Podcasts - A Source of Inspiration

I first truly fell in love with podcasts when our daughter decided to go to a college that was eight hours away, located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We have always listened to podcasts on vacations, but then I always had new and interesting things to look at out the window, so I tended to be only half listening.

In the Upper Peninsula after you cross the Mackinac Bridge, you are rewarded for a little while with beautiful winding vistas along US 2, and occasional peeks of Lake Michigan. Once you turn off of US 2 though, and head into the interior of the Upper Peninsula, the only vistas are pin-straight country highways, bordered by pine timber forests on both sides. Usually, one or two of the four trips each year, the view consisted of pin-straight country highways, timber forests and snow which covered everything. About an hour and half into the three hour crossing of the U.P. to get to Marquette, I am fighting with all my might to keep my eyelids open. This is where the podcast has become a life saver, literally, if I happen to be driving. I will scroll through my husband's iPod options for podcasts, of which there are many, and pick something that I know will engage my mind for the next 30 minutes to an hour. My favorites are: This American Life with Ira Glass (I love Ira Glass), Stuff You Should Know with Chuck and Josh (always good for a laugh), or The Moth Story Hour. Occasionally I will try something new, but I always return to my favorites.

Recently, I found myself alone in the car for two days of driving to Pennsylvania to meet my friend Andrea for a week of Autumn photography in the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon area. I could have done the trip all in one day, but I decided to split it up for the sake of my back, my legs, and my sanity.

Knowing that I would have a lot of time in the car alone, I begged my daughter to borrow her iPod for the trip. Her's has our whole library of music and podcasts on it, my iPod Nano is a bit more limited. So thankfully she agreed, and we traded iPods.

I had recently discovered Elizabeth Gilbert's new podcast series Magic Lessons, based on her new book, The Big Magic. I had listened to all twelve of them while doing the mundane chores related to housework, but I wanted to really be able to focus on them without the drone of the vacuum cleaner. I was halfway across our state before I pulled out the iPod, having stopped at a rest stop for a rest room break. Excited to get inspired by Liz and her various guests, I scanned through the podcasts, found her's, and pressed play. Much to my disappointment, I found that only the last episode of Magic Lessons had loaded. Thankfully though, it was the episode of her interview with Brene Brown. I listened to that interview twice through, which killed an hour of my remaining four hours of travel time.

Done with the second listening of that episode, I was feeling very inspired and eagerly sought out any other creativity podcasts that might be in the queue. As I sat in the second rest stop parking lot and scrolled through the podcast list, my eye caught one in particular, Lenswork --Photography and the Creative Process by Brooks Jensen. I had subscribed to this podcast over a year ago, but had never listened to a single episode. I am not exactly sure why, but I am a firm believer in that nothing ever happens out of the blue.

I started with the latest episode and worked my way backwards. Since I had a year's worth of material, they kept me going for quite a long time. Each episode is only 5-10 minutes in length. Before I knew it I had listened to more than a dozen episodes. Eventually I had to shut the iPod off for a while, my mind was overflowing with inspiration and ideas; ideas for my work, inspiration for things to photograph, and best of all ideas for blog posts.

As I work through these podcast episodes more slowly, now that I am home again, I am taking notes and jotting down creative ideas. I plan to share things that have caught my attention in upcoming blog posts. I am excited to share my thoughts with you, and I would love to hear your thoughts as I delve into these various topics. Maybe I will finally start that FaceBook page I have always pondered starting for the blog, because I would love to connect more with my readers and get some conversations going.

Resources

Podcasts:
This American Life
Stuff You Should Know
The Moth
Magic Lessons
Lenswork

Pennsylvania Grand Canyon

Amazing May

Hard to believe that it is the last day of May already. I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed my month away from blogging and away from social media (except Instagram of course).

We began May in Marquette for the grand celebration of the Beautiful Girl's graduation from college.

Mallory graduated from Northern Michigan University on Saturday, May 2. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in History.

We are very proud parents.

After graduation, we packed her up and moved her home.

Within a week of being home, she had also secured her first life-beyond-college job. She will be working part time for Local First a local non-profit, committed to supporting and promoting local businesses. A perfect fit for her.

The first full week of May was our town's Tulip Festival, the tulips were just about perfect for it.

Mid-May had us departing for a week in The Great Smoky Mountains. A break down of the trip will be coming in future posts. We had a great time away, and even though rain was predicted every day of our trip, most days were more like this.

We returned home last week Sunday, thankfully with one more day off work thanks to the Memorial Day holiday. Mallory started her new job on Tuesday, May 26 and is loving it. Glen returned to work to travel yet again, thankfully only to the east side of the state. I conquered groceries, laundry and housework.

What lies ahead

In June I am going to participate in Vivienne McMaster's Be Your Own Beloved again. I did the class back in February, but I want to do it in warmer weather, where I can take shots outside, and not have three layers of clothing on. I also have a bucket list of shots I want to do, and even though I could do them on my own anytime, the class structure really motivates me to actually take the time to do them. Also amazing community in that class!

In July I am taking a writing class - Magazine Writing through Creative Nonfiction. I have ruled out Memoir writing as my style, but immersion writing or Magazine style writing really interests me, and is what my Coffee Shop Chronicles would be classified as, so I am going to explore that style of writing and see where it leads me.

Also more travel lies ahead. Glen is in charging of planning an away weekend for our Anniversary in mid-July. I am hoping to get to Chicago for a weekend in August. I am looking into possibilities for a week away for Glen and I in September, and in October I am meeting up with a friend for a week in Pennsylvania.

So much goodness lies ahead. I look forward to sharing it here.

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I am taking Vivienne McMaster's Double Exposure Love class this week. I found I am in creative heaven at the moment. Something fun and different to learn. Mainly we are using the Diana Photo App which is available for iPhone and Android. This photo is actually triple exposed.

The base layer is this photo, taken at Lake Leelanau:

Then this texture of a wooden door at the Northern Michigan Asylum in Traverse City is exposed over top of it:

I then added one of the filters  in the Diana App and saved it:

Which is quite pretty just by itself, but then I brought that back into Diana as the base layer and  added this photo of my daughter, Mallory sitting on the rocks at Presque Isle Park in Marquette, over top of the base layer:

I added another filter and saved it, which gave me the finished creation of the first image.

Find No. 2

I am still working on my #the100daysproject #100daysofleadinglines on Instagram. This is my favorite so far this week.

Find No. 3

I found a new collar waiting for Scout on the front step the other day, sent with love from Mallory.

Find No. 4

I have found texting to be so handy for many things including sending your daughter a recipe for a snack bread that she wants to make while she is away at school. The beauty of technology, it does have its pluses. 

Find No. 5

I found an unused railroad track next to the cemetery, which will be ideal for doing some self-portraiture work, definitely won't be any gawkers there.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found a great use for an empty whisky bottle.

Find No. 2

I found my way up a lot of stairs. A great cardio workout. Twenty minutes of steps burns 200 calories.

Find No. 3

I found a friendly shadow.

Find No. 4

I found a sad dog who thought if he laid on my lap I wouldn't leave him to go out of town. Sorry Scout it didn't work but you got to play with your friend Trevor instead.

Find No. 5

Photo Credit: Glen Huizenga

I found a girl on the edge of an exciting new adventure.

Joining Nancy for Random 5 Friday
Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found a beautiful 21 year old girl. We got to spend the weekend with our beautiful girl for her birthday. Yes, that is a bottle of wine and yes her mother did give it to her, along with an awesome wine glass and an electric wine cork remover :)

Find No. 2

My husband is developing quite a good eye for composition, and he is only too happy to have me look at his photos and load the ones I want on to my phone because he doesn't like to save photos on his phone but it is okay for me to have them on my phone. Please little 4s keep on going!

Find No. 3

I tried every beer in this flight sampler and actually found one that I liked enough to drink all of.

Find No. 4

We found an awesome new "old" chair for Mallory's room at school when we went antiquing on Saturday.

Find No. 5

I found a great old spiral staircase circa 1920's on a historic building tour this week.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found this lovely footbridge when Glen and I went out hiking last weekend. I knew it would be fun to process with the waterlogue app.

Find No. 2

I found this vintage apron at our downtown antique store and the green handled spoon I found at the outdoor antique market. I set up this little scene for homework from Kim Klassen's new class Start to Finish.

Find No. 3

I found this sign in the stall of a rest stop bathroom on my trip to Marquette. I guess they don't expect high usage.

Find No. 4

I stopped in Mackinaw City to get a photo of the Mackinac Point Lighthouse. Lovely processed in Waterlogue.

Find No. 5

Thanks to Amy at Four Corners Design I found this lovely book. You want to digest and savor each beautifully designed page.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

The Coffee Shop Chronicles No. 9 - A Special Marquette Edition

Dear readers, as many of you know, Paisley Rain Boots is soaking up the sunshine of the tropical south this week. My hope is that she will bottle up a bit of that warmth and sunshine and send it up to me in the great white north. I, her daughter, am writing in her place this week; filling in for The Coffee Shop Chronicles. Marquette has few coffee shops to pick from; over the past year I have fallen for Babycakes, going there once a week to do a bit of writing. My observations are less in depth, and probably less humorous from those of Paisley Rain Boots, but all the same, I hope you enjoy. 

A hum of chatter fills the room. Every open space is filled with the voice of one or another. 

There are the three in the corner, opposite the one in which I have taken up residency. College students tucked into the l-shaped booth: one boy, two girls. They are done with the day's demands of class. They are out, making their rounds on this blustery day where the temperature reads in the single digits. I overhear their next stop, the local brewery, less than a block from the coffee shop. Only college students would move from coffee shop to brewery.

Then there are the pairs. 

The two girls, in their early twenties, deep in conversation. Their large ceramic mugs out in front of them: emptied. They never intended to stay this long. They have spent the last hour telling one story after the other, playing catch up after last weeks mid-semester break. They have taken this hour to pull away from the textbooks full of terms, the research papers waiting to be typed, and the exam that needs prepping for to connect and reconnect with one another. 

The second pair. Two men. Their lives are an open avenue. College degrees under their belt, but unsure of which path to take. Scared and not ready to leave the comforts of this college town. Not ready to say farewell to the great lake, ski hills, nights out on the town, and even the ten a.m classes. For now they sit, coffee in front of them, and push away the unknown of reality. 

Only three voices remain silent. 

One. He has been there for hours, bent over his laptop and on his fourth cup of coffee. He is writing, or rather typing, with a few select books open on the table before him. A graduate student nearing the end, working to perfect his thesis. He, too, like the pair of men is feeling the pressures of the open avenue of life that lies ahead of him. But, for now, the thesis paper is his focus. 

Two. Another man. A cup of soup in a to-go cup in front of him, though he doesn't seem to be going anywhere. His cup of water still full rests beside him. He seems to be breathing in the moment; taking a moment to sit, eat, and think about this game of life we are all players in.

And last, me. I'm tucked in the corner table, alongside the big front window. I find myself surrounded by papers filled with scrawled handwriting: words of story and thought. Wondering which words to use and which ones to save for another time. Boots off, chai latte long gone, and The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis open to his piece on "Learning in War-Time". I'm caught in the moment.

The coffee shop: a place for conversation and growth, learning and discovering. A place to think, to write, and simply, a place to sit. A place to delight in and rejoice in. A place to be in the moment. As C.S. Lewis once said, "Never . . . commit your virtue or your happiness to the future"; rather, rejoice in the happiness of the moment you are in.

Readers, you can read more by me here.

Our Northern Adventure

It seems a trip for us can never be without some element of the unusual. We love to leave after work, drop the dogs at the dog sitter, and drive another three hours to the halfway point between home and college daughter. That always gets us to Marquette around lunch time the next day, which works perfectly.

Anyway back to the adventure. We arrived at the hotel at the half way point in the trip only to find that the entire west side of Gaylord was without power, including our hotel. It is already after 9 p.m.by this point, dark and very cold outside. We were meeting friends in Gaylord who were going up to Marquette with us. We decided to go to a restaurant for a quick snack to discuss our options. Fortunately Glen is familiar with the area so he called another hotel that was on the east side and had power, booking two rooms for the night. Light and heat are essential items in the middle of winter.

The next morning we wanted to get an early start since the weather was going to be questionable for the next four hour leg of our journey. We got to the Mighty Mackinaw Bridge an hour after leaving the hotel, so around 10 a.m.

They close this bridge quite often in the Winter because of high winds or poor visibility. Less than two hours after we crossed they closed it.

It was a slow drive across the Upper Peninsula with snow covered roads and occasional white out conditions, but eventually we made it to Marquette and met up with college daughter for lunch.

We spent the afternoon visiting some of our favorites places downtown including the indie bookstore and doing a drive by of Mallory's potential house for next year.

Saturday morning, Mallory and I were going to her favorite coffee shop in Marquette for breakfast. The guys were out cross country skiing. Being an early riser and having an extra hour on my hands I set out to explore a large boarded up building that I have always seen from the highway, but have never taken the time to search out. 

Holy Family Orphanage

Built in 1914 and opened in 1915, the Catholic diocese built this orphanage to help with the overcrowding in two previous built, area orphanages. 

There are rumors that this place is one of the most haunted sites in Michigan. I didn't get any weird vibes while I was here, but I also wouldn't want to be here at night by myself.

When I go back in May I am going to have to see if I can get to this staircase.

I came across this blog post which contains a lot of background and history, as well as, additional photos. Even though the light is gorgeous on this morning, the temperature was -6 and my poor fingers froze fairly quickly once I took off the tops of my fingerless gloves.

Babycakes

Mallory and I had a great breakfast of ginormous muffins, a chai latte and a hot chocolate. Always so wonderful to have face to face, one on one conversations. Her little coffee shop reminds me a lot of my beloved coffee shop, right down to the chalk board and chalk.

Presque Isle Park

We spent the afternoon hiking around Presque Isle Park, a 323 acre forested oval shaped headland/peninsula that juts into Lake Superior at the Northern tip of Marquette. 

This is my favorite place to go to in Marquette, even though it is located at the edge of the city and is a short drive from Mallory's campus, you feel a million miles away from civilization when you are out here. The rocky shores remind me of Maine.

The snow is even with the seat of this bench that Mallory is trying to sit on.

Sunday was our last full day in Marquette. We went to Mallory's church with her in the morning. Since we are heavily involved in the service quite often at our own church, it was so refreshing to go someplace else and simply enjoy the act of worship.

After a very hearty, late breakfast/lunch we bundled up for a trip to the ice caves.

Eben Ice Caves

Eben Ice Caves are located outside the tiny town of Eben Junction, about a 30-40 minute drive from Marquette.  The ice caves form when melting snow runs over the edge of a small cliff and freezes, forming ice caves. If you were to visit here in the summer you would see little to no water running over the edge.

It is about a half mile hike from the parking lot to the ice caves. These caves are heavily visited so the trail is well packed down. The first part of the trail is quite flat, but as you get closer to the caves there are quite a few steep ups and downs.

Ice cleats are highly recommended. This is our friend Cal giving his a try on the ice at the base of the caves. I did not wear any but I did have my hiking poles for the steep ups and downs on the trail, which worked wonderfully. Since I was the photographer I didn't have any plans to go into the caves any way.

Our friends Cal and Jane at one of the entrances.

We were so happy that Mallory's boyfriend, Jon, could join us for the hike. They have been dating since November but have been best friends since Malloy's freshman year. 

Off they go to explore at the top of the cliff.

At the top.

Turn about is fair play I guess, since the photographer is being photographed here.

We had a great weekend away in Marquette, as always it went too fast. Mallory is nearing the end of her junior year at Northern Michigan University, and it is sad to think about not coming up here anymore. So I feel a big need to photograph as much of Marquette as I can over the coming year. I am sure you will see more sights in the future. My next trip up will be at the beginning of May to help Mallory move home for the summer and Jon will be graduating, no way I would miss that. Hopefully most of the snow will have melted by then.

Joining Helen for her Weekend Walks