Observations Along the Boardwalk

Today I am resuming my Creative Inspiration Days. If you are not familiar with what this day means to me you can read about it here. I plan on making every Friday my day to do whatever I want to do. I informed my family earlier this week that I would be unavailable for phone calls until after 4 p.m. unless they were dying. Unfortunately Glen did not quite get that since he called at 3 p.m. today and no he was not dying.

My goal for my Creative Inspiration Days is to slow down, take time to observe and foster my creative soul.

Today I went to Grand Haven, a place that I visit quite often. Grand Haven is a town located on the Lake Michigan shore and is about 30 minutes from my house.

I parked at one end of the boardwalk that runs along the channel and walked to the other end where the Lighthouse is at the mouth of the channel and Lake Michigan.

I was in no particular hurry, just wandering along the boardwalk. Occasionally I would stop and sit on one of the plentiful benches, pull out my journal and record observations I made as I wandered along.

Here are the things I observed today:

1. A lot of solo exercisers - There was a lady speed walking faster than a lot of people jog. There was a lady going up and down the stairs of the bleachers. You go girl! If you are a female and are going to run along the boardwalk it is very important to have a beautifully coordinated exercise outfit.

2. The charter fishermen who didn't have a charter that morning seemed to walk around together in groups.

3. The wonderful breeze coming off the water was very refreshing until the blind man on the bench upwind of me lit a cigarette. To be fair to him, he couldn't see me sitting downwind of him. Thankfully he also couldn't see me leave shortly after he lit up.

4. The aging bleached blond in the too short and too low bubble gum pink tank top and shorts. People, please dress age appropriately. I later saw her wandering downtown in the same outfit.

5. One older gentleman asked me when he passed me if my journal was getting full. I said "Not yet, I just started it today". He wished me good luck.

6. I love to see older couples smiling and talking happily together, still so much in love.

In the end this guy let me down though, he stopped this group of pubescent, bikini clad girls to take their picture. If I was his wife I would have smacked him.

So this couple was the winner of my "favorite couple" today.

7. The smell of pancakes cooking, coming from one of the trailers in the campground, was intoxicating.

8. I passed two young boys playing on the rocks next to the boardwalk and I was enveloped by the smell of Coppertone Sun Screen. I love Coppertone.

9. I love listening to little snippets of people's conversations. Especially the ones where one prefaces the conversation by saying "I am not suppose to tell you this, but..." then they go ahead and blab the whole thing they were suppose to not tell.

10. A lighthouse that the public can actually access, unlike the one in my own town, where the access is controlled with an iron fist by people with too much money for their own good. That's a subject for another day.

11. Fish cleaning is quite the spectator sport at the fish cleaning station, not quite sure why, it is kind of gross.

By the time I was back to the end of the boardwalk where my car was parked I was starving and thankfully it was lunchtime. I have my favorite places that I love to eat at in Grand Haven, but this fall I am vowing to be adventurous and try new things on my Creative Inspiration Days. So I tried someplace  new.

The service was not so speedy, but my waitress was very nice, and she seemed as disgusted as I was that nobody had waited on me sooner. I am taking it that my table was not her regular table.

I had the Shrimp and Sun-Dried Tomato Quesadilla and it was quite good.

I had a great day and I look forward to my new Friday routine. Stay tuned to see where I go next week.

Joining my friend Kim for her Friday Finds.

Joining my friend Helen for her Weekend Walks.