Anyone that is keeping track, I did write a post with a similar title 12 years ago: Whooooshhhhhhh! which contains a similar sentiment to this year. Busy summer, lots of life in motion, lots going on and lots of great memories! It was also one of those summers where I was processing an intense couple of years. Bingo!

First, a recap of this summer, so far:

Weekend One: Metro Detroit to drop off Bleu with my parents so they could granddogsit when we went to NOLA, attend a No Kings! protest with my dad, and celebrate Father’s Day.

Weekend Two: drove to New Orleans and back with Terry and had a surprisingly restive and rejuvenating long weekend celebrating the end of Terry’s cancer treatment and reconnecting with one of my favorite cities.

Weekend Three and Four: I spent a week with my parents in Metro Detroit. I went to pick up Bleu one weekend and unexpectedly stayed through the 4th of July weekend! It was a relaxing visit in the midst of a lot of turmoil in the world and I really appreciated being able to spend some quality time with my parents and attend a couple of my mom’s doctor’s appointments. My sister is usually the point person since she lives so close and it was a nice change being able to do this for them.

Weekend Five: Terry planned to travel to Columbus, Ohio for the Cultivate 2025! Expo and so I decided to tag along so I could visit my dear friend, Kelly. Despite a crazy tire stem leak in one of our tires that wasn’t properly identified or fixed until we got BACK to Chicago; some crazy summer storms moving through over the weekend; and it being really hot, we had a really good time! We stayed at a really (surprisingly) nice Red Roof Inn Plus that had been renovated the month before and ate some yummy food at Katalina’s and North Market. And Kelly made it safely back into Columbus through those crazy storms, so that we could have some extra special quality time together on Sunday morning which was awesome!!!!! A quick regional Michigan/Ohio cultural insight: There is a huge rivalry between the University of Michigan and Ohio State University. Huge! Terry and his family are very much pro-U of M which means that Terry was definitely feeling a few ‘feels’ staying at a hotel basically on OSU’s campus…

Weekend Six: Last weekend, Terry and I headed North 400+ miles to visit the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Terry’s Uncle Stephen was one of the co-founders of the Holy Protection Monastery (which began as the Holy Tranfiguration Skete in 1983) and Terry and I have been visiting the monastery at least once a year for the past 21 years. I attended Northern Michigan University as an undergrad and love the UP, so the fact that Terry and I both have connections to the area is one of the things that drew us together, frankly.

The Keweenaw Peninsula is divided by the Keweenaw Waterway, with the Michigan Tech University college town of Houghton on the south shore and Hancock on the north shore, connected by The Portage Lake Lift Bridge–the the world’s heaviest and widest double-decked vertical-lift bridge. Terry and I were actually grabbing lunch last Saturday at the Keweenaw Coop Market and Deli (which is in a new Hancock location and a little more trendy than most would prefer, but it’s still a cool place) and got to witness the bridge lifting for a couple of boats to go through, which was very neat.

The Keweenaw is definitely a rural part of the country, very isolated, and not the easiest to get to, but the trade off is that it is so beautiful and peaceful and full of lots of outdoor things to do from hiking, kayaking, skiing, and mountain biking to checking out the Northern Lights, Brockway Mountain Drive, and fall colors. If you can, combining a trip up Brockway Mountain Drive and fall color viewing is truly spectacular! There are also plenty of events going on throughout the year; lots of history for us history nerds (the Keweenaw Michigan National Historical Park is a wonderful partnership between the National Park Service and area organizations); and a variety of local foods and restaurants to try: from Fitzgerald’s yummy barbecue and its fantastic location on Lake Superior to tasty meat patties filled with meat and root veggies called pasties (past-tees–not paste-tees!) and Lake Superior White Fish.

Here is a wonderful brochure of the Keweenaw with lots of info!

The Monastery itself is located between Eagle River and Eagle Harbor, sitting right alongside Lake Superior and Great Sand Bay, and has been built on a combination of land and buildings that were once used for copper mining, as a motor lodge, and for logging/forestry. Over the years, the original motor lodge buildings have been rehabbed and incorporated into additions or new buildings. The complex sure has evolved a great deal in the past 40 years! This interview with a local news station from 2003 is priceless and so much fun to watch! 2003 Local Interview

Besides being a place of spiritual prayer, mediation and worship and serving the needs of a community, monasteries usually have another, more secular hustle/vocation that helps out the monastery and the local community as a whole. There are Catholic monasteries that focus on retreats and hospitality, those that grow specialized timber to build wooden caskets, some are famous for brewing beer, and there are others that specialize in making wine. There are also those monasteries that sell baked goods, jams & jellies, honey, syrups, coffee, and chocolates. Holy Transfiguration Skete/Holy Protection Monastery is one of these forms of monastery and from day one, with the help of Terry’s Grandma Zora’s recipes, The Jampot has thrived on their sales of baked goods, jams and jellies, with additional selections in the past decade or so of chocolates and roasted coffees. My favorites from The Jampot have to be the Hermit Cookies, Apple Butter, Dark Chocolate Truffles, Thimbleberry Jam and understated Cinnamon Rolls.

While Terry’s Uncle Stephen/Father Nicholas passed in May 2017, we have stayed close to the other monks and are still considered family friends of the Monastery itself. This trip we stayed in one of the renovated cabins and it was such a nice get away! The weather was perfect!!!! Only true negative: those dang bugs!!!!!! We spent time with the monks, explored, had dinner one night at Fizgerald’s, went on some walks, and I even took a quick, frigid dip in a very cold Lake Superior. It was definitely a fun way to celebrate Terry’s birthday!

Weekend Seven

This weekend we are back in Chicago for a change (the first one in 7!) and frankly, it feels kinda weird. What’s crazy is that I’ve spent more time in transit and out of town then I’ve spent in Chicago these past 6 weeks!!! I almost don’t know how to just ‘be’ and am struggling to figure out my schedule. But making do! 🙂

And, to wrap up this post, here are some last beautiful sunset pics looking out over Lake Superior.

Thank you for reading all the way through this post! I hope you are finding some beauty in your world. Feel free to share some of that beauty in a comment or picture of your own. Wishing you a peaceful week and all de’ best.