Indian Lake State Park, Manistique, Michigan

 7/11/2023 to 7/18/2023


        We had another great week. We have our rather boring, pleasant routines, so one week is always much like the next, which is good. One thing that was different was our visit to Palms Book State Park, about 10 miles away. The spring there, called KITCH-ITI-KIPI, or just "The Big Spring," was beautiful. The color was a brilliant blue green. You could see the spring bubbling up and see lots of big fish. Visitors rode a raft out over the spring. Very cool. 











        It rained a lot, but stopped long enough to spend some time outdoors every day. We watched a lot of Wimbledon. I was for Djokovic. Scott was for Alcaraz. There were plenty of mosquitos and flies, but not too bad. The first evening the flies were biting us and Annie. We thought we were in for a rough week, but weren't bothered by them anymore. We (yes, even Scott) have become believers in OFF/DEET, long pants, and mosquito net head coverings for hiking in the woods. 
       
         There were trails in our park, but of the short, manicured variety. We hiked there twice, but then discovered Indian Lake Pathway, which was a group of much more interesting trails near the big spring. We hiked there the rest of the week. We got turned around once and really needed Maudie's sense of direction in the woods. Eventually we found our way. 

        Indian Lake was very good for paddleboarding and kayaking. Scott even got in a sunset paddle the last night. Most people camping here spent a lot of time on the water. The park was full of a combination of families with lots of young children on vacation and older folks like us. Most everyone was local. Our Texas license plates proved once again to be a good conversation starter. 

        We went into the town of Manistique several times - for mail, to eat out, to grocery shop, to do laundry. I met the people at a quilt shop, and they loaned me the use of their classroom for spreading out and squaring up my (Ryan's) quilt. I think finding places with tables will be the solution to needing big spaces for aspects of making quilts in the future. It's been fun to get back into sewing. 

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