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It all begins here

This year we put our boat in on May 1st.  I should say that Todd put the boat in the water;  all I did was swipe away a reminder on my calendar.  He did a wonderful job in the predictably rainy weather - he swears that not one launch day has been sunny and warm.  Our first adventure was that weekend;  after a safety check (thank goodness he thinks of such things - I was more concerned if my spices were still ok after overwintering in storage), we (us, the Littles and the dogs) were on our way for a dinner on "The Island".  Power Island is located in the middle of Grand Traverse Bay.  Our last trip there was on March 9th on our snowmobiles.  It had been one of those winters where the ice was sturdy enough for Northern Michiganders to deem it another venue for exploration.  We had a sled that Todd pulled behind his snowmobile full of firewood, hot cocoa, Tin Foil Dinner and the makings for S'mores.  We don't kid around.  After my panic attack of being on a very heavy machine on some unknown thickness of ice over hundreds of feet of icy cold water (ie when we reached land) it was a beautiful, surreal experience.  The place that we visited so often in the summer and fall on our boat - dogs and Littles running in and out of the water - was now a refuge from the ice.  Our fire welcomed many others who had walked, biked or snowmobiled their way there; our faces lit with the joy of being outside and not getting frostbite, chatting with those we might never see again.

Back to May and our first adventure.  We didn't make it to The Island until after 5pm on Saturday, but the days are getting longer; and the sun that day was nice and warming.  So much so that the Littles were distraught with me for not bringing their swimsuits.  [Let's review;  It's May.  In Northern Michigan.  While it might have been a balmy 65 degrees that sunny day, the ice had broken up less than a month ago.  That water was COLD.  I think it was around 40 degrees.]  Todd was able to talk them out of jumping off the boat (like the dogs were doing).  I found their shorty wetsuits from our trip to Lake Superior last July.  We got the Littles to shore where they waded in up to their thighs, stayed for a little, and came out beet red and freezing.  We wrapped them in towels and changed them into sweatshirts and hats.  :-)
Ok, so this is at Pictured Rocks last summer, but you get the idea;  the Littles are darned cute in their wetsuits.

After an un-glamorous yet highly satisfying dinner of hotdogs and watermelon, we had a short hiking expedition in search of mushrooms.  We didn't find any mushrooms, but we were treated to a fly-over by a pair of juvenile bald eagles; what a wonderful world!  When the sun started to droop, we got chilly, so we packed it all back on the dinghy and headed home.  When we docked back at the Marina, the Littles poked their precious, tired heads up from down below.  Oh, the WAILING that went on.  They had caught on that we are planning a long boat trip in the fall, and they thought we were on our way.  "We want to live on the boat forever!!"  "Yeah!" (Agreeing for the first time in over six months as only twins can do on days that they want to gang up against you).  Well, we have a full summer of exploring before we head out, and I can't wait to share our adventures with you all!
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