The Adams Family Blog

I took a 3 day road trip. Me, myself & my camera. 999 miles and about 18 hours of driving total. I clocked my mileage and as I pulled up in the driveway when I arrived home yesterday my odometer flipped over to exactly 999 miles. No kidding!! I couldn’t believe it. So of course I grabbed my camera & took a picture. My mission was photographing 3 credit unions in Northern Michigan, including Marquette, Trenary & Traverse City. As a reminder I’m photographing 20 credit unions across the state of Michigan during the months of September & October. This trip was “the big one” since Marquette & Trenary are in the Upper Peninsula and is almost an 8 hour drive one way.

Even though I had the “job” of photographing the 3 credit unions on this trip, I took advantage of the alone time with my camera and I stopped at every scenic place along the trip that I could find. It was wonderful. I saw several places that I hadn’t seen since I was a kid, and several places that brought back some very old memories. I even found myself in the driveway of my former mother-in-laws cottage and called her on the phone to catch up after several years of not talking.

I have to briefly discuss my 8 hour ride to Marquette. I drove up to the Mackinaw Bridge (for those of you who aren’t from MI, the bridge connects the lower & upper peninsulas). I had a whole new outlook of the bridge now that I was equipped with a camera so I played around there for awhile. Then I crossed the bridge and started driving along Lake Michigan in the upper peninsula. I pulled over around 7pm and sat on the side of the road, in the sand on the beach and watched the sunset. The colors were amazing over the water!

The funny part is that after I got back into my car I realized I had 3 hours of driving left, in the UP (upper peninsula), in the pitch dark. Now, if you’ve ever been in the UP you already know where I’m going with this. I didn’t know this though because I’ve never driven to Marquette before. There is hardly nothing along the back roads. No cities, no gas stations, no food, nothing. Mom told me “drive slow, watch out for deer”. Ok, mom. Crap, she was right! 5 minutes later I nearly hit a deer. Who would find me if I went off the road and crashed? So, now I’m really scared. Then I see a sign that says “National Forest”. Well, that explains it, I think to myself. But I made it safe. I later was told that I should have also been watching out for bear!!! Oh my!

I spent my 2nd night in Traverse City with my Aunt Doreen & her family and had a very nice visit with them.

You’d be proud to know that I passed up every outlet mall along the way (which I have to admit was hard). And instead I focused on scenery, famous landmarks and enjoying the outdoors. I even left my computer at home!

Oh, and I had to buy a cooler and fill it with pasties from a famous shop in Marquette. Why don’t they make pasties down here? Yum!!!

Here are some pictures from my trip. I think this first picture of the lighthouse with the bridge in the background should be on a postcard or calendar for Michigan! I just love it.

This is a huge deal!!

First I have to start out by telling you that I’ve decided to give up my indoor portrait studio in the house. This was a hard decision, but ultimately I am happy about it because I just don’t have the space in that room (or my house) to accomplish what I want for my studio. So I will focus on on-location outdoor and indoor portraits.

So, remember Dave has been out of town for the past 5 days. I decided to surprise him and the boys. On Friday I spent 3 hours during the boys nap taking down my studio equipment. Then I got a babysitter for 2 hours and heading out to fill my car full of everything necessary to turn my studio room into a toy room!!!

Then, after the boys went to bed I spent 3 hours setting up the new toy room. We have a toy area downstairs, but I tend to “live” more on the main floor so we’ve always kept the majority of their toys up here…in the MIDDLE of our living room! By the way, I have to apologize to everyone who has visited in the past 2 years because our main floor has been such a mess, always filled with toys spread out everywhere. It drove me insane!

Anyway, I organized the toys, put together the new toys, put up organizing shelves, and hung picture collages of the boys on the wall. It was the best feeling ever! I’ve reclaimed my living room! It looks so much better. And the toy room is awesome! So, in the morning when the boys woke up I said “where are your toys”? They made a fist, hit the couch and said “oh no”. Then I showed them the play room and it was like Christmas morning! It’s been 2 days now and they play and play and play in that room. They just love it.

Here’s two short videos of that morning when I surprised them. Oh, and yes, Dave was surprised and thrilled when he came home this afternoon.