the pilgrimmage thus far

Coming to ya (on a dusty road), really from an island in Lake Michigan. Interesting, no? That's right I am typing this from Beaver Island, MI (google it). It's twenty degrees colder than it is in Clarksville (maybe thirty today, I've been in fleece and under quilts all day), and the biggest thing in my day is the occasional book, walking to the lighthouse (or downtown that you can walk by in approximately ten seconds.. ok maybe 30, ten if you're a speedy walker), and yesterday some games of horse shoe and wacking my very first golf ball with a seven iron (although I don't really know what that means, I really enjoyed myself though we [ericka and myself] did lose 4 balls to the neighbors weeds). It's pretty great. It took 2 1/2 hours to get here via ferry on Saturday though we began vacation on Thursday, from here, I will digress.
Thursday: left the house at 7:30..ish. Stopped twice. Saw my first lighthouse in South Haven. Started layering clothes. Drove to the end of the earth which happens to be in Michigan.
Friday: started a little grumpy due to the lack of sleep from a person who shall nameless, the ipod couldn't even drown him* out. We drove into Saugatuck (very cute, artsy, lake town), then Holland known for it's tulips and all things Dutch.. it was hard fitting in a different country but we're pretty efficient travelers. In Holland we also saw the light house affectionately deemed "Big Red", she's the most photographed lighthouse in MI and with good reason. There you can walk out to the lights that really do that guiding, it has no rails and the waves crash right into it, that was a very unique and cool experience although not very well worded for lack of knowledge about real lighthouse terms so, I apologize. From Holland we have a good 5 hour drive to where we were supposed to spend the night (to board the ferry early the next day) so we continued in the northern direction to stop in Glen Arbor where the Cherry Republic store is.. we've been an admirer theirs for a few years now. Everything cherry, cherry candy, pop (what we know as soda), wine, salsa, soap, you name it, they have it and it's delicious! From there we moved on to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park - WOW! We spent a few hours there, it was amazing! Pictures can't capture how beautiful it is. We walked on a trail that took you right on the dunes, and dunes that look out at the lakes. Well, that started nicely but what was just supposed to be a 1 1/2 mile walk resulted in myself thinking briefly that I had met my end, yoga did not prepare me for uphill trekking in sand.
Anyway, it was dark when we left there and we had to go an hour south, to travel an hour north (the lake tripped us up). We eventually arrived in Charlevoix where we boarded the Beaver Island Ferry on Saturday, and set out across Lake Michigan. When we arrived to the house we didn't know what to expect other than we knew it was old and from pictures it was the lesser evil from others. Oh man. It was not pretty. I think we all put off bringing in the bags because that would mean we had to stay there but we eventually faced the music to decided where else are we going to stay on an island with a resident total of 600? I can now say that the house has grown on all of us after a little personalizing and time. My family takes HGTV pretty seriously so every where we go, we immediately start with the "well, if I lived here I would paint this.." or "this room would become.." and "I would put this here..". So after hanging my traveling Jonas Brothers poster in my room (no comments, no judgement), Ericka and I were sitting in the living room; the way they had the furniture set up didn't make sense so for the first time, we actually took charge and moved the furniture. I think the owners and future renters will thanks us when we're gone, but we're not in a hurry to tell them [the owners who live next door]. I should also throw in the our beloved dog, Napoleon, who has made this pilgrimage with us, could not be better. Shocking, I know. I was expecting the worst so he would only exceed my expectations and he's been such a good boy, I'm very proud. I'm now awaiting my cheesy guilty teen drama shows, and looking forward to tomorrow! That's it in a very large bushel of nut shells.
From Lake Michigan, this is LG, signing out.

*we do only have one male in our household, I'll leave you to add the clues.