Backyard wildlife

I've seen the sandhill cranes several times lately. Unfortunately, it seems the chick didn't make it - it's been nowhere in sight any time that I saw them, and they're usually out in the open near the house. I'm glad I got to see it when I did. It's still exciting to see these dinosaurs browsing in my backyard!

So that's why they call them CHIPmunks!

I’ve been seeing chipmunks along the edge of the parking lot at Miner’s Castle. I’d seen them occasionally, but recently the elm tree near my parking space released its seeds, and a lot of them have blown up against the edge of the grass and the parking lot. This is an all-you-can-eat buffet for the chipmunks, who don’t even have to dig through the grass for the seeds!

Today, however, they were going for something more than seeds. I was almost to my car when I spotted two chipmunks a couple of spaces over. One seemed to be foraging for seeds, but the other one was wrestling with the wrapper from a snack-sized bag of Doritos! The other one came over to investigate, and crunched the wrapper – causing the first one to jump in terror and flee into the grass! Then he came back and they were squabbling over the prize. I watched for a minute before going over and confiscating the chip bag, sending it to be forever out of reach in the bear-proof trash can.

It’s a shame someone didn’t throw their trash away, but at least I got a cute performance out of it!

Taking the Plunge

Today it finally got hot again.

It was hot for several days about a month ago – that was when I first went wading out at Sand Point – but since then it’s cooled off, and this week up until today has been almost chilly. But today definitely felt like summer! I don’t know what the actual high temperature was, but it was predicted to be around 85° F, and that may have been a modest estimate. It was humid, too – muggy all day. Usually the visitor center stays fairly cool even when it’s warmer out, but by the end of the day it was getting pretty warm inside. I had the fans on, so it wasn’t too bad, but when I stepped outside I really hit some heat.

I had planned to hike the Miner’s Falls trail after work again, and had brought clothes to change into. But I changed my mind on that after a while, and by the end of the day had talked myself into another plan – going swimming!

Junior Rangers!

Today marked a milestone for the summer: I promoted my first Junior Rangers! Like most national parks, Pictured Rocks has a Junior Ranger program. Kids can get an activity booklet at one of the visitor centers, and if they complete a certain number of activities – depending on their age – they get a shiny gold badge that declares them to be Junior Rangers. Some kids get really into this and get them at every park – I’ve seen kids wearing a special vest covered in badges and patches! I got more than a few Junior Ranger patches myself growing up, but I think it’s gotten to be a bigger program since then. Still, I look at those kids and how enthusiastic they are, and it makes me think of myself back then – and if they’re that passionate, they may well end up doing what I’m doing in another ten or fifteen years. It’s definitely a great way to get them to care about the parks.

I’ve given out a number of booklets already, but today was the first time I had some kids come in with the packet completed! I check them over – not grading answers, but looking to see that they did the activities, and commenting on the various answers they put down. I write their names and mine on the special certificate on the back of the booklet, and then I have them raise their right hand and repeat the Pledge (which someone in a previous year wrote down and taped up near the desk.)

I promise

To help preserve and protect

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

And to help keep it beautiful

For those who come after me.

And to have fun!

(I always add that last line!)

Climbing the lighthouse

Today I hiked to the Au Sable Light Station. It’s a mile and a half each way from the Hurricane River picnic area, but it’s along an old road so it’s an easy walk. It was a beautiful day.

Swallowtail butterfly! I saw quite a few of these.

The road ran right alongside the beach.

More family time!

Only a week after my parents were here, I had more family visiting! My aunt and uncle were visiting friends in Wisconsin and realized it wouldn’t be that much further to come see me up at Pictured Rocks. We had dinner together last night, and today we did a driving tour of the park. First we walked over to the beach near my house, then we walked the marsh boardwalk loop. It looked about he same as when I was there with Mom and Dad, but some of the flowers were a little further along, the cattails a little taller…

Our next stop was Munising Falls, of course. 

In uniform

Friday was a rainy day, so we had a lazy morning and then drove to Marquette to see a movie. Problem: we hadn't looked carefully enough at the online map, and couldn't find the movie theater! We stopped and asked for directions twice; the first time, we went the right way but turned around before we got there because we thought it must be wrong. The second time we tried it again, went further, and found it! We ran inside, bought our tickets and popcorn (since we hadn't had lunch yet!) and made it into the theater just before the previews ended!

The movie was "Jersey Boys". My parents had been to see a live production of the show in St. Louis last year, but I had missed it - so I knew almost nothing about it going in. I just knew the music was going to be good. And I was right! It's kind of a strange story in places, partly because it's telling about real-life people, but also partly because they can't include everything from the peoples' lives, and some of the cutting-and-pasting of events was kind of abrupt and hard to connect mentally. Still, it was great music, and the final number during the credits was fantastic!

Saturday I had to work again, but I met Mom and Dad for breakfast at Hardees first. They were going to be leaving later that day, but I saw them one more time - when they came to Miner's Castle to see me at work! We took the opportunity to get a couple of photos of me in uniform. So this is me behind the desk at the visitor center!