Vacationing in Manistee

I am mid-way through a week's vacation with (a small portion of) my fella's family in Manistee, Michigan.  There are 9 of us sharing a house and we are having a lot of fun.  Manistee is on Lake Michigan, one of the loveliest of the great lakes with its sandy beaches, temperate water and rolling waves.    We found an area with lots of multicolored pebbles and collected a bag of colorful little stones and beach glass that our 'artists' plan to turn into jewelry.  There have been the usual unwelcome sunburns and mosquitoes, but otherwise the week so far has been lovely.

Our "salmon slaughter" competition was yesterday and to everyone's surprise, I 'won.'   It took a village to land my fish, with everyone on the boat pitching in to help me hold the rod and turn the reel, but that didn't stop me from accepting the top award for the day.   The first mate helped me hold the fish for the photo since my arms had turned into spaghetti by the time the fish was landed.

Each of us caught at least one fish so the trip was a definite success.

My award consisted of a medal, a salmon-colored mug created by one of the 'kids' in our group, and bragging rights for the next year.  

One of the many cooks in the group prepared the fish that night and it was, to my surprise, absolutely delicious.   He made a marinade of brown sugar, lemon juice and soy sauce and grilled it with apple wood chips.   I am not a fish eater, but this was worth changing my mind for!

Today will be more of a take-it-easy day, at least for me.   All this relaxing just wears me out!