Thumb time

Thursday, 6/6/2013

We drove a few hours over to the Thumb of Michigan and to the coast of Lake Huron. We thought we might do some riding but once here we decided to spend time on foot and in the car, exploring some of the Thumb.

Entering the town of Port Austin we came upon the place we would stay the night -- Lake Vista Motel and Cottages.

 

The courtyard outside our cottage

Our cottage on the Lake

Checked in and somewhat unpacked, we strolled around our grounds and out onto the jetty.

Looking back at the shore from the end of the long jetty

Vickie and Gerry fight some wind

Could not resist adding this bike rack photo to my collection

The next driving excursion took us to several small towns on the Lake coast, one of them being Grindstone City. Our main reason to visit this town was to find the beach from Vickie's past that she remembers having lots of flat "grindstones" that she would build "houses" with. Every local person we asked about the location of this beach looked at us as if we were speaking a foreign language, and had no idea what we were talking about. Oh well, we had fun visiting the General store and exploring the little town.

A bit of history: Grindstone City had the largest and finest grindstones, scythestones and honestones in the world, until "carborundum" killed the industry after World War I. In the mid 1800s, sailors that landed on the beach began sharpening their tools on the stone slabs, and there began the idea to shape the stones for honing knives and tools. Quarrying began and it was a huge industry for the town.

 

Grindstone on display by the General Store

 

Some residents use grandstone as pillars for their driveway

We moved on to the town of Harbor Beach and then to Bad Ass Axe where we stopped for a few groceries and some adult beverage for the evening's sunset-watching before heading back to Port Austin.

We were in wonder about the Hygienic Dress League

 

Ending the day, we took a walk along our beach where we skipped stones on the lake and found flat stones to build a house for Vickie (made her happy), took some more photos, had some visits with birds, and said good night to the sun.

Our beach walk from our cottage

Vickie getting a good shot

 

We found out shortly that this mamma Killdeer was squawking at us to protect her baby that was just a little ways from her

 

Swans were feeding in front of our porch

 

Sunset at Lake Huron from our cottage

Good night.

 

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