"Mark and Lisetta Visit….."

I taught with Lisetta the last few years before retiring.  After I retired, she became the Drawing instructor and another Ceramic teacher was hired to replace her.  We had some really good times throughout those years, as did our students.  :)  Unfortunately, Art seems to no longer be a "career choice/pathway" for students, and the classes being offered are becoming fewer and fewer.  Lisetta is the ONLY remaining Art teacher in the ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT!!!  Of course I find this quite sad, considering I taught Art classes at Niles High School for 32 years, sometimes being the only art teacher and at other times, with a colleague.  We even taught extra classes several years, going without prep hours, because of the high demand by students.  I guess my memories of those 32 years could be called "The Good Old Days".  ;)

Those "good old days" were brought back to light with Lisetta and Mark's visit.  We had a wonderful time!  Day 1 of their visit took us up into Leelaunau Peninsula, stopping first at "Light of Day Organics" tea farm (https://lightofdayorganics.com), the only tea farm in Michigan.  Below are Mark, Lisetta, and Don.  I took this photo prior to our entering the tea shop, which we all found very nice, and yes, we did purchase several teas.  ;)

The tea farm has a couple of yurts on the property that are used for holding classes and other events.  Don and I were very interested in checking them out as we have talked about possibly having a yurt set up our woods as a "guest yurt".  :)

After leaving the tea farm, we headed up the Peninsula with Leland's "Fishtown" as our destination. This photo was taken as we entered Cedar, MI.  One of our favorite sayings by this time was to mimic Lisetta and blurt out……."Mark take a picture!" LOL  ;)

We arrived at Leland's Fishtown, located on the Leland River and almost immediately saw Salmon in the clear water of the river.  This photo was taken in front of a couple of the ferries which take passengers back and forth from the mainland to North and South Manitou Islands.

As you can see, we pretty much had the area to ourselves.  It is sort of "off season" up here.

Most of the shops were still open in Fishtown, so it was nice to be able to walk in and not be crowded while browsing.

As you can also see, it was a bit "brisk and breezy" that day, too!  Notice the 2 fishermen in the background trying to "catch" those salmon's attention.  ;)

On the way back toward Traverse City we pulled off the road and into a "scenic lookout" that we'd not stopped at before.  A truly beautiful view with a sliver of Lake Michigan in the far background.  Did I mention it was a bit "brisk"?  Not that you could tell from Don's posture, eh?  LOL

I am adding a few more photos from the scenic lookout because I think the view is breathtaking…..

Remember you can click on any photo to enlarge them, too.

Next stop……..The Grand Traverse Commons.