it's not life that matters but the journey...

I've been taking lots of photos, but not sharing them. so finally here's some pics for you to enjoy (hopefully)! Just click on the thumbnail to see the bigger picture...

First, of our trip last week to Whiting, Indiana (Whihala Beach), where my husband was able to catch some amazing waves. Here's proof that it is possible to surf on Lake Michigan (though my pics are not so great, and he looks so small):








Here's some shots of the surroundings - notice the lovely BP Oil Refinery right next to one of the surfing spots - lovely!










M in his surfing gear:






some of the seagulls that were waiting for crumbs from my sandwich:






and finally, some art (well it's really just a guitar in the sand):






Going back several weeks, here's some more shots from a previous trip to New Buffalo, MI:

first, some of the lake surfers who won the "paddling contest":






more seagulls hamming it up:








and finally, a shot that I wish I had taken of M surfing in Michigan (it was actually taken by someone and posted on the surf shop's website):





next post will be pics of my cat, for for now, I leave you with "the surfing cat":

yup, I did the ultimate stupid thing and sat out all day in the sun - IN JULY - by the lake - with no sunscreen. and now I'm suffering the ultimate in sunburn hell. it's horrible. I'd take a picture if I wasn't feeling so stupid right now.

it hurts!!

but maybe it will turn into a nice tan - ya think?

And we did have an awesome day today, so it was worth it I guess. We were in three states today! we drove South from Chicago through Indiana to the border of MIchigan and Indiana - to a small town on Lake Michigan called New Buffalo. there is a surf shop there, which we had actually visited a few weeks ago on a very hot day. I didn't write anything about that day because that day was not good. Today, however, was perfect! The weather was gorgeous - only in the high 70s probably or low 80s at the most, with a bit of wind. M had been reading online that there might be some waves on the lake, so we headed out to Michigan this morning and got there around 10:30 a.m. He rented a surfboard and went out on the lake for about an hour and a half while I sat in the sun and read photocopies about pre and post nuptial agreements (for the paper that is due in my Contracts Law class in two days - yikes!). I guess M was able to catch a few very small waves - and while he was out there he met a couple of younger guys from Chicago who were trying lake surfing for the first time. they were really nice guys - one of them is doing post-doctoral work in Genetics and Statistics (Smart much!!) at the University of Chicago - and he will move to UCLA in six months to begin teaching - wow!! and the other guy is in BioChemistry and starting the grad program at UIC in the fall. We chatted with them for another hour or so (while I sizzled more), and when they left, M went out again to try for more waves- but there were not many. So we headed back to Chicago around 3 p.m. or so, and got stuck in the ultimate traffic jam - so it took us a long time to get home. we had some pizza, and I uploaded all the pictures that I've taken since the end of May - including pics that I took today. Now I'm catching up on LJ and will go to sleep soon... sun takes its toll, plus I drove the whole way back from MI - and it took over two hours!

Since I just uploaded tons of photos, I will post some of them tomorrow - some great ones of the beach today plus downtown Chicago from the freeway while stuck in traffic. and cat photos - my crazy cat was being such the ham posing with the flowers that Dawnie sent me back in June. by the way, where is Dawnie??? if you're out there, I miss you!!

hope you all are having a fabulous weekend and enjoying the new HP book - which I won't be reading until I can actually read Book 6...

I'm off to nurse my sunburn - g'night!