Mackinac Island

A place in motor state with no motor vehicles except for the ambulances. It was nice to see this small island somewhat imaginary with only horses and bicycles. And of course with horse comes dung and associated smell. I wonder how it would have been if there were no motored vehicles. Maybe we would have had dung disposal areas and water stands for horses.




Mackinac Island was another place to visit this year after reading the Legend of Mackinac Island by Kathy-Jo Wargin. It was such a pleasure to go back to Mackinac after some 7 years.


Arch Rock

Visit to the Bear Dunes

This weekend we went to the Sleeping Bear Dunes and had fun climbing the sand dunes. Bear dunes was one of the must see places for this year after reading "The Legend of Sleeping Bear", a very touching and moving story of mother bear's dedication and care for her cubs. I wouldn't recommend this book to children younger than 5 yrs but a very nice read for little older children. To tell the truth I cried when I read this book for the first time.

The weather was little cold so we couldn't do much exploration.



View of Glen lake from the dunes.


Lake Michigan

More beautiful photos of the bear dunes can be found here.

Pinaceae family in our neighborhood.

Today we sauntered with camera in hand capturing the beautiful pine buds. I have been trying to find the name of all the variety of pines we found. At least we were able to differentiate spruce from pines:-). Pines and Spruce are of the Pinaceae family.
At this time of the year all the pine cones are in the bud stage and they will develop into cones (flowers) as the summer moves in. We are planning to go back in few weeks and picture the mature cones. Also planning to add "The Life Cycle of a Pine Tree" by Linda Tagliaferro to our summer reading.

Jack Pine, Norway or Red Pine (Pinus Resinosa), Scot Pine, White Pine (Pinus Strobus) and White and Blue spruce are the popular ones in Michigan.



Spruce

Red Pine



Some mature pine cones.