I drove thru downtown Flushing, and down one of the side streets I saw this cute older home. I love the older homes in Michigan they have so much more character even if it’s just an average working class house and not a Victorian mansion. I wonder if someday on the west coast, people will reminisce out about the beige stucco homes.

Beautiful sunsets can happen other places besides Lake Michigan, I took this pic on the boardwalk along the Saginaw River in Bay City. there is nothing better than a Michigan sunset especially after a thunderstorm, you just have to have your camera with you to get a pic no matter where you are.

I camped at the Riffle River Recreation Area over the weekend and the sky was clear revealing a plethora of stars at night. I went over to the Devoe Lake beach and set up my tripod and took a few pics, it was so dark I had to use my tripod with a cable release and count my exposure time. I took a few pics and found that when I counted to about 150 I got a good exposure. So on my 3^rd pic I was counting and got to about 130 and noticed a dark blob moving next to me in the inky darkness. I was prying it was not a skunk. I turned on my flashlight and it was a little raccoon with a whole family of four a little further off in the distance. I don’t know who was scared more me or the raccoons, but I did get a nice pic of Devoe Lake with the stars and the northern lights in the distance.

Going down the expressway you see all sorts of billboards and signs and I could not even tell you what’s on them, I forget all about them after about 2 miles, but this old motel sign near Clare always stands out, I think instead of all these modern signs and their fancy new graphics and digital displays they just need to go with neon, people notice that.

CurwoodCastle is on the bank of the ShiawaseeRiver in Owosso. It was built by author James Oliver Curwood for a writing studio. How cool is that he could have built an ordinary building but he built his own castle and you know what they say the pen is mightier than the sword. And even better than building a castle, after his death he willed it to the people of Owosso. While I was there I also went for a walk downtown Owosso, what a nice historic place to visit, but those are pics for another day.

and yes some photoshopping was involved in the making of this pic

Curwood Castle

I saw this old barn in the countryside east of Manton Michigan.

I found this little old shack near Thompsonville. I find these old houses like this through out northern Michigan. It makes you wonder about when they were built and who lived there. I am sure traveling around northern Michigan back in those days was not as easy as it is now.

I can’t have a Michigan page without a sunset and a bridge. This probably is not the bridge that you are thinking of, but it is one of the largest bridges of its type in the world. It’s the Houghton-Hancock lift bridge over PortageLake in the Keweenaw Peninsula

Driving around the thumb this morning I found this ornate house near Watrousville Mi and figured this was not your average farm house. I did a little research and found out it’s on the national list of historic places and it was the home of Richard C. Burtis.

from the Registry

”The Burtis House is one of the finest examples of Second Empire architecture in Tuscola County and represents the prosperity of its owner. The house was built from 1879 to 1880 for Richard C. Burtis, a shoemaker and one of the area’s most prominent landowners. Maintained as a residence, the building has undergone no major alterations and retains its original character.”

the current owners are in the process of renovating it, you can follow their progress on facebook HERE