It's Summertime and the Fishing is easy!

Spending a few days in the U.P. with my parents so I haven't been posting much-been too busy! We went on a fishing charter the other day with a Christian charter company out of Detour, Michigan. They donated a charter trip to a Christian sportsman auction, and my parents won it!

They knew I really enjoyed our last charter (last summer for my dad's birthday), so the waited until I had vacation time and booked it so I could go too! Kevin got to go also, and he was the big winner of the day-he caught 4-one was a 15 pounder!! The rest of us caught 3 each, and that was plenty.

If you are ever in the U.P., I would very HIGHLY recommend Island Charters! Captain Norm and his son Jason, were very nice, very friendly, and most importantly-they knew where to find the fish!!! They got just as excited as we did when we were reeling the fish in!

 We started the trip with a visit to what used to be my grandparents trailer on the St. Mary's River in Detour, Michigan. When I was a kid, we spent the majority of our summer vacations at this place. It is a tiny lot shared by two other family homes-they all share a well too. My grandparents sold their's several years ago, so it was really fun to go back and see it again.

 We used to run out on the front porch, where my grandpa had a spotting scope mounted, every time we heard a ship on the river. We would record all the information about the ship in a steno notebook. We'd look up the smoke stacks in a book, and log in if it was going up or down, what it was most likely carrying and where it was from. Man, would I love to see those notebooks now! Too bad they burned up in the fire when my grandparent's house burned.

Not a good place to swim with all the rocks, but awesome for fishing and ship watching! See the land in the distance? That is St. Joe's Island, Canada.

 Found a patch of lady's slippers next to my Great Aunt's cottage!

 Coming back in to town. There used to be an ice cream stand at the bottom of this hill where we would go almost every night while we were there-my dad has such a sweet tooth!

 Boat launch area.

 A couple of neat old stone churches in town. 

 Just in case you didn't believe the town was really called Detour! 

 Anchored just off shore.

 Jason, putting the boat in the water.

 The Drummond Island Ferry. I couldn't believe how many cars and trucks fit on this! Even an 18 wheeler!!

 Best place to spend 4 hours on a lake in Michigan!!

1,000 foot freighter going by as we were pulling out-pretty cool! I was disappointed we didn't see more though.

 Perfect weather-not too hot, not too cold-just right!

 Kevin, reeling in his first two catches and Jason helping him get them in the boat. Jason really worked hard keeping all the lines in the water, and scooping our fish out of the lake when we got them to the boat. 

 Me, my mom and my dad, taking our turn reeling them in.

 She just had knee surgery a week ago, so she had to keep propping her leg up.

 Some of our catch. The cooler also doubled as extra seating. It startled us when the fish started flopping around in the cooler when we were sitting on it.

 Kevin, reeling in the last catch of the day, and his fourth fish-a 15 pounder!

 I think they had a fun time-I know Kevin and I did!

 The big finale!

 Best catch ever for us-we even quit a couple of hours early, because we got more than enough fish!

 Dad and Kevin posing with our catch.

 One more shot with the big one!

 After pulling the boat out, Norm and Jason had us meet them here and they cleaned all of the fish for us. They recommended cutting the fish into one inch chunks, dredging it in yellow mustard then in drakes with some seasoning and deep frying it. YUM! It was really good-of course, we tried it!

The next day, mom had a recheck appointment for her knee in Saulte Ste. Marie (pronounced Soo Saint Marie). We went a little early to sight-see and shop. We had lunch at Goetz's Lockview Restaurant. It is right across the street from the Soo Locks. Unfortunately, nothing went through the locks while we were there.

 Don't you just love the vintage sign!?!?!?

 Their menu was fun to look at!

 Cute touches with vintage decor really give the place character!

 Fried whitefish sandwich-YUM!

 A quick look at the locks area-too bad nothing went through!!

Couldn't resist a shot of this awesome old building!

We've been out on their lake a couple of times for evening boat rides and came across this eagle's nest...look closely, you can see the parent eagle guarding the nest.

 Then we came across a pair of Loons!

Our little girl LOVES being up north-even if she is afraid of every little thing-LOL!

Mom and I spent a good chunk of yesterday walking Lake Michigan looking for beach glass. No luck. All we saw was water loaded with pollen, and spawning Carp-bleh!

Kevin went home today to get ready for his big race-the Tough Mudder at MIS on Saturday. Then he will be back up here after that. We're going to Escanaba on Sunday for a little over-night trip with my parents to walk the beaches. My mom LOVES to collect beach glass, and with her eyesight taking a turn for the worse with her macular degeneration, we are not going to miss a chance to do this with her. We don't even know if she will be able to see next summer. 

We took a trip to my grandparent's house and I was able to dig up some of my grandma's iris's to bring home to plant. I really hope they come up for me-it will be really sweet to see them year after year, and to think of her/remember her when I do see them.

 These shots were all at my parent's house.

These flowers were all at my grandparent's house-we dug flowers for quite a while, and not one neighbor came out to see what was going on...some of them even knew us. I guess since my grandparent's have passed, it doesn't really matter to them who comes and goes now. 

It has been very chilly, foggy, and rainy since we've been here. We have managed to find little slivers of sun and dry weather so we've been able to get out and do some things. 

I'll have many more pictures...stay tuned!