Friday at The Gap

I get off work early on Fridays during the summer. I have to make up the time by coming in early all week, but it's worth it to get off at noon. Today I headed to the mall to pick up a birthday gift for my beautiful daughter-in-law who celebrates her birthday on the 4th of July! While I was at the mall, I heard my name being called....."Kathy....pssssst....Kathy....come on over here."

I waked around the corner to see where the voice was coming from and there it was....The Gap! HAHA!

I thought I would just go in a take a little peak. I really needed a couple of new t-shirts to wear to work for the rest of the summer. When school is closed, we get to wear whatever we want and my daily choice is jeans, gyms and a t-shirt. Sadly, most of mine are in pretty bad shape.

I headed into the store and almost jumped up and down yelling chee hoo when I saw lots of 40% off signs. I felt like I had hit the jackpot and I didn't even start looking yet! Geez, I love GAP!

I tried on a number of tops. I usually wear a Medium at the Gap....Hmmmmm....this one was too big in a Medium. Tried on the next one in a Medium. Just right. Tried on the next on in a Medium....too small. Hmmmmm. I went out and grabbed a variety of sizes and headed in to try on more. I ended up with 3 smalls, 1 medium and 1 large....what the heck is with that???

Well I had 5 really cute t-shirts in my hand and didn't really want to put any of them back. I looked at the price tags and they had all been marked down a couple of times to what was a pretty darn good price. I decided to just get them all. I really needed them.

I got up to the register and the lady started to ring them up. The price wasn't the price on the ticket....it was 40% off the lowest price on the ticket!!!!! The regular price for the 5 shirts would have been $102. 50 and with the mark downs and the 40% off, they cost me $29.35!

I got 5 Gap t-shirts for $29.35! That is a major....Happy Friday to me!!!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. Stay safe and have lots of fun....and do something really nice for yourself!

Vacation Odds and Ends

I thought I would share the rest of our vacation pictures with you.

This is just Irv getting tired of being photographed. :)

This was a little cheesecake shop.....with very good cheesecake!


This is their old state hospital....purchased and being totally renovated as offices and retail. The inside was wonderful and the little shops were great! Isn't it a magnificent building?

I love old log cabins.....



Lake Michigan.....with an awesome little rock tower someone built.




I thought this was kind of cool....


So pretty......


I happen to love black squirrels. We don't have a lot of them here, but we saw a lot of them in Michigan! Isn't he just the cutest little thing?

We had never seen grapevines growing like this before....

Cherry trees......everywhere.......



A very old gas pump in front of a little general store......



It was a long way down......but lots of people chose to walk, or slide down on their butts.....down the 450 foot drop to get to the water from the scenic look out. We chose not to. We would have gotten down....maybe....and never got back up! See those tiny little people way down there?


The view from the look out was wonderful, but the wind was so strong it almost blew you over. The sand hitting your legs really hurt....but it was worth it!


Everywhere you turned there was something beautiful to look at!

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Kayaking the Crystal River

We had a wonderful three hour paddle down the Crystal River on vacation last week. The river was so clear that even when it was 4 or 5 feet deep...you could see every little pebble on the bottom.
The beginning of the trip was very narrow and very winding. Irv laughed until he cried as I tried to get my bearings. I would crash into branches on one side, over compensate and crash into branches on the other side. I had to duck under things and put my paddle up to keep myself from smacking into other things while Irv paddled along gracefully behind me laughing his butt off.

It was actually a bit frustrating. Granted, we only kayak once a year, and we are normally on a big straight river where you don't have to worry about crashing into things...but I am pretty good at this and I was having a hell of a time.

Then I realized what the problem was. I just wasn't paying attention to the kayaking, because I was so in awe of the water and my surroundings. Once I reminded myself that I had to paddle and pay attention to the winding river, I was fine.

The website for Crystal River Outfitters didn't say that we were going to have to portage (carry our kayaks across roads) three times during our trip. We really try to avoid that when we kayak because Irv has a very bad hip, and it is very difficult for him to get in and out of the kayak to start and finish...much less three more times....but we managed and still had a wonderful time.

This dam was the reason for the first portage.

Irv just cruisin' along.....

Can you see how clear the water is in this picture? So beautiful. Our rivers here are muddy and pretty dirty for the most part. This was such a treat!

I think the best part of the trip was when Irv went around a bend and I hung back trying to take some pictures. It's hard taking pictures on a river. You want to stop, but the current keeps you moving. Anyway, I had pulled toward the shore to take a picture when I heard a big splash! I looked across to the other side and there was a deer leaping to and fro in the tall grass along the shore. It seems that Irv had pulled his kayak over to shore when he got around the bend, and startled the deer. He never got to see it, but I sure did. It was so awesome!






I had so many dragonflies hitch a ride on my bright yellow kayak. Every time I would try to grab my camera to take a picture, they would fly away. It took a while to get this shot. Most of them were this smaller black and blue variety.


The current zoomed me past this dead stump, but I managed to paddle myself back so I could get this picture. I thought it was so awesome!

At the beginning of our trip, we let this couple pass us. I really didn't want company on my journey and I really like to go slow and look for wildlife...so anyway...we let them pass. Toward the end of the trip we came upon them again. It seems at one of the portages, they attempted to pull out in the wrong spot. The husband tipped and got caught in a small whirlpool near a drainage pipe. He wasn't able to flip his kayak back over needless to say because it was filled with water, so he walked it the rest of the way.

When we met up with them, there were other kayakers and they helped him pull his kayak up onto a pier and tip it to get the water out. I talked to his wife and she said it was pretty scary. She said he seemed okay, but they were going to find a doctor to have him checked out. I felt so bad for them. Irv and I both noticed that when he was walking his kayak over to the pier he seemed very frightened when the water got deep....we are thinking maybe he didn't know how to swim. The river was probably 5 feet at it's deepest, but if you can't swim....even that would be terrifying.

The people at Crystal River Outfitters were just awesome. Such great service! They even had a nice little shop where I bought a darling little t-shirt type dress. They recommended the sandwich shop next door where we had fabulous subs...one of the best I've ever had.

I even bought a couple of stickers in their shop that say, "Life Is Good"....because it sure is!

Sailing on The Tall Ship Manitou

Our first sailing experience was certainly one to remember. We set out at 3:00 p. m. and returned at 5:00 p.m. The captain was a very pleasant guy and his 2 girl and 2 guy crew of 20 somethings was fabulous. Those kids worked their butts off to show us a great time aboard their ship.

We were allowed to go "below" so we could see what things looked like....the crew actually lives on the ship. I must say that isn't something I could do after seeing their "beds", but what an experience for these young people.

It was a beautiful day and as we were sailing across the bay....I thought about how awesome it would be to just lay on the deck with my eyes closed and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine as the wind and the sails take me to far off lands.

Enjoy the cruise.......

Make it a beautiful day for yourself.......