Don't you just love Mother's Day? First of all, yesterday flowers were delivered from the kids. Not just any old flowers, but the longest stemmed, biggest blooms of perfect yellow roses that you ever saw. They are truly amazing!
Then today, we set out on our long-planned road trip to Ludington to see their new art park. This trip had been postponed a couple of times because Old Man Winter refused to give way - but today was an absolutely perfect day to do it.
Dick got out our new yellow jeep ragtop (we love that jeep) and off we went on our adventure. We started close to home with breakfast at Rico's. They had a very nice buffet - it was yummy. We hadn't planned to go there, but a little research showed that Hofbrau opens at 10 on Sunday, and Dinghy's at noon. We were itching to get started, and Rico's filled in very nicely.
We headed straight to Ludington, so we could geocache our way home. There was one interesting detour where a bridge was out. It put us down some roads we'd never been on before, and that's fun, too.
At Mesick, there was some kind of festival/carnival/art fair/flea market going on - don't know what that was all about. I googled it, and it turned out to be the Morel Mushroom Festival - http://www.mesick-mushroomfest.org/. Already at 10:30 in the morning there were tons of cars and people - the rides were all running - it was quite the event.
We found 4 or 5 caches on the outskirts of Ludington before we entered the town. They were all fairly easy ones (those are the ones we like best). We went by a water tower, a lookout tower, an old cemetery, and a memorial to Pere Marquette for starters. At the lookout tower, we found some mind boggling graffiti - we don't have a clue!
Our jeep at the lookout.
We were so impressed with Ludington! (http://www.visitludington.com) The town itself is beautiful, with many big old homes. Their Lake Michigan waterfront is just amazing - a really nice, sandy beach, two breakwaters, and of course the best lake in the world. It's so sandy that there are wind-blown drifts of sand left after the winter piled four feet high in the parking lot, and even on the steps of some nearby condos. We enjoyed driving around town, taking it all in. Ate lunch at the House of Flavors - gee I wish Traverse had one. They're just in Ludington and Manistee - great place to grab a sandwich.
After lunch we found the Ludington Municipal Marina - what a beautiful spot. Instead of an Open Space, they have Waterfront Park, which has a playground, walkways, and a sculpture garden. The sculptures were the real reason for the road trip. They are placed around the walkway by the water, and they are all so well done. The statues are approachable and touchable, and there were many families in the park today taking pictures.
T.C.'s Open Space pales by comparison. We were jealous of Ludington - and I didn't even mention the murals, the carferries and the sandcastle museum.
We found a few more caches on the way home. We also saw swarms of bugs - clouds of bugs, actually - have no idea what was up with that. There were so many clouds of tiny bugs that at times it looked like a forest fire. It went on for miles and miles - quite unbelievable.
We stopped in Frankfort for dinner at Dinghy's - the perfect end of a perfect day. Got home around 8:30 - a 12 hour Mother's Day!
Some of Dick's cache logs for today:
Geocaching
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05/08/2011 You found BIG BLUE 'M'---WT 3 Visit Log
After a long Mother's Day caching and sight seeing excursion, we were ready to push on to Frankfort for a much anticipated dinner at Dinghy's when we noticed the name of this cache. As life-long die hard Wolverine fans, we could not resist. Tired or not, micro or not, we could NOT just drive through town and ignore a cache named BIG BLUE M. Thanks for the fun.
05/08/2011 You found Tram Law Ludington Visit Log
After a great lunch at the House of Flavors we spent some time in the park enjoying the sculptures and the families. We are jealous, what a great feature. Sadly, Traverse City has nothing to compare. Running out of time and with many miles to go before we slept, (as well as a dinner at Dinghy's in Frankfort) we had time for only one cache in town. We had never heard of Tram Law before. Another first. I must say that the description is more exciting than the cache. This poor gal needs a new skirt. TFTS
05/08/2011 You found The Peoples Cache Visit Log
On this warm, sunny Mothers Day, we drove down to Ludington to see the sculptures in their beautiful waterfront park. No excursion would be complete with out a cache or ten. Not being great fans of micros or skirt lifters, we sought out this one for a stop on our way home. A nice stroll in an interesting spot. No fisher folk today and a quick easy find. Signed the log, took nothing and left our card and Apache Tears. Thanks for the fun!
05/08/2011 You found Grant township Cemetery Visit Log
It is so much fun to cruise around in our Jeep with the window off, not quite top down weather yet but it's getting close. We really enjoy the Spirit Quest/Cemetery caches, with out them we would just drive on past. We find however that a stroll among the stones is extremely interesting. The section of the stones of some Native Americans was the highlight for us. The size of the downed trees near the cache is amazing. They have been down for quite a while, wonder how old they are. We signed the log, traded sigs, and left a matchbox car. Thanks for bringing us to this unique spot.
05/08/2011 You found Phillips Rest 1866 Visit Log
We enjoy Spirit Quest/Cemetery caches. We had planned a trip to Ludington back in March. We wanted to visit the downtown park and view the sculptures. No excursion would be complete with out grabbing a few caches. When we drove up there was a muggle mobile parked at the entrance but no one in view. As I walked to GZ, a couple came out of the woods. No GPS was evident, only a camera, wished them a Happy Mothers Day and went to the cache. We discussed their appearance and the mom on our team spotted their name in the log. By the time we figured it out they were long gone. We signed the log and left our card and pathtag. After replacing the cache I strolled to the edge of the bluff. WOW! that drop makes the one at the Stocking Drive at Sleeping Bear look tame. Thanks for bringing us here.
05/08/2011 You posted a note for Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust Visit Log
We were checking some of Ludington's caches and worked on this. After grabbing the required information, we "solved" the puzzle and set out to find the cache. Unfortunately, our results took us to a cache we'd just found! We decided to work on it over lunch at The House of Flavors. We think we've solved it but ran out of time before we could go to the final.
05/08/2011 You found Suttons Landing Visit Log
Well we've seen their Bay but this is our first trip to their landing. Out and about on a beautiful Mother's Day to visit Ludington and grab a few caches along the way. We signed the log, took only trash, and left our card and some Fool's Gold. Thanks for showing this spot to us.
05/08/2011 You found LookOut 2 Visit Log
Mother's Day and the weather could not be better! We had planned a Ludington excursion for late March but the weather would not cooperate. Our main goal is to visit the park in town and enjoy the sculptures but we might as well grab a few caches while we're at it. The cranes were active in the marsh. We got accustomed to their racket down in Florida. Found the cache in good shape, left our card and some Fools Gold. Took some trash that was lying about and a picture of the name Marissa Nicole Steiger that is scrawled on the tower. Wonder if we could be related.
05/08/2011 You found Under the Water Works Visit Log
In January or February, we saw a report on the sculptures in downtown Ludington on Destination Michigan and planned an excursion. Originally planned for March, the weather was not kind and so we put it off until Mother's Day. It has been great fun. Traveling in our new cachemobile toy, an 02 yellow Rubicon and attempting to use our new paperless toys including a new iphone, we have had a blast! This is one of the last places where we'd expect to encounter muggles but some happy folks were out on a Mom's Day stroll. Signed the log, left our card and pathtag. Thanks for adding to our day.
05/08/2011 You found A Titan Visit Log
What a fantastic Mother's Day! We came down to Ludington to see the sculptures in the town park as a result of a TV program we'd see last February. After a couple of postponements, today was the day. Of course, an outing would not be complete without a cache or two. (Or 10) Took nothing, left Apache Tears. Thanks for the fun
