And the Sun Sets on Summer

And on Lake Michigan.

If you are a Chicagoan, watching the sun set on Lake Michigan is just a tad disorienting. For us, the sun rises over the lake. Drive east around the southernmost tip of the lake--even for only 80 miles or so--and suddenly the sun is going down over the big lake waters. And the directions! "Take a left and drive west toward the lake..." West toward the lake? Buster, the lake is EAST. Well, in Chicago it is. In Union Pier, it is west.

Last weekend, Jeff and I joined a couple of friends from work, their kids, and a number of other couples--some with kids and some without--on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan to see summer out. The venue was Gintaras Resort, an assemblage of lake houses and cottages set on a bluff overlooking the lake. Most of our party stayed in the log house, a six-bedroom lodge with a stone fireplace



and a huge screened in porch.



Our friends Nancy and Paul enticed us there with tales of golden, warm days--the last perfect weekend of summer--and sunset gatherings on the beach where many toasts would be made to old Sol as he sank below the horizon. For ten years straight, they had enjoyed only the best of beach weather--until 2006. As fate would have it, Friday evening was the only evening that produced a toast-worthy sunset. Saturday was overcast and windy, and Sunday dawned to pouring rain. But it was a lovely, restful, good time of weekend even without having to slather on the sunblock.

By Saturday morning, the wind off the lake had whipped up the surf into respectable breakers. Those who braved the waves claimed it was great fun. The water was warm compared to the chilly wind on the beach, they said. Jeff and I decided a nice walk on the beach was more to our liking, although we might as well have taken a dip. We got plenty wet just from failing to dodge some of the more insistent breakers. The kids found it hard to keep away from the water--even when they took a break from bobbing in the surf and changed from bathing suits to street clothes, they just had to head down off the bluff and wade. As you can see, Joseph and Abby weren't much better at dodging the waves than we were!



Jeff and I decided to explore the Union Pier/New Buffalo area on Saturday afternoon. We stopped at an antique barn, hoping to find a deal or two, but even New Buffalo, Michigan, is too close to Chicago to find any such bargains. We stopped in at the local farm stand to pick up some salad fixings for dinner and came across this photo op:



On our way back to Union Pier, we stopped at a store called Customs, which, among other things, purveyed lawn ornamentation. This stuff was a tad different than what I found in Virginia lately, however.



Inside was a treasure trove of international decorabilia--Buddhas of teak, of brass, of plaster, of glazed clay. Ganeshes of every size and demeanor, from a very angry painted wood Ganesh (whose photo, alas, turned out too blurry to do justice his snarling visage--that will teach me to use the flash sometimes) to this brass fellow whose little rat friend warrants a separate footstool:



There were wooden scuptures of swans and two-headed caymans, beautiful antique Asian chests and breakfronts detailed with inlaid mother of pearl and glass cabuchons, enough wispy cotton paisley bedspreads and throws to turn a '70s dorm room into an oda, a tray of sparkly, spikey-tailed kitties in a rainbow of colors (again, blurred by my hubris at my own steady-handedness), and this display of wooden skulls and skeletons, snapped just to amuse my pal Lee:



Upon our return, we simply relaxed. We sat and read by the fire. We chatted with new friends. Jeff tried to instruct me in the basics of Frisbee throwing, which I soon gave up in disgrace, most of my attempts landing the flying disk in back of me rather than forward into Jeff's patient hand. When I left the game, a couple of the kids were right there to take my place--and they were much better at it than I was, too!



That evening, the whole crew gathered on the screened porch for a big pot luck dinner. Everyone had made something or brought something to eat or drink, and we had a leisurely feast and talk fest



while the kids enjoyed themselves just as much.



That night, sated with dinner, dessert, and lots of wine, we sat around a bonfire on the beach and watched some of the guys send bottle rockets and Roman candles glittering into the dark Michigan sky. Even though Sunday was rainy and much colder than Saturday, our whole crew stayed well into the afternoon. Then family by family, we packed our cars and headed back to where the sun rises out of Lake Michigan.

Next year we hope we'll be able to return for the last weekend of summer, novices no longer, but good old friends meeting once more to toast that setting sun.