My Summer Vacation: Sunday at Bond Falls

The big trip on Sunday was to Bond Falls in Paulding, which is just north of the time zone change. The Bond Falls Scenic Area & flowage includes a lake associated with the falls that is used for power generation as well as swimming. Both Vivian & Margaret used to swim in the lake.

Bond Falls.

There are several areas of the boardwalk that go down to the ground to trails.

The Ontonagon River Middle Branch.

An overview of the area we were in.

Why do they frequently compare the size of things to the state of Rhode Island?

After we left Bond Falls, we stopped at the Paulding General Store for Jilbert ice cream. Vivian had the Butter Pecan (butter pecan flavored ice cream with roasted, buttered pecan pieces), Margaret had Mackinac Island Fudge (vanilla ice cream with thick fudge swirl & fudge pieces), Kai had Mint Mackinac Island Fudge (mint ice cream with thick fudge swirl & fudge pieces), and I had Bear Claw (dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate coated cashews & Denali caramel). It was very good ice cream; I am thinking I need to start at Category for posts that talk about ice cream! We saw Margaret's friend Stella, who came in from Ewen just to get ice cream! We also saw some interesting signs.

The Paulding General Store.

Vivian getting her Butter Pecan ice cream.

Kai with his Mint Mackinac Island Fudge.

Kai is holding my Bear Claw ice cream in his right hand, Margaret with her Mackinac Island Fudge.

We didn't try this, tomato juice, clam juice, & beer? Sounds kind of unappetizing.

Here's what I woke up to on Sunday morning, a cat butt. Cedar is looking out at the lawn. All night he was running back and forth between the windows, meowing & trying to get someone to let him out. We didn't, so I had to put up with this view.

This is what Cedar was looking out at.

Margaret & I stopped in briefly at Lexie's graduation. Congratulations, Lexie! She is from Margaret's dad's side of the family. I ended up eating more than I had planned to, I was given a Finnish pancake and told that I needed to try this U.P. specialty. It was good! But I think I am losing ground on those 9 pounds that I lost since Christmas!

My lunch, I ate all this before I was given the Finnish pancake.

Finnish pancake with mixed fruit topping.

On Saturday night CJ came to my rescue! This evening Margaret is hosting a barbecue, I will be contributing teriyaki to the barbecue. But my recipe was at home, so I texted CJ on Saturday and she sent me the ingredients list; she uses my teriyaki marinade recipe all the time. The challenge was seeing if I could get all the ingredients at Settlers Co-op in town. As it turns out, I will need to do a substitution for the mirin; I will use white wine vinegar with extra sugar. I also could not find sesame oil, for which there is no substitution since it is the taste of the toasted sesame oil that you need. Settlers has a day when Seniors (62 and older) get discounts as well as one for Juniors (under 62)! I went on neither day.

The Asian food section at Settlers Co-op.

Rob came by in the afternoon with another load of dirt to help level out Margaret's front lawn.

For dinner we had pizza burgers, a local favorite; they are burgers stuffed with cheese and Italian type seasoning. Margaret says you can cover them with marinara sauce and they really taste like pizzas. We just had ours as burgers; they are apparently only found in the U.P.

Pizza burger with baked beans.

Cheese oozing out of the pizza burger.

Before dinner Vivian & Cedar were relaxing at the kitchen table. He is spoiled rotten!

I saw the American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)again, this time I got a better photo. Today we also saw a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis), and Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), but I was unable to get photos of any of them since I was driving.

American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).

I also got a better photo of the White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis). It was up at Bond Falls. I was not able to get a good photo of the dragonfly there, but it appears to be an adult male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia).

White Admiral (Limenitis arthemis).

Adult male Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia).

After dinner, Margaret, Kai, & I headed out to The Camp. We spent the evening listening to the night sounds, watching bats catching insects, and catching fireflies! I stayed up until about 11 pm, catching fireflies until my fingers were numb from the cold. They weren't as active as when Kai was there 2 nights ago since the temperature was colder. I got in to my sleeping bag with them to warm them up so they would flash more; it worked & I was able to get some photos. FYI There are a lot of different kinds of fireflies so I did not try to identify them to species.

Kai & Margaret relaxing on the front porch at The Camp.

Damage from the porcupines; that's why Brian eliminated the one that was coming in to The Camp on Saturday night.

Looking out from the front porch about 9 p.m.

The same view at 10:30 p.m. I like not being able to see any lights from civilization.

A firefly in a jar in my sleeping bag.

A firefly the next morning, the light-colored area is where the bioluminescent light is produced.

A firefly on a leaf when I released them the next morning.

On Monday morning I got up bright and early to see what birds were in the area. I saw a flock of ravens fly overhead, but the rest of the birds I had to identify by sound; which means I didn't find many. I heard an American Robin, Black-headed Grosbeak, Black-capped Chickadee, & Chestnut-backed Chickadee. We also saw an Eastern Chipmunk. I also looked for tracks in the morning.