Beautiful vintage sailboat with a modern sail
Spinakers
Shake Rattle and Roll
Liza and Peggy
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Mackinac Island
Mackinaw Island was strategically important to the United States. Whoever controlled Fort Mackinac controlled the Great Lakes and entry into the US
Topiary Horses on the lawn of the Grand Hotel mimicking the ubiquitous carriages on the Island.
Hollyhocks
Topiary Horses on the lawn of the Grand Hotel mimicking the ubiquitous carriages on the Island.
Hollyhocks
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Pony Penning day
"Misty of Chincoteague" by Margurite Henry
was one of my absolute favorite books as a child. That one along with "Stormy, Misty's Foal",
"Sea Star of Chincoteague" , "Born to Trot" and "Black Gold" are still the best children's horse stories around.
"Misty of Chincoteague" is a story which involves the event called pony penning day. Every year in order to raise money for the fire department wild ponies from the island of Chincoteague off the Virginia coast are auctioned.
Some say they are descended from the ponies that swam ashore from a shipwrecked Spanish Galleon. Maybe they are descendants of ponies that were put ashore by Spanish pirates.
The US Government says they were put there in the 17th century by Eastern Shore planters seeking to avoid mainland taxes and fencing requirements.
The US Government says they were put there in the 17th century by Eastern Shore planters seeking to avoid mainland taxes and fencing requirements.
I prefer the Spanish Galleon legend!
Pure Michigan
Today was a beautiful day on Walloon Lake, Michigan.
We purchased a new tube called The Revolution which we will break in tomorrow on the lake. It spins, which makes me dizzy just thinking about it.
Ernest Hemmingway based his famous "Nick Adams" stories on his summers spent at Walloon Lake.
Golfer Tom Watson (five time British Open Champion) also spent summers here at his family's lake house and comes back for the Walloon Lake Member Guest golf tournament. My son bumped into him buying sweet rolls at the "foot" .
We purchased a new tube called The Revolution which we will break in tomorrow on the lake. It spins, which makes me dizzy just thinking about it.
Ernest Hemmingway based his famous "Nick Adams" stories on his summers spent at Walloon Lake.
Golfer Tom Watson (five time British Open Champion) also spent summers here at his family's lake house and comes back for the Walloon Lake Member Guest golf tournament. My son bumped into him buying sweet rolls at the "foot" .
The Watsons Celebrate 75 Years at WalloonLake
by Dave Barry
The lakes, streams, hills, dunes and pine and hardwood forests long have been a magnet for writers like Ernest Hemingway, Civil War historian Bruce Catton, Washington Post columnist David Broder and novelist Jim Harrison, television stars like Tim Allen and golfers from Walter Hagen to Tom Watson.
"I love that country up there," Kansas City native Watson said. "I love Walloon Lake. It's one of the most beautiful lakes there is.
"And all the lakes are different _ Walloon, Charlevoix, Round. I started going up north when I was five years old. My dad (Ray) had roots there. His father had a place on Walloon Lake."
"I first went up there in 1923," Ray Watson said, "and kept going-up for 35-40 years."
"When I first started going up there we'd stay for two weeks," Tom Watson said. "Then it was three weeks, then it was a month. I went up there every summer through high school and college.
"I love that country. It has a wonderful feel and the old Hemingway influence.
"Walloon Lake Country Club was a nine hole course when I first went up there and it was a perfect course for me. I was a kid and I went around and around it _ there wasn't a whole lot of play in those days.
Watson said that after he joined the PGA Tour he went up north for vacation, not to play golf.
"My dad would want to play and I'd say 'Naw, I'd rather fish every day.' Then when I'd get ready to go back to the Tour, I'd play Belvedere and Walloon."
Up in Michigan, to borrow a Hemingway phrase, the weather can turn fast, from going fishing weather, to playing golf weather, to eating hot dogs weather to devouring fudge weather. Young Tom Watson found it perfect for all of the above. And still does.
The "17"
--- sailboats of yesteryear built specifically for Walloon Lake .
--- sailboats of yesteryear built specifically for Walloon Lake .
There are still enough of these boats to race each week in the summer
This boat, #24 used to be owned by my cousin George Tayloe Forkin of Jackson Ms. The number refers to the order in which the boats were made. This one was the 24th.
We are an hour away from Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island and the famous Mackinaw Island Bridge which spans 5 miles!
The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island
My favorite view of Harbor Springs, a little town on Little Traverse Bay off Lake Michigan. The peninsula is referred to by locals as "The Point" . No cars are allowed.
The town of Harbor Springs
Picture Perfect Flowers
Horse Show by The Bay-
has some of the prettiest jumps of any horse show in the country and blooming flowers are everywhere.
The Bridge
Horse Show by the Bay's Signature Jump
The Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac is the longest, annual freshwater sailing race in the world. It takes place on Lake Michigan.
The race departs from Chicago and finishes at Mackinac Island in Michigan.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Endings are Beginnings
My son, David Curran III, is currently traveling around the world with friends on his way to The University of Cape Town in South Africa. I know very little of South Africa. The World Cup just ended and South Africa has been taken off the State Department's list of "no travel" countries due to high terrorist possibilities.
He is so excited about what he will experience there.
Among his duties was working the wrangler breakfast everyday. He woke up at 5:00 AM each morning in the California mountains near the Oregon border. He loaded all the ingredients to cook breakfast for 20 people onto a 4 wheeler and headed up one of the mountains.
The guests would come on horseback an hour or so later where he and other staff would be waiting to cook omelettes to order with cheese grits, coffee and juice.
(JH Ranch is owned and operated by people from Birmingham, thus the Southern breakfast. They got so many questions about the grits David explained they were a Southern staple at his welcoming talk each morning)
The ranch has no cell phone or wi-fi service. No internet, TV or even mail --not so much as a sports illustrated can be accepted by campers.
After an hour ride the guests climbed off their horses and were served breakfast
Evan Zeiger, a fellow staff member, would give an inspriational talk each morning.
Evan lost both his parents this past spring in a plane crash. His faith in God is unswerving and he is so busy asking and counseling others he seems to never concentrate on himself.
When the guests leave, the staff members sit down to their own breakfast looking over the Mountain valley below.
When finished they load up their 4 wheelers and head back for their next task which might be coaching a group of 15 year olds or facilitating a ropes course. He had a wonderful experience there and tells so many stories of healing. Various programs include teens, parents and couples. One boy was camping under the stars and said he was asking God if he was really there--and just at that moment saw a star go shooting off across the night sky.
According to Christopher Bacon---" I can still believe that a day comes for all of us however far off it may be, when we shall understand; when these tragedies that now blacken and darken the very air of heaven for us will sink into their places in a scheme so august, so magnificent, so joyful,that we shall laugh for wonder and delight."
My middle George will leave for college in the fall. It is easy to be sad for me but I gain strength thinking of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
When Mary sees Jesus on his way to crucifixtion, his blood is mixed with sweat from the exhaustion of the weight of the cross he says to her, "Behold, I make all things new"
Don't look at what you see. Remember what you know. Remember what the angel said. Remember the prophecies. Don't forget that I was born to die. For I am the final sacrifice I lay the path to eternal life upon this road to death. And because I die, you-and all who come afterward will live. I make all things new. And that includes you.
"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them" psalm 34:7
He is so excited about what he will experience there.
He was on staff at "the ranch" for six weeks
Among his duties was working the wrangler breakfast everyday. He woke up at 5:00 AM each morning in the California mountains near the Oregon border. He loaded all the ingredients to cook breakfast for 20 people onto a 4 wheeler and headed up one of the mountains.
The guests would come on horseback an hour or so later where he and other staff would be waiting to cook omelettes to order with cheese grits, coffee and juice.
(JH Ranch is owned and operated by people from Birmingham, thus the Southern breakfast. They got so many questions about the grits David explained they were a Southern staple at his welcoming talk each morning)
The ranch has no cell phone or wi-fi service. No internet, TV or even mail --not so much as a sports illustrated can be accepted by campers.
After an hour ride the guests climbed off their horses and were served breakfast
Evan Zeiger, a fellow staff member, would give an inspriational talk each morning.
Evan lost both his parents this past spring in a plane crash. His faith in God is unswerving and he is so busy asking and counseling others he seems to never concentrate on himself.
When the guests leave, the staff members sit down to their own breakfast looking over the Mountain valley below.
When finished they load up their 4 wheelers and head back for their next task which might be coaching a group of 15 year olds or facilitating a ropes course. He had a wonderful experience there and tells so many stories of healing. Various programs include teens, parents and couples. One boy was camping under the stars and said he was asking God if he was really there--and just at that moment saw a star go shooting off across the night sky.
According to Christopher Bacon---" I can still believe that a day comes for all of us however far off it may be, when we shall understand; when these tragedies that now blacken and darken the very air of heaven for us will sink into their places in a scheme so august, so magnificent, so joyful,that we shall laugh for wonder and delight."
My middle George will leave for college in the fall. It is easy to be sad for me but I gain strength thinking of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
When Mary sees Jesus on his way to crucifixtion, his blood is mixed with sweat from the exhaustion of the weight of the cross he says to her, "Behold, I make all things new"
Don't look at what you see. Remember what you know. Remember what the angel said. Remember the prophecies. Don't forget that I was born to die. For I am the final sacrifice I lay the path to eternal life upon this road to death. And because I die, you-and all who come afterward will live. I make all things new. And that includes you.
"The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them" psalm 34:7
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