Autumn in review

It has been a while since I documented various parts of our family life, so here are a series of photos which give a glimpse of our Fall.  This covers late September through Thanksgiving.  Comments are inserted to supply pertinent information.

The October break from school allowed us to visit Colonial Michilimackinac in Mackinaw City, MI (above) and Fayette State Park in the Upper Peninsula (2 photos below).

Our October break also has visit Faith.  We hiked in a Waukesha County Park (above).

Below, Nathanael, Andrew, and I enjoyed a number of rounds of golf, mostly at Kensington Metro Park.

The two photos above are from Maybury State Park, just five miles from our house.

Below is the new bench put in by the City of Novi, along our church's walking path.

The two photos above are from a late October evening in Northville.

Below is a Schmidt family photo taken at the wedding of Hunter and Emily.  Unfortunately, pastoral obligations and distance prevented David from being in it.

Above, Philip had been exposed to COVID and had to leave Martin Luther College.  Faith agreed to host him during his quarantine.  To our knowledge, neither Philip nor Faith (nor Radon) got COVID.  Thanks for the help, Faith!

Below, Andrew, Caleb, and Philip get in some football in the church yard.

Thanksgiving 2020.  Faith had been exposed to COVID and was unable to be with us.  (Sniff.)  Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt were also with us for the weekend.

Traveling with the Schroeders -- October Break

Last week, we hit the road early on a Thursday to head north to fall colors and Great Lakes.  Our trip to Mackinaw City had us visiting Colonial Michilimackinac on the tip of the lower peninsula.  This is a reproduction of a military fort which also served as a site for fur trading.  It was occupied by French and then British soldiers.  After an attack by Odawa and Chippewa tribes, the British moved the fort to Mackinac Island and burned the wooden structure on the lower peninsula.  The footprints of the homes, barracks, and other buildings remained, enabling the Michigan State Park system to reproduce much of the fort.

At night, we went to Wilderness State Park to the dark sky preserve and saw the Milky Way overhead.  We got to see a shooting star or two, and even saw a satellite flying overhead.

On Friday, we visited Fayette State Park on the northern shore of Lake Michigan.  This is a ghost town of what had been a thriving iron smelting community.  Many buildings still stand, and the trees were at peak color.  Unfortunately, a blustery day made spending too much time outside rather annoying.  And what is often very blue waters in the harbor were churned up and almost black.  Still, a very neat stop.

After that, we drove down the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan and visited Grandma and Grandpa Schroeder.  We spent Saturday with Faith, who took us to a county park in Waukesha County for some hiking.  We also got to wear out her dog, Radon.  We went with Faith to church at Mt. Lebanon Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.

On Sunday, we made an impromptu stop at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.  Then, after another brief visit in Sheboygan where my brother also showed up, we made the trek back home.  Mercifully, Chicago traffic was no big deal.  Still, our 11:30 PM arrival time made for a short night's sleep.  I'll have to make up for that tonight.

Here are some photos of our long weekend.

Traveling with the Schroeders -- Fall trip to the Mackinac Straits

We had planned to be gone for the Teachers' Conference, which got us out of town from October 8-13.  We ended up going up north, hoping that decent weather and peak fall colors would all come together.  While we did not get everything we wanted for the entirety of the trip, we did get to enjoy good weather for Wednesday-Friday (with a little rain on Friday), and we got to see peak colors up in the U.P.

The first leg of our trip was to start in the Tunnel of Trees on M-119 along the Lake Michigan coast, just north of Petoskey.  While it was an enjoyable drive, we did not get the splendor of fall colors we would have hoped for.  (Note: Before we got to Petoskey, we stopped at the Cross in the Woods at Indian River to see the world's largest crucifix.  Pretty cool.)  After the Tunnel of Trees, we went to Mackinaw City to our hotel and pretty cheap rates (yeah, off season!).  We spent Thursday on Mackinac Island (Peter's first trip there) to see Fort Mackinac and other places on the island.  On Friday, we went up to Tahquamenon Falls to see the upper and lower falls.  On Saturday, with the weather taking a turn to colder weather (highs in the low to mid-40's; that was highs in the low to mid-40's--with stiff winds, no less), we decided that walking around town was not going to be that fun.  So we traveled back up the U.P. to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, most of which is indoors.  Then on Sunday, we made our way back home after church at Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church in Indian River.  The trip back home had peak colors down I-75 for the first hour of driving, too.

In addition to this, we got to enjoy a waterpark at our hotel, including a massive hot tub which was very welcome when the temperatures began to dip.

Anyway, here are some photos from a neat fall get away.  Enjoy!