The Vacation to Florida Photos (Finally!).....Part ONE

Finally!

I am ONE HAPPY WOMAN.

We picked up our computer yesterday and I was a busy little bee downloading all of my vacation photos into my EXTERNAL drive (yep, this old dog CAN learn new tricks) and now I can show you the long-awaited vacation photos of our trip to Florida

that we took before Christmas.

For those of you that don't know, we live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (we residents are known as YOOPERS..get it? from the U.P.).

So to get to Florida, we have to travel from mid U.P. going west and then south to get to the mighty Mackinac Bridge and cross where the Great Lakes meet

to get into the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

So off we started.

Before we got 100 miles from home, we were driving down the highway and saw a HUGE bird up in a tree.

We looked at each other, and my husband (knowing me WELL)

said:

"So I am going to have to turn the car around now, aren't I?"

God, I love that man.

And we did.

So I could get THIS picture!:

He was just hangin' around the highway, watching traffic.

My husband waited in the nice, heated car while I braved wind and cold

to get more photos of him:

Gosh, he was gorgeous.

It is my theory that I wasn't the ONLY photographer that he has been patient with.

He didn't seem skiddish at all and just sat there and posed.

Of course I took many more photos of him other than the ones I am showing you today.

But here is one more (because I just can't help myself):

Ok.

And just ONE close-up.

Because when you are THIS handsome, you deserve a closeup:

My husband was afraid I was going to be so distracted I would step out in the middle of the highway and get hit by a semi. So he was glad when I finally returned to the car and then I begged him to turn up the heater on the car because I don't think I could feel my fingers anymore.

About two hours later, we were in the south part of the U.P. and cruising along US 2, which parallels beautiful Lake Michigan:

As you can see, when we left on our trip, the U.P. did not have any snow yet.

Here is another shot of Lake Michigan:

As you drive along the Lake, you wait for a glimpse of the huge Mackinac Bridge.

I wanted to get out and get a picture of when you first see the bridge from the highway, but my husband wanted to keep on rolling (since the eagle photo shoot put us behind schedule), so since I had to travel with him for the next two weeks, I figured I better let him have that one, so everybody in the car would continue to be happy. :=}

So, when we got to the bridge, I took this shot through the car window:

Continuing on the bridge:

Almost half way!:

I loved this dark exposure of being almost under the arch with the dark, cloudy skies:


And the rest of the day, we made it all the way through lower Michigan and stopped for the night about 20 miles from the Michigan/Ohio border.

Since we didn't see anything thrilling all the way through Ohio, I didn't take any photos there....
tomorrow I will show you some shots from Kentucky and Georgia....
and then after that I will post all the Florida photographs.

I am so happy that I have my computer back, safe and sound and that they found all of my old photographs. I have them stored safely on my external hard drive, so we should be good to go now.
Remember everybody:
think about submitting a photo to the photo contest by Jan. 31st...this month's theme is "Something Rusty"......