hello, friends.
i've been quiet in this space. see, we had a bit of a sabbatical, as we do every august. the sabbatical was mostly from our ministry work, but i also managed to take about a 2 week break from photography.
for one week, we unplugged entirely. here in michigan we have what everyone calls Up North. it refers to any place north of where you live in the lower pennisula. the further Up North you go, the more wild and fresh and free it becomes. we went pretty far, to the Leelanau Penninsula, where we rented a little house to use as our home base. from the little house were were a mere 10-20 minutes away from several quaint and quirky villages like leland, suttons bay, northport, and lake leelanau (the village). we were close to Lake Michigan (oh blessed fresh water ocean) as well as the long and clear Lake Leelanau, and of course we waded and swam in both.
we adventured every day between gus' naps, frolicked in fields, prepared and enjoyed simple foods (including giant plate-sized pancakes almost every morning), took naps, stopped into local shops, had ice cream daily, and visited many beaches on the lakes.
our final two days we spent with friends in empire and glen arbor, just a bit south of where we'd stayed in the little house. we tried out tent camping with them, which was a first for us but a well-travelled road for them. don't know if we could have done it without them and their gear.
i don't know if one can ever be ready to leave Up North and return home again. i certainly wasn't quite ready.
here is a selection of images from our trip, in roughly chronological order. these photos feature Fishtown in Leland, Sutton's Bay, and Lake Leelanau (the lake). this is half of what i'll share on this blog. the other half will be coming up in a couple of days!
