashville! Now I had heard that you can sit down and listen to some of the best country musicians in the…

In September of this year, Trace and I took a long weekend to return to Michigan to attend my 50-year high school reunion. Holy crap!!! How time flies when you’re having fun. All I can say is, I am glad that we had to wear name-tags. You don’t realize how much you change over the years until you see the kids you grew up with 50 years later. But I have to admit that the get-together was both fun and sad at the same time. For starters, I wish that a few of the classmates that I hung out with and were close with would have showed up. It really…

In August we took a 10-day trip up to Calgary and Banff in Alberta, Canada. We stayed at a fabulous hotel in Calgary (the Westley), and made a couple of day trips up to Banff which is about a 45-minute drive from Calgary. The weather was fabulous just about the whole time, with only a couple of days where it sprinkled some. They were having a “heat wave” by their terms, which meant temps getting up to the upper 80’s. To Trace and me, this was heavenly since we were coming from Texas which was experiencing 100+ degree temps for the better part of the summer! We really enjoyed our…

While I sit here recuperating from cataract surgery on my right eye, I figure it’s about time to get a post out before they make me completely blind!! Joking aside, the surgery went quite well and my doctor is quite pleased with the progress so far. One down, one to go. But enough about my eyes. It’s time to get on about our GIRLS TRIP. Back on May 4th, I flew to Detroit to meet up with my sister, Melon (NO, Melon is not her given name; it’s Mary-Rose. Melon was just a nickname that my Dad bestowed on her at a young age. Don’t ask me why, but it…

Trace and I took a whirlwind trip in March back to Denver to see some of our friends there. It was five of the busiest days we’ve ever spent on a trip. But we had a great time visiting with all of our old friends and neighbors! Plus, we got a chance to eat breakfast at some of our old haunts like The French Press and the Blue Sky Cafe, both out in Lakewood. Plus, I had to visit a Noodles and Company while we were up there, as we don’t have them in Texas, and I miss it dearly. We got in on Sunday and were going to see…