Whooping Cranes in Eights at Goose Island

We relocated our site to the bayfront, where both the WiFi and cell service are much superior. Then in the afternoon we checked in on the Whooping Cranes and were rewarded with seeing four pair from one spot. Two pair were in the bay, close to shore, another pair were further away across a boardwalk, and the fourth pair were in the field were they eat the deer feed. The ones in the bay were undoubtedly feasting on their favorite blue crabs.



In the late afternoon we went to a lecture entitled Birding 101 -- very informative and well done by the park bird hosts and resident ornithologist. Some folks learned why they can never see anything through their binoculars! We learned the major things to look for in identifying birds, and the right book to carry -- the Golden Bird Book.

Later this evening we will be attending another bird lecture. They say that birding is now the number one leisure activity in the world -- or here. So we are running to catch up.

Benjamin Franklin

I had to get my iPod Touch replaced last week because of a broken home key. In getting the replacement set up, I rediscovered the free Kindle app, and that led to finding some free books on Amazon. One of the first alphabetically was the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Here is the link, but the price is up to $0.99: Amazon So, I selected that while on the elliptical machine at the Y, and "boom" there it was. I started reading it and was "hooked" immediately.

From what I've read so far, his main focus is on his early years from about age 16 to 23 and how he purposefully developed his skills and character through some enormous hardships. Every time it seemed like he was about to get a break, the rug was yanked out from under him. Life lessons galore -- should be required reading for every teenager who wants to amount to anything. There are some gaps like during the course of the Revolution. The examples he set, both then and for now are remarkable. Life experiences in the early cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia is vividly portrayed, including the scheming and politicking of the more prominent.

There are huge advantages to reading on the Kindle on the Touch: large easy to see type, quick turning pages, one-hand manipulation, and background music. The feature that I don't much care for though  is that you never know where you are in the book physically -- there are no page numbers, or whether it is about to end. When electronic books add such a feature -- "here's how much you've read and how much is left" -- they will become much more popular.

The autobiography is something I highly recommend. So much, that I've added a Benjamin Franklin quote gizmo to this blog's right column.

Petoskey State Park, MI

On Sunday, September 6, 2009, Morty pedaled further north to Petoskey. This took us through Charlevoix. Someplace else I might have heard about, but nonetheless was unprepared to experience. Every inch of highway 31 through Charlevoix was lined with a dense planting of petunias – pink, red, white and purple -- unbelievably beautiful and fragrant. The only negative was that the town was vamping to the tourist trade in a major way, and that significantly reduced its appeal for us. That, and the fact that traffic forced into one lane through the heart of the town’s tourist traps, crawled at less than walking speed.

Petoskey town was by comparison, wonderfully understated and elegant. Every highway seemed to have a bike path, both in and out of the town. Bikes using said paths, were a major abundance. Lakefront cottages, reminded me of the type of locales described in Greeley’s novels -- lots of atmosphere and ambiance just begging to be soaked up.

The campgrounds are right on Lake Michigan, just a short walk from the dunes and very clear water and mixed sand and pebble beaches. The locale is five miles north of Petoskey town, and five miles south of Harbor Springs. I biked north along the beach road in search of the local airport whose traffic I had noticed. The cottages in this area were even more impressive than the town’s. The airport, though, blew me away. The bike path took me right along the runway and up to the apron and FBO. Parked there, were several transient jets, including the usual mixtures of Pipers, Cessnas, King Airs, and even a Cessna Citation, and a big Gulfstream.

There’s no TV signal at all here at the campgrounds, and the cell service is marginal enough, that I can’t upload my narrative or pictures. At least we had a lot of entertainment watching a 35 foot trailer being parked in a site built for a much smaller unit, right across from us. First from one direction, then from the other. Inch-by-inch in amongst the trees, and dunes. Clearances measured in fractions of an inch were routine for this guy. He finally did it, but it was something to behold.

Sunset over the lake was again a marvelous experience. Maybe you’ll like the pictures.