Happy November!!!

Hello, again!  We had a very nice fall and the weather is getting colder.  We are hoping for lots of snow this year!  A couple of weeks ago we "adopted" a new dog.  Her name is Nora and she is 5 years old.  She and Bear are getting along very well!  He is finally getting more exercise.  Nora has lots of energy.  About a week after we got her, we took her (and Bear, of course) out to the beach at the school forest.  Well, she took off down the beach and we lost sight of her!  We really weren't sure  what to do.  Jamey went one way and I went the other.  We just started walking East and eventually (after about 15 minutes) we caught sight of her.  She loves to run, but always comes back.  She is still learning what we expect of her during breakfast.  She knows that she's supposed to stay out of the dining room - but, she is still trying to sneak in!  Nora is a positive addition to our family.  Here is a picture of her and Bear on the beach.

It's really fun watching Nora run - she's so fast!  We gave her a middle name:   "Lightning".  

Here's a picture of Nora.

 

Last weekend Jamey's son Ryan came UP as well as his parents.  Jamey, Ryan and Bob (Jamey's dad) did some fishing and caught some steel head.  Here are some pictures of the three of them with their catch!

The guys had lots of fun!  We can't wait to eat the catch!  Jamey & Ryan went fishing before Bob arrived and Ryan caught a humongous fish!

Isn't that a great father and son photo?  It was really nice to have Ryan here as well as Bob and Ruth, Jamey's parents.  They will be celebrating their 35th Wedding Anniversary on November 10th - that's awesome, eh?  

Jamey took some pictures of our houseplants today.  Our "Christmas" cactus is really blooming - maybe it's a "Thanksgiving" cactus.  Anyway, it is from a clipping of my late Aunt Esther's plant.  It's very special to me and I think of her every time I look at it!  

Here's another picture of our plants.  Jamey has a green thumb and really loves to take care of our plants.

The  cactus in the frog planter tripled in size after we moved to Grand Marais - it really is happy here!

 

 

The break wall is almost complete.  The rocks are connected and the anchor rocks are being placed to fill the gap.  Here are a couple of pictures that Jamey took of the tug boat and there is a freighter in the background.

Thanks for checking us out!  We hope you have a wonderful November and come UP and stay with us to experience Grand Marais!

 

First Day of Fall!!!

Hi, Everyone!  Maybe anyone who is following our blog thought we got lost!  Sorry this has not been updated since June - I will try to post more often! 

We had a wonderful summer!  Great guests and wonderful UP weather.  We had some return guests and that was lots of fun!  Lots of anniversaries, a couple of honeymooners, birthday celebrations, etc.  We feel so honored when our guests come here to celebrate their very special event!  We even had a couple who got engaged while they were here!  That was exciting.  

There has been so much happening in Grand Marais.  The Breakwater is almost complete and we have had the pleasure of viewing the progress right from our home.  The Army Corps of Engineers are responsible for the remainder and a company from Duluth is busy working on it.  Hopefully it will be done before the weather gets in the way.

Yesterday there was an awesome rainbow - a full arc - over the Bay, right next to a tug boat.

This past week has been very rainy.   We feel bad for our guests - but they all have such great attitudes and we need the rain very badly.

We spent as much time as we could this summer out on the beach with Bear - he has been kind of depressed since Domino passed.  We all miss Domino.  Here are some pictures of Bear on the beach.  He's very handsome, eh?  He's also a very well behaved dog.

He's covered with sand!  LOL!!!

The lighting was so pretty!

Today Jamey took his friend Dakota out for the first day of Duck hunting.  It was the first time that Dakota was hunting for duck.  They had a blast and bagged 3 ducks!  WhooHoo!!!

It's a great time of year to visit the Upper Peninsula!  The colors are changing and are just starting to look really awesome.  Come UP and stay with us!  Bye for now!

Splash In and Father's Day!

This past weekend was the Splash-in in Grand Marais.  Lots of sea planes were in the bay!  It is very exciting and fun to watch the activities.  Also, we have had some lovely guests staying with us.  A couple of anniversaries - 1 was a 3 month and the other 35 years!  I just love it when people come UP and stay with us to celebrate one of their important events.  For breakfast this morning we had blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs with ham, peppers, onions and spices, fresh baked cinnamon coffee cake and juicy, sweet watermelon - delicious!

My parents came UP to visit last Wednesday - unfortunately they have to go home tomorrow.  We had a great time with them, showing them some of our natural beauty and just spending some quality time together.  Here is a picture of them at the log slide lookout:

We also had time to go out to the school forest, Sable Falls and Beach and of course we walked around our town.  During the Splash in there were also many Bikers in town from the Blaney Park Rondevous which is always on Father's Day weekend, too!  Last night we went on the Pictured Rocks Sunset cruise.  It was very beautiful - even when it's cloudy the rocks look awesome - a trip well worth taking when you can.  Also, we had a nice bite to eat at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore in Munising before the cruise - great atmosphere and fresh food.  Here are some pictures that I took on the cruise:

You should really take the time to go on one of the cruises - it is much better to see the rocks in person and they give you lots of information about Lake Superior. 
Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day - it was very special that my dad was here on this day!
Have a great day!

The Breakwall is being constructed!

Hi, everyone!  The weather UP here has just been gorgeous!  A couple of days ago the construction of our breakwall was started.  Last Thursday there was a parade to celebrate the first deliveries of the huge rocks.  Here is a sign that we made:

Here is a picture of the pile of rocks down at the point:

This is a very exciting time for our wonderful town! 

 A couple of days ago we woke up to this in our bay:

We have been privileged to host some of the most awesome guests - this is a great job!  (It really doesn't feel like work - it's lots of fun!)  We had a lovely young couple stay with us for a couple days and today was their 4th anniversary!  We also have another couple here who used to own property UP here and they are having a fun time reorienting themselves to Grand Marais.  We feel so honored when people choose to stay with us to celebrate their special days; such as honeymoon, birthday, anniversary, etc.  This morning for breakfast we served sausage quiche, oven potatoes, fresh oatmeal bread with jelly and butter, chocolate chip banana bread and fresh apples and kiwi.

We are continuing to work on our landscaping - probably will always be a work in progress!!  Here is a picture of some of the flowers that are blooming right now:

Yesterday we picked up a cedar swing for the front yard - we just love it and hope our guests enjoy it as well!  Our good friend Robert came over to help put it together and we got a picture of him and his dog buddy relaxing on the swing.  

Hope you have a great night and I will update as soon as I can!

Memorial Day Weekend!

Hi, everyone - hope everyone is having a fun, relaxing and safe weekend so far.  Thanks go out to all of the Veterans - we greatly appreciate your sacrifices.  

Yesterday Jamey & I started planting some of our flowers.  We hope to finish tomorrow afternoon.  Also, last night we were over at some friends' house visiting and when we got home this is what we found next to our door!

This moth was very hairy and beautiful - Jamey had fun taking pictures!  Here's one more:

We have some lovely guests this weekend - very thankful for that!  It's so much fun hosting and meeting new people!  This morning for breakfast we had scrambled eggs with cheese, ham, red peppers, onions and spices; blueberry pancakes with maple syrup, banana bread, fresh oranges, grapefruit and kiwi - very delicious.  Here is a picture of the fruit tray:

Tomorrow after serving breakfast we  are going to the Memorial Day Service and then we will attend the Community Potluck lunch.  Thanks for reading our blog and feel free to comment.
Good night!

Time for planting flowers!

Hi, everyone!  Yesterday Jamey and I went to Munising and bought some flowers for our hanging baskets and I can't wait to get them planted!  It was extra fun because several other Grand Marais locals were there and all of us were trying not to get blown away - it was REALLY windy!  Here is a picture of the flowers we picked up - more pictures when they are planted:

 Another cool thing we experienced is two sand hill cranes along the side of the road - there were 2 babies but they didn't come out on the picture - I think we scared them.  Here is the picture the 2 babies are in the middle:

Jamey and I had a good trip out of town - long but productive.  Today we attended the funeral of Frank Mead - I did not know him very well, but he did come over to our home last year.  It was a very touching funeral - many family members and friends said very wonderful things and the music was great.  It was very obvious that he was very well loved and will be missed by many. 

We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Memorial Day weekend - we will post more pictures soon!

Beautiful day!!!

Hello, everyone!  Jamey & I had another beautiful day by the bay!  Jamey went fishing early this morning with our friend John and they caught 6 fish!  1 coho salmon, and 5 whitefish!  Here is a picture of Jamey holding them before he filleted them:

 This was taken while Jamey was picking them up for the picture - Bear and Domino were very interested!

 

Here is a picture of the fish before they were cooked:

 While Jamey was cleaning the fish I went for a nice walk with some friends from town.  It was just beautiful on the beach - what a great area we live in!

We had our friends Genie, John and Pat over for dinner to help eat the fish.  We tried something different (for us) with the cubed fish.  We dredged them in seasoned flour, then Greek yogurt thinned out with milk, and finished with crushed cornflakes.  We placed them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and refrigerated them for a while.  They were baked @375 degrees for about 25 minutes.  We served them with cocktail sauce - it was absolutely delicious!!!  I love to create new ways of preparing food.  FYI - I helped with the process, but Jamey did all of the work!  He sauteed the other fish in butter and various spices, we also had garlic smashed potatoes, roasted vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, onions, and carrots) and salad - everything was just so tasty!  For dessert we had mud bars and coffee.  Jamey and John plan to go fishing again tomorrow morning - hope they catch some more! 

Today was also Jamey's son Ryan's 19th Birthday!  We spent time with him last week to celebrate - we were sad that we could not be with him today. 

We have also been working on our landscaping lately - I will post some pictures of that soon!

Cinco de Mayo!!!

Hi, everyone!!!  Jamey & I had another fun and productive day by the bay!  We got up very early this am and went fishing.  I caught 4 menomenee (I don't know how to spell that)  one got away - I almost had it and right before I was reeling it out of the water it got off the hook!  Oh, well - 4 fish were enough for a meal!  Jamey always lets me catch them!!!  He cooked them for dinner tonight and they were absolutely delicious - he is becoming very proficient in filleting - no bones and the fish were very small - a great feat!!!  We had roasted broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and onion which went excellent with the fish - a delicious and very healthy dinner!  In honor of Cinco de Mayo we had blue corn tortillas and salsa for an appetizer.   Jamey is going out again tomorrow morning before church to try to catch some more!   The sunrise was gorgeous - here is one of the pictures that I took:

  I actually got down on my stomach on the pier and took this!

Here's a picture of me and one of the fish:

Here's a picture of the light house - I really like how the sun is reflecting:

After we got home this morning Jamey went out and got 2 loads of wood and I worked here at the house.  I'm almost done with the staining - woo hoo!  Later in the afternoon Jamey & I went out and did some more work on our rock garden.  Maybe by next year we will be ready to be a part of the garden tour in Grand Marais!!!  Have a great night!!!

May!!!

Hello, all - Jamey & I just got back from Pittsburgh on Tuesday!!!  We were there to celebrate my daughter's graduation from the University of Pittsburgh graduate school!  I guess that I am bragging a little but it's an awesome accomplishment to get a Master's Degree!!!  She is going to be a Registered Dietician and I am very proud of her.  We had a wonderful trip and spent lots of quality time with my daughter and her husband as well as my parents, and other family members.  We are very thankful for safe travels back and forth.  On the way home we received a call for some reservations and had some lovely guests - a mother and her son (who is a medical student) stay with us for the past two nights.  They are traveling around the UP during his two week break.  The best part is that they were referred to our B&B by one of our previous guests - who also happens to be a medical student.  We are so fortunate to have such interesting people stay with us from all over - and, the best compliment is to get a referral from a previous guest.  Yesterday for breakfast we served fresh wheat bread, sausage quiche, parsley potatoes, fresh grapefruit and oranges, and cranberry bread.  This morning we had cheesy scramble eggs with onions, ham and spinach, oatmeal/wheat bread, oven potatoes, fresh apple slices and molasses muffins. 

We are still working on our house, which is an ongoing job, obviously.  We have a flower garden, that is a work in progress, and some primroses and daffodils are blooming.  Here are a couple of pictures of that.

I am eager to see our other plants start to bloom!!!

Here is a picture of our elderly dog, Domino - he was watching me take the pictures of the flowers so I decided to take a picture of him.  He is doing pretty well today - he was very stressed out when we picked him up from the kennel on Tuesday.  

FYI - Jamey & I plan to go fishing tomorrow - hope we catch some!!!

Sunday - Earth Day!!!

Hi, what a beautiful day by the bay - crisp air, sparkling blue water and bright sunshine!  Lately Jamey  & I have been working on our floors - finally finished last Thursday - woo hoo! 

On Friday Jamey had the opportunity to take one of our local teenagers out fishing after school.  He caught 3 large steel head trout - awesome, eh? (Both "boys" had a great time!)   Here is a picture of them:

We had some lovely guests last night and someone else is here until Wednesday for a sabbatical from his normal busy life.  This is a great place to be to relax, unwind, and refresh.  For breakfast today we served creamy scrambled eggs, fresh baked wheat bread with butter and Michigan jam, cubed potatoes with parsley and seasonings, thick-sliced bacon, juicy sliced oranges and banana walnut bread - no one left the table hungry!  Of course we had plenty of steaming coffee and hot tea! 

Jamey and I had a very relaxing afternoon and we took our dogs to Agate Beach to see the sunset after dinner.  Here are some pictures:

Beautiful Grand Marais Sunset!!!

Here's Domino - he's almost 17 years old - he seemed to be enjoying himself walking along the beach - he's been a great dog!

Bear did some swimming and then he had to "clean off" in the sand!  

Fishing!!!

Happy Friday the 13th!  Yesterday Jamey & I went fishing in the morning.  Cold but very nice out!  We caught 7 whitefish, 1 coho salmon and 1 rainbow trout!  This was my first time fishing out here and it was really fun!  Here are some pictures of the sunrise from yesterday.

This is a picture of the lighthouse and the moon.

Today Jamey went fishing and caught 11 whitefish!  He is having lots of fun!  Tonight there is a school carnival from 5-8pm and we plan to attend that.  It's always nice to go to the school and see all the kids and families - it's a great time to be part of the community.  Grand Marais is a great community to be a part of!  Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!  If you like to fish - come UP and catch some and come back here to relax and unwind from a great day of fishing!

Easter Monday!

Hi, everyone - sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Jamey & I have been very busy refinishing our floors and spring cleaning.  We hope everyone had a very Happy Easter with family and friends.  Here are some pictures taken in the last few days.

This is the sunrise from last Friday - beautiful, eh?

I took this picture today - the cloud cover made a perfect line with Lake Superior and the sky.

Here's another one from our house of the cloud cover.

Here is a freighter traveling West.  We see many freighters from our house - all times of the day!

Tomorrow Jamey & I are going fishing in the morning - hopefully we'll catch some good fish!  Last weekend Jamey's parents came up for the holiday weekend and Jamey & his father had a blast fishing from the pier every day.  They caught coho salmon, whitefish and rainbow trout.  Delicious!!!