Hiking, 10th Anniversary, Autumn

• My wife and I have been married for 10 years as of last Thursday.
• We spent the afternoon cleaning our church together. It seemed very appropriate actually. We had dinner at a decent restaurant afterward to celebrate.
• Last year on our anniversary, we discovered that we enjoy hiking by taking a short vacation in Oscoda. Well, I love hiking. I think Heidi enjoys it to a lesser extent. We hiked a very cool trail there. We planned a short getaway again this year. How often do you get to celebrate an entire decade of marriage?
• No matter how much I look forward to time spent away from the kids, I miss them instantly whenever the realization hits me that there is no chance of seeing them in the next 12 to 24 hours. I love my kids, but sometimes I need down time. But I always, always, always miss them early on. It's like instant home sickness.
• Last year we had no trouble finding overnight accommodations, and Oscoda had a music festival going on. This year things were different. The cottages we hoped to stay in were only half open, and they were booked solid (despite what their website reported). Many of the other local resorts were closed for the season or because they were currently for sale.
• We drove on.
• Everywhere we went, it was like the trees were on fire with color. Last year we saw browns and sickly yellows. This year we were treated to vibrant reds, yellows, and oranges.
• Harrisville, just to the north, is a picturesque small town, especially in the fall. There are no big chain restaurants or stores. As you travel through the main section of town, every street has a sidewalk, and the view usually includes Lake Huron, a marina of some sort, and tons of yellow fall leaves.
• Two years in a row now, we've tried to stay at a bed and breakfast there. With the 'open' sign clearly displayed and the doors unlocked, we have yet to find the owner home. Another tenant told us that we could make arrangements to stay if we called the owner on her cellphone. She was camping.
• We ended up in Alpena.
• The next morning we drove to a nearby State park to try their hiking trail. The guidebook read, "As you come to the cemetery, take the unmarked road directly afterward." A lot of people wouldn't really recognize the path we were driving on as an actual road. The road cut into a thickly wooded area. It was pretty with the fall colors, but it was also dark and twisty. Everywhere you looked there was barbed wire, hunting lodge signs, private property declarations, and what looked like houses that should have been abandoned but weren't. The "road" was mostly sand. We drive a small Ford hatch back.
• I feared banjo music.
• When we reached the entrance to the State park, their road was ten times bigger and better.
• We didn't get to hike, though the area looked perfect. Michigan changed their laws last year. You can no longer deposit money on an unmanned site. You have to have a state pass displayed on your car before entering the park. Not having one, we moved on to the next State park (back south in Harrisville), which had a ranger on duty.
• We hiked a bit there, but the trail was partially paved.
• I enjoy trails that are marked, visible, but the idea of the trail being paved defeats the purpose for me. It's offensive. I want to barely be able to see sunlight through the thick trees. I want to glimpse areas that human feet have not touched on a regular basis. I want to fear the wildlife to a certain extent. I sincerely don't want to run into other human beings on the trail that day.
• I let Heidi choose the main trail this year. We headed back to Oscoda to check it out. When we arrived at the Lumbermen's Memorial my heart sank. There were tourists everywhere. There were children and little dogs in sweaters.
• But then I saw the view. This was a scenic spot that just happened to have a hiking trail attached. I don't think I've ever used this phrase before, and if I did, I didn't mean it, but this view took my breath away. We were at the top of an Au Sable river valley. The fall colors were out in force, and you could see for miles!
• I watched as person after person exclaimed in their own way how beautiful the view was. Heidi had chosen wisely.
• The park has a walkway that takes you down 272 steps through the woods, down the steep hill. The view along the way and at the bottom was great, but it paled in comparison to the view top side.
• We tried their hiking trail. It was sparse, kind of boring. The road was on one side. The river was on the other with less than a mile of wooded area in between. We could hear motor vehicles from time to time. Most of the wildlife was onto this fact, and had vacated.
• We stopped at two other scenic spots. One of them had another 300 step decent to some natural springs and water falls. It was beautiful too.
• We finished the trip with a quick stop at Tawas Point lighthouse.
• We didn't get in a lot of actual hiking, but we did get tons of exercise that day. We saw plenty of beautiful settings.
• I'm not an outdoorsman. I don't hunt or fish. I don't even particularly enjoy being outside. I never expected it even when I became curious about the activity, but hiking does something for my soul. Maybe it's just the Oscoda area. I don't know if it's Lake Huron, the waves, the sand, or the woods that we venture into. I love the idea that the wilderness hasn't been tampered with by humans. We haven't ruined it yet. I also like the smell of cedar, moss, and moldering leaves. I hate throwing my jacket in the wash afterward.
• We were only away for one night, but we packed the second day of the trip as full as we could. We didn't have any near encounters with wildlife like last year, but a few pheasants scared the crap out of us on one of the trails. I'll take it.
• I'm proud of us. We're way more adventurous than I thought we'd be ten years ago. Cemetery roads filled with backwoods gun nuts? Trails that lead into the deep, dark woods? The possibility of bears, wolves, coyotes, and fox? We've got a compass and some mace. I think we're moving forward.
• Most disturbing billboard of the week goes to: "Don't forget you breast friend." I know, we need to encourage mammograms, but…
• I'm also pretty sure I do have HMB.

Rubber Suits

• The movie 17 Again was surprisingly good. Not as teeny-bopper or chick flickish as I suspected it would be. Our local library has been a gold mine of great movies lately.
• My goal this week is to post at least five blog posts. Hold me to it people. Send me hate mail if I fail.
• We took the boys to the play area at a local Burger King Saturday night. Not exactly the romantic Valentine's dinner many would hope for, but infinitely memorable all the same.
• Gage climbed to the very top of the enclosed, twisty enclosure. He there refused to either go down the slide or climb back down. So, guess who had to crawl inside? Did I mention I'm somewhat claustrophobic? It didn't really bother me until after I decided to follow him down the tube slide. About half way down, when I realized how long the slide actually was and how dark and confining it had gotten, I suddenly couldn't breathe. Ahhh. Memories.
• I've heard the term Philistine way too often lately.
• My beautiful wife surprised the heck out of me this Valentine's Day by purchasing DVDs for my enjoyment. The only down side was, she grabbed one that I already received for Christmas. I returned the movie and bought her the next book in a series of books she's been reading.
• Because I'm not a total altruist, I also found a $5 double DVD set of Ultraman from the 1960's. I used to watch this show as a kid, rubber suited monsters fighting a rubber suited, robotic looking super hero. How cool is it that the Science Patrol is wearing space helmets and ties at the same time?
• The movie I had to return was Splinter, a great creature feature for anyone inclined to such things.
• The other movie she picked up was the new X-Files movie. It got horrible reviews, but I believe that had to do with the plot revolving around issues of God and faith. I loved it. I love the X-Files. I know it makes me a geek, and I'm not ashamed.
• Reading Brennan Manning for the first time. He's a great writer. He's given me a few things to think about.
• A hug from a friend can really turn a day around.