September 1, 2018 A Fun Day in Duneland with Chrissy's Cousins Ed & Peg

We met Chrissy's cousin Ed and his wife Peg at Central Beach this morning. The storm clouds were out over the lake with thunder off in the distance. But it never rained while we were on the beach.

There was a huge sand bar and Nola and I walked out into the lake on it.

My brown eyed girl having fun in Lake Michigan.

Another creation by a drift wood architect.

I loved the storm clouds on the beach...at least for the photo opportunities.

We walked west toward Lake View beach.

Not sure what this was or how it got here. It has a heavy metal angled bar attached to a mesh with some type of insulation or filter on it. Of course CSI Nola had to check it out.

Peg enjoying an early morning walk on the beach with beautiful clouds over the calm lake.

Oslo and Chrissy checking out another driftwood creation.

Ed walking into the lake along the rock covered shoreline.

Yes, I was fascinated by the storm clouds.

Nola and I went back in the lake while the rest of our group spends time catching up.

Nola investigating.

I have been impressed by all the different natural material structures / artwork that have been created along all the beaches this summer...

...due to erosion of the dunes, there is a lot of material to work with.

There was pretty constant thunder out over the lake.

Oslo doing what he loves, resting on the shoreline...

...meanwhile Nola does what she loves and investigates the downed trees on the rocky shoreline.

We noticed a shift in the wind and those dark storm clouds that appeared to be heading out further over the lake started to move toward us.

Oslo decided it was time to move on.

Technically everything is wrong with this picture. But I like it anyway. We were driving over to Chesterton's European Market when it started to rain. But we got lucky once again and it let up as we arrived. We spent a few hours at the market with Ed & Peg. While shopping at the outdoor market, we picked up maple syrup, pickles, crunchy peanut butter and two pounds of crawfish. 

Then we grabbed lunch at the Food Truck Festival in the park next to the market. 

Chrissy & I had empanadas for lunch and Italian ice for dessert...lemon for both of us. We sat in the park, enjoying lunch outdoors and talking with Ed & Peg about all kinds of things....dogs, family, life...for me, it was a perfect way to spend a day. 

Finally back at the car, Nola has a drink...

...and Oslo passes out. It was a rough day for him. So many people came up to pet him and tell him how beautiful / gorgeous / sweet he is....apparently it was exhausting. 

Chrissy picked a bunch of goodies from our garden last night...celery, tomatoes, peppers, onions and eggplant. So I made dinner tonight with fresh stuff from our garden...

...and a few things we bought at the European Market.

Red Wine cheese and crackers, Kona Brewery's Big Wave Golden ale, freshly brined pickles, celery and tomatoes with a creamy garlic yogurt dressing...

....with boiled and seasoned crawfish. All those long hour workdays make days like this possible and necessary...and I really needed this one today. Thanks Ed & Peg for joining us today. Let's get together again soon.

August 26, 2018 A Black & White Sunrise Becomes a Beautiful Morning at Mt. Baldy

It's 6:04am. We are 58 miles from Chicago, we got a car full of dogs, half a dozen doughnuts, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses. Okay, we are not wearing sunglasses and we are driving east into the sunrise on warm and extremely humid morning. So humid that there is a haze blocking the sunrise so even this color photo makes it look like a black & white sunrise.

We drove out to Mount Baldy early this morning because it is going to be in the 90's soon with 90 percent humidity. I love that the National Park Service has so many great events at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore all year long.

Nola took this selfie because she also loves her local National Park...since she has short legs and no thumbs, she used the timer feature on her cell phone.

It must have rained here overnight. There were puddles in the parking lot and the trail through the woods was wet sand. Chrissy & Oslo walking barefoot to the beach.

The only way to climb Mount Baldy is on a ranger led hike...I gotta sign up for one soon.

Nola is so excited to be at the beach...here she is waiting for everyone to catch up.

The sun is trying to break through the haze.

The two old timers heading down the dune to the beach. 

The last chance to see the drops of water on the dune grass before the sun breaks through and dries them.

The somewhat muted sunrise over the dunes.

Nola loves Lake Michigan...once again she ran right in to cool off.

These two have to investigate everything on the beach.

Every beach has had so much dune destruction in the past year that I have seen many of these structures or natural art works on all the beaches.

I know your dogs must be leashed on the NPS properties. I only let Oslo off leash if no one else is on the beach. He loves having the freedom to go anywhere and he moves much faster off leash.

I love the difference of light early in the morning. This is looking east and sun isn't high enough to light up the beach...

...but looking west the low angle sun gives everything an orange glow.

A similar shot as above but with more lake in it where the sun hits the water away from the beach.

Another extremely calm morning on Lake Michigan 

As we hiked west toward Central Beach, there were a few obstacles. There were so many trees down on the beach that it started to bother me. 

I come here to get away for a couple of hours but sometimes all the natural destruction of the dunes gets to me. 

I truly love this place but I wonder what it will look like 5, 10 or 20 years from now.

My two hiking buddies...I think we lost Chrissy in the downed trees. 

A beautiful reminder that Mother Nature is a bad mother...watch your mouth.

Oslo was leading the way and quickly realized he could not climb over or go under any of this...

...so he decided to swim around the trees.

The collapsing dunes completely bare of any vegetation.

We finally found Chrissy.

The old man just kept moving on...

...we stopped him at Wild Women Creek.

I sat on a tree trunk that fell across the creek. The west side of this creek is Central Beach. Over the course of this summer, I have hiked across almost all the beaches from the Indiana Dunes State Park to Michigan City.

Oslo refused to rest out here and didn't want to turn around. So he went into the lake with me and Nola. Here he is shaking himself dry.

The Odd Couple walking down the beach.

I was happy to see new grass growing on the dunes.

Even though these look like rocks, they will crumble. I think this is compressed sand from the bottom of the exposed dunes.

Oslo finally decided to rest...

...and Nola stayed alert for a possible attack...

...while Oslo cleaned himself like a cat.

Another quick dip in the lake and Oslo has his happy face.

A girl and her dog.

Oslo seems to amaze me a lot lately. He charged right up this dune.

It looks like another great day to visit the beaches today.

Until next time...my old friend, Lake Michigan.