God Bless America

Sometime after my last post (ok about 2 months after), Spring began in Ann Arbor. I guess I didn't feel much like writing blogs when I could actually go outside without freezing my tail off. The summer was a good one, the highlight as usual being my favorite holiday, the 4th of July. I went to Mackinac Island (in Northern Michigan) to celebrate, and it was a great place to be for the Fourth. The largest attraction on the island, other than a large and very fancy hotel, is a colonial war fort, Fort Mackinac. A few pics from that weekend...



Directly in front of Fort Mackinac is a large grassy park area where people could just sit and relax, play frisbee, sunbathe, read, or in my case, work on a remarkable sunBURN (of course unintentional). This was a view from that park, looking out over the marina into Lake Superior. Mackinac Island is located in the Mackinac Straits, which connect Lake Superior to Lake Michigan (I think). I don't have a picture, but you can also see the Mackinac Bridge from the island. I think it is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere.



Another interesting aspect of the island is that there are no motorized vehicles (with the exception of a firetruck and an ambulance). Everyone gets around by waking, biking, or riding horses or horse-drawn carriages. I snapped this photo of "Mackinac traffic" one afternoon:

By far the most popular souvenir from Mackinac Island is fudge. And for people like myself who don't want to buy the fudge, a popular pasttime is walking around and getting fudge samples from the oodles of fudge shops up and down the main drag. I particularly enjoyed this partriotic fudge arrangement in one of the shop windows:

Boat all decked out for the Fourth:

All in all, despite the unexpected and unfortunate sunburn I got, I really enjoyed the weekend at Mackinac Island. On Sunday before taking a ferry back to the mainland, we spent about 4 hours watching the Wimbledon final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. Wow, that was a great match and perfect ending to a very relaxing and fun vacation weekend.

Spring Preview

Let it be recorded that today in Ann Arbor, on February 1, the temperature rose to 38 degrees. And the sun was blazing gloriously in the sky. It was truly a day to remember in the midst of what most people here have described as the worst Winter they can recall.

I never thought I would say this about 38 degrees, but it actually felt warm. In honor of this wonderful weather today, I did the following:

(1) wore a skirt to church (not happening when the temp is below 30)

(2) drove around with my sunroof open (after the ice all melted off the top glass)

(3) sported my under-used sunglasses

(4) went running in only one pair of pants, and a top of course

(5) opened all the blinds so Kelsey could bask in the warm rays (and she did)

Just when I was about to break out the flip-flops to make this day perfect, the clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared. Ok, flip-flops were just a bad idea, but can't a girl dream? I am thinking spring, just like this ice sculpture I saw last weekend beckoned me to do:

Last weekend when I went to see the International Ice Sculpture festival in Plymouth, MI, the temperature hovered around 8 degrees all day with a wind chill of -9. Here are a few other images from that frigid day. In the meantime, I will be thinking of spring and hoping the groundhog does not see his shadow tomorrow.

Mickey Mouse

with Amy in front of some sort of warrior

Sculpture by "Team Japan"; they made all the impressive ones

Nancy and I with our new President

Whiter than Snow

I remember last year reading my friend Leigh's blog about snow... she too was experiencing her first real winter in Michigan (and probably her last). She wrote of the picture that God gives us in the Bible that when are sins are washed away we are whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:18 "though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"). As I have now been taking in the new experience of seeing freshly fallen snow, I've appreciated that it is truly a picture of purity.

I've also noticed that it does not take long after the snow falls in our midst for us to taint it's purity. I took this photo the other day while waiting at our downtown bus terminal. Notice the bright white snow on the far side of the driveway, contrasted with the yucky brown mucky slush that has been run over all day by buses. It would have to snow almost continuously for this world to remain "as white as snow", and the same is true for our souls. Thankfully, we serve a God who finds joy in continually forgiving and renewing us with his grace and mercy. My flesh is constantly tainting his handiwork (Isaiah 64:6 "all our righteous acts are like filthy rags"), but he in turn is constantly making me whiter than snow.

Typical January Stuff