Making the Best of Things

For those of you who haven't met Roamin' before,
this little elf travels in my camera bag
 wherever we go. 
 He LOVES adventures! 

 

And this adventure turned out to be a wet one.  The best laid plans of mice and men.  We embarked on our annual trip to the beautiful Upper Peninusla for fall color and...

...we happened to choose the only weekend of the month (so far) in which rain ruled each day.  The other outrageous almost-disaster of the weekend was the Washington-induced closure of some of our favorite haunts.  Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  Closed.  Which means the following destinations were unreachable:

Miner's Falls, Mosquito Falls, Chapel Falls, Spray Falls, Sable Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Miner's Beach and Falls, White Birch Forest... and more.  You couldn't even drive down some of the roads in the area because they were part of Federal lands.

Let's not forget that Seney National Wildlife Refuge was not available either.  Oh well.  There will  be another time.

Of course, we had other options.  We were still able to enjoy the town of St. Ignace, where fall festivities filled the air...






and the lakeshore by Grand Marais...

We could visit road-side falls like Alger Falls, outside Munising...

and explore woods and a wonderful little inland lake...

 

 

 

 

...as well as eat at one of our favorite hideaways - the Buckhorn.

 



To the East of the National Lakeshore is Tahquamenon Falls, which we have always enjoyed.  Meeting up with photo friends in Newberry, we had breakfast then went to shoot the lower falls.  They're smaller than the upper falls, but there are some really wonderful opportunities to grab wonderful waterfall and color.  We got all set up and took a few shots, and it started to sprinkle. 

 

Do I like it in Black and White? 
It's actually with an Orange Filter effect.

As the sprinkles turned to a real shower, we decide to tough it out.  Mary pulled some baggies from her camera bag and we dug through our own equipment and found one of our rain-sleeves.  Bob wasn't shooting, by that point, and Mary put her things away before the deluge hit. 

 

We still worked at a few shots, and Daryl got a really unique image using the waterfall as a backdrop for some foliage.  Finally we had to call it a day, the party broke up, and we headed for home, 

 

where the sun came out and rewarded us with a beautiful view of our own back yard.  There is probably a message there, don't you think?!