You’ll Flip Over Michigan

Last weekend I went up north for two nights. The sites I want to share with you are the Arcadia Marsh,

the once-beautiful Sanford Lake,

and the official Dune Climb of the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Arcadia Marsh is in Arcadia Michigan of course. Barbara, the owner of The Bookstore in Frankfort, recommended it to me. She also told me I should get an ice cream cone too since I’m out there. That sounded like good advice. If you look in the background, under the sign, where all the people are; that’s where the Arcadia Ice House is.

It was a hot day, but there was such a nice breeze kicking up that it felt great.

I have a confession to make. I love and enjoy nature but I don’t know the names of all the different plants, birds and things. So, I’m just going to post the pictures and not try to name them in case I get them wrong. The signs above might be of some help.

This plant looks like an upside-down “Y.” I thought it was interesting.

If you look closely, you can see two birds on those branches.

Those looked interesting.

I liked this church in Arcadia, so I thought I’d throw that on here too.

This was once beautiful Sanford Lake. Way in the background is Expressway 10. I was on that when I looked to the right and was shocked to see that Sanford Lake was gone. Earlier this spring there were heavy rains. Wixom Lake, upriver, got so much rain that the dam was breached. The whole lake came rushing down the river, heading for Sanford Lake. Wixom Lake was emptied out. It was more water than Sanford Lake could handle so another dam was breached and Sanford Lake now looks like this. Down river the towns there had the water from two lakes coming down to them. So, there was more flooding. It’s just heart breaking. I knew this had happened a few months earlier. I saw it on the internet, but I had my mind on going up north and had forgotten about it. I looked to the right, as I always do, to get a glimpse of the beautiful lake and then I remembered it was gone.

I wanted to get pictures and couldn’t find a park. I saw a lady outside and I pulled in her driveway and asked her and her husband if I could come on their property and take pictures. They said yes. This was their vacation home. They told me how the houses on the other side of the lake had water up to their roofs. The expressway was flooded over. Boats and two houses that had gotten swept down the river smashed into the bridge. Such devastation. He said years ago a lumber company came in and cut all the trees down. Then dams were put in to make lakes. He said his kids used to jump off their dock into the water all the time. He was surprised to see all the tree trunks that were under water. I could tell he felt fortunate that no one ever got hurt.

The good news is that they told me that the spirits of the Sanford Lake people have remained high. Everyone pitched in to help and support each other. This all happened on top of everyone being shut in at home because of the corona virus. First they’re told to stay home. Then they heard the warnings to get out – NOW! As far as I know; no lives were lost and that is definitely something to be thankful for.

Now, to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park dune climb.

I enjoyed watching all the kids, and adults, having fun.

When I was younger, I ran down them myself. If you go straight down on a steeper section of the dune, you can get going so fast that your legs can’t keep up with your body. You are taking huge strides and sometimes you tumble forward and roll down a ways. It’s a blast! Kids love it.

I was talking to a lady who said she wanted to send me something to my email. If you’re reading this, my email is michiganmary79@gmail.com

These three sisters were adorable!

Their mom wanted to join the fun too!

The above two pictures of these boys were of them after they ran down the hill and did a flip at the end. I didn’t snap the picture fast enough. So, I asked them if they would do it again so I could get their picture. They were good sports and climbed a little ways back up the hill. I got lucky and got a good shot.