Located within the City of Lansing, Hawk Island County Park is a lovely gem of a park that offers year-round recreational activities. These photos are early fall photos, though, so you get to see flowers and greenery and such.
I took my new camera (a Canon Rebel SL3) out for a spin on September 7. I wanted to see what I would get from my 18-55mm and 55-250mm lenses, and Hawk Island Park seemed like a good place to do it.
I wish the sky had been a little less cloudy. I’ll go back sometime and photograph this area on a sunny day.
One can climb to the top of the tubing hill and get a nice view of the lake and the landscape.
Throughout the park, there are all sorts of flower and wildflower gardens.
I went on a walk with a friend in Hawk Meadow Park. We mostly walked and talked, but we did take a few photos. I was fairly happy with these two, taken near the north edge of the park.
The water was so still and perfect and set up a beautiful mirror image.This little birdhouse fits the area just perfectly.
While on vacation in May, I did lots of running. Here are some of the best things I saw in Anniston and Oxford, Alabama.
This is such a beautiful, historic building.
Ty Cobb spent some time in Anniston. I’m sure some folks will dispute the “greatest baseball player of all time” designation, but he was definitely very good.
The dogs hanging out at Piper’s Playhouse were very happy to say hello when I ran by. And when I stopped. And probably any other time.
There are so many ducklings here!
I lived in Calhoun County for many years, but I had never before seen this creek, or drain, or whatever it is.
Before Michigan became a complete sauna, morning runs occasionally offered different encounters. I found this patch of fog during an early morning run that included a chunk of the path in Frances Park.
I like to run distance races. I used to run marathons, but my marathon-runner sports medicine doctor advised me that I wasn’t doing that any more after my last one in 2015; it was apparently a bad thing that my right knee sounded crunchy for six weeks after the race. Half marathons aren’t banned, and I haven’t had that kind of problem after one of those, so I run them.
Sometimes, I run more than one a weekend. In 2015 and 2016, I completed the Midwest Half and Half Challenge by running both the Wisconsin Half Marathon and the Borgess Run for the Health of It in the same weekend. In 2017, I missed the event due to my ongoing recovery from my 2016 ankle surgery, but I returned to the event in 2018.
I didn’t snap many photos in Kalamazoo, because I’ve spent years there. I hadn’t been to Bloomington or Indianapolis, though, so photographs were required. I have family-level friends in Bloomington, so my trip started early enough to allow me to hang out with them.
The real queen of the house in Bloomington is Pearl. She’s a lovely gray-and-white cat with lots of attitude and a solid vocabulary. Pearl is amazing, and here she is:
Bloomington has a lot of great eats and fun places to go. Here are a few of my favorites from the trip.
The Owlery in Bloomington has legit vegetarian poutine, and it is delicious.
This bridge carries the B Line Trail over 3rd Street.
This coffee shop is both excellent and located right along the B Line.
Look at this beauty of an espresso machine! The folks at Hopscotch couldn’t bring themselves to part with it.
Bloomington was fun, and seeing my friends was even more fun, but I had to move on to Indianapolis for race day #1. I didn’t get around much, given that I had a race the next morning, but I had some great views from my hotel room.
White River State Park
All in all, it was a great trip, and I can’t wait until my next visit to both cities.
When I was in Bloomington the morning before the Indy Mini, I got in my standard day-before-the-race, 3-mile run. Bloomington’s B Line Trail is a beautiful, vibrant portion of the community. There are both residences and businesses that face the trail. I snapped a couple of photos along the way.
In cleaning out my wallet, I found a long-lost “fortune” from a fortune cookie. Along with my lucky numbers* and the Chinese word that I could learn, it offered me this:
Friends long absent are coming back to you.
I’m kind of curious as to who it might be, and under what circumstances they might be returning. I’m also open to suggestions. In the interim, I leave you with this:
* About those lucky numbers. Yeah, I’m not telling you what those are. Why should I share the fortune with you? Wait. Maybe that’s why my long-lost friends are coming back. Moochers.
Also, yes, I deliberately used those quotation marks around “fortune.” Most of them are platitudes, so I am very reluctant to apply the word “fortune” literally.
My wife and I make what seems like an annual pilgrimage to Cleveland to run a 10k hosted by the A Christmas Story House and Museum. It’s a great cause — the proceeds from the race all go into the museum’s charitable work to help improve the surrounding neighborhood — and it’s a lot of fun. We had time to do a little bit of sightseeing, some of which included the house.
It’s a major award!
This is a great scene of “life” in the house. Also, the Look magazine reminded me of a rare stamp from the 1950s that was issued on a special paper and used on mail from Look.
The “Old Man” drove a 1938 Oldsmobile.
Not everything I photographed was in the house, though. I found a little bit of neon, and a couple of other things along the way. I found a few fun pieces of neon artwork, and we toured Great Lakes Brewing. I don’t drink beer, but touring the brewery was a very fun experience.
The Corner Alley has a great neon sign.
So does Mabel’s BBQ.
So does the West Side Market. Also, what a beautiful December day it was!
The remnants of the old Schlather brewery now reside at Great Lakes Brewing.
We enjoy our adventures in Cleveland, and we’ll definitely be back.
The People's Democratic Republic of Hardenistan 