Vacation In Ludington (a week-or-so late posting) Part 2

　
August 3
           As I brush flies away from my screen (attracted as they are to any and all light sources when it gets dark) I ready myself to recount the day’s events by cracking open a can of Diet Barq’s (diet is not what I prefer, but root beer is root beer, and it’s late so I’m not gonna be to picky). I’ve lit a few candles around the area in an attempt to distract the moths and flies, but one or two still come to my computer screen. (Guess the constant, unflickering light is rather attractive.)
          So, taking off from around the time I ended yesterday, it rained and poured and turned into a real nice lightning storm last night, bad enough that Shawn was spooked (storms do seem to make him uneasy, especially thunder storms) and Mom ended up pulling out the blow-up air mattress (brought along in case the hide-away bed in the couch didn't work out for me) and inflating it on the ground in front of the cd player and Shawn slept there and Paul, for unknown reasons, decided to remain sleeping on the couch (the two have returned to those two places tonight as well).
         I stayed up 'til nearly midnight in order to take my acne medication (turns out this strange breakout of pimples all over my face, something that’s never happened to me before, is a delayed allergic reaction to the steroid (Decadraw) that I was on to reduce the inflammation of my tumor) so after my doctor’s appointment on Monday (and he said I could come on this vacation with his blessing, and that he was amazed I had recovered so much strength, flexibility, and mobility so quickly, Praise God for his blessings!) he prescribed a medication I take twice a day and a face gel I apply every other day. (problem is I can’t take the med within two hours of taking vitamins or dairy, so I set my watch timer for two hours after I take my morning meds and take the other pill when it goes off.)
           So when the time finally came to take my other med, I took a small swig of water from mom’s water bottle that she left on a table out on the porch and swallowed the pill, except I’m not sure I took enough because I went to sleep feeling like the capsule was stuck in my throat.
           I woke up this morning to the sound of Paul’s voice and the humming of a hummingbird. My back was to the window and the feeder, but when I opened my eyes I could see the reflection of the tiny bird in the window and watched it for a moment with a smile on my face. A female Ruby-throated hummingbird.
           I lifted my head to look out the window over the back of the couch and gazed out at a damp forest, and then for some reason realized that the river sounded louder than usual. I found out why when I looked at it:  the river had swelled up BIG time after all the rain from the day and night before. The river was brown from mud swept from the banks and the current was now really fast. There was evidence that the ground below the hill out the back door had been a mini lake sometime last night too, but it had drained enough that it was back to just a river. Later, I walked along the river and took photos, as much for my benefit as to be able to show Aunt Del (previous owner of the cabin) and e-mail Jim (ex-husband (not mine!) and current owner of the cabin. Jim is very nice and lets people use the cabin, so long as we ask and figure out what weeks are open and whatnot) what had happened. Shawn joined me at some point and we walked along the river together.
                  At some point, (after Shawn had complained about how his camera had deleted photos on its own and was acting funny)(it's a cheaper digital camera, dosen't even run on its own memory card) I decided to give Shawn a chance and told him I’d let him borrow my old camera, Nicky (the CoolPix P80 that fell into the river with  me when i became a victim of misplaced agression a year ago. It took a month of sitting i a bowl of rice, but Nicky survived) which I brought with me just in case. I always carry an extra battery and memory card with me in my bag, which makes me feel somewhat uneasy not having backups for Nikomaru by using them to power Nicky, but Shawn was getting really upset with being unable to take photos so it wasn’t a great hardship to offer to let him borrow Nicky for the next day or two (who am I to deny someone from wanting to take photos?)
        Around lunch time we all packed into the van and drove into Ludington, and while Dad went with the boys to the kid’s museum, Mom and I walked around town. Not so many shops were opened to just browse around in (most likely due to the economy) but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Stopping in the Hallmark store, I found a 1000 piece puzzle of a lighthouse that I haven’t seen before that I’m sure Dad would love, and mom ended up finding and (i talked her into) buying a mug with a funny slogan on it, and at the register when she bought it, I also impulsively bought a tiny booklet that was a dictionary for txting (so maybe Mom and I can understand half of what’s being said to us on our phones, or in my case Mabinogi-MMORPG i've been on).
      We walked around a bit, entered a clothing shop or two, I ended up buying a Ludington logoed shirt, and after making a stop in Kilwins, added a bag of caramel popcorn for mom and a milk chocolate bar for me (we would have gotten fudge, but they were nearly a $8 a pound and that’s only one slice! Thick slices, but still.)
           We then stopped inside the Todd and Brad Reed Photo Gallery and had fun looking through all the amazing prints of these two amazing photographers (father and son), but the best part was when - upon making a comment to Mom about wondering if I could ever do something like these men - got into a conversation with an older man with white hair who said it could happen. I ended up sharing with him that I was majoring in photography and my passion for it, and after a little chit-chat, ended up learning that the guy I was talking with (and Mom with me) was Todd Reed. Wow! I was actually talking with this distinguished and established photographer! We chatted for quite some time, at the end of which Todd gave me a business card and on the back listed four photographers for me to look up who tend to shoot along the same lines I do. What a guy! What a help too. It was so exciting being able to meet him. (He even knew what I was talking about when I mentioned shooting the ’defining moment’ (Henri Cartier-Bresson). Way awesome.
          After leaving the gallery, mom and I wandered into another clothing shop, an ’all-natural’ shop (where I bought my hemp wallet (my first wallet) and a few incense sticks for Becky as well), and then we wandered into another clothing shop where Mom found a shirt of the S.S. Badger and the Ludington lighthouse on it in Dad's size, and a light hooded shirt with a neat design on it with 'Ludington' on it (and even though the only size left was large I got it anyway. It’s a little big, but it’s really comfy!)
           Almost immediately after, Paul called mom’s cellphone (he really needs to learn to stop making calls to people whenever, but in this case Dad gave him permission) to tell us that he and everyone else was at the van and we went to join them so we could have dinner at the House of Flavors. (we had killed nearly 2 hours just walking around shopping while the boys killed two hours playing around)
               We ate a good meal then went down to the beach to watch the SS Badger come in. Mom, Shawn, and Paul stayed near shore and the playground while Dad, David, and myself walked out to the lighthouse. I hung back taking pictures and took a moment to just breathe in the breeze off the water, before really striking off to the lighthouse. I took lots of photos, including one in which it looks as if the Badger is about to ram into the lighthouse. It’s one I’ll be enlarging and framing.
           The three of us walked back to the beach and, after rendezvousing with Mom and the other two, we piled back in the van and headed for Badger Park and while the boys went crazy on the playground with the parentals watching over them, I went to take photos of the sculptures scattered around the park that are themeed on the culture of Ludington, including a new one put in only last July. (I also finally got a picture of me with the ‘Follow the Leader’ sculpture where I posed myself on the empty rock so I was part of the art, something I’ve wanted to do for a long time)
           I got a few pictures of the Badger and Spartan at dock, with Shawn and Dad looking at it, and without them in the picture too before attempting to take a photo of the lighthouse with a glare on the water (which is actually hard to do because it can trick the camera or wash it out).
          I met a 5-month-old Golden Doodle named Zeke (such an adorable and loving little puppy. He was jumping all over me to give me kisses and his fur was as soft as my neighbors Bichon Frise/Shitzu mix, Toby.) There was also some great music playing in the air because underneath the pavilion where the bathrooms are also located a Zumba class was going on, and it looked like a lot of fun. (i've wanted to participate in Zumba for a while, but i had a really tight leg for a few months and those leg movements have been tough. Heck, i couldn't even play D.D.R. very well!)
          After photos and playing, it was time to go home. Dad and I looked for deer as we always do (Because evening is closer to the time that they come out) and saw far fewer deer than we’ve seen in past years, but we did see a few. (Mom even saw a 5 points Buck).
            It was just getting to the darker portion of the evening, but light enough that I could see the river had gone down a bit since earlier (I also ventured closer with my headlamp on). I found the extra plug adapter that made it possible to plug my computer in and keep it on while it charges (and charges Shawn’s mp3 player which I have finally learned how to turn off and set it so it turns off automatically after a set period of time). So now here I am, it’s 11pm and things are pretty quiet. I’m rather tired, and should probably go to bed. The sound of the river and the cicadas (spawning in mass quantities this year) are the perfect noises to fall asleep to. Shawn and Paul seem to have fallen asleep rather quickly (goes to show just how tired they truly were) and Dad and David have retired to Whip-or-will. Mom is sitting outside with a bug lantern and again, I’m sitting on the couch, a few candles around me, my feet propped up on the bed which has been pulled out of the couch and already has my sleeping bag on it, so I should end this post, brush my teeth, blow out candles, and go to bed early now that I can. Tomorrow is gonna be another long day, considering we’re heading up to Little Sable lighthouse (I might even swim for the first time in nearly a year and a half! Now that this darn tumor is out of my neck it might be possible, so long as I don’t push it to much.)