Discover St. Joseph

One of the lighted boats docked right by us (D, C, R, & I) making a nice foreground for our fireworks shots. :-) It was a lovely hot summer night in St Joe! The chocolate brownie sundae we got from Coldstone Creamery at the festival was just the thing to help cool us down. What fun! Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

This is the one likely to win. Beautiful! Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

Blogging to you live from VenFest. Sun is setting and the lighted boat parade will be starting soon. Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.7

It's that time again! The biggest festival of the year is being held in St Joseph this weekend. And what a weekend it is! The weather is just wonderful... hot and sunny, perfect for a beach town. There's no rain in the forecast except for a chance of a shower Sunday afternoon or evening. So if you're thinking about coming to the VenFest, do it, and don't give a second thought to the weather! D, C, R, and I walked around the festival grounds last evening and had a great time. Lots of music, food, rides, and games! There were plenty of vendors around hawking their wares. This guy was selling, among other things, hand held bubble makers. Just a ways down the road to Silver Beach, the folks under this tent were racing remote control cars. The lovely new Silver Beach Carousel was doing a brisk business and the Shadowland Pavillion was open and serving beer and soft drinks to those over 21. There was plenty of junk food to be had and folks seemed to be buying and enjo...

Today was the first of the two days of the 2010 Krasl Art Fair in St. Joseph. While it was a pleasant pool and beach day, it was uncomfortably warm up on the bluff where the art fair was held. However, that didn't diminish the crowds! D, L, Jo & I had breakfast at Thornton's, which had a line out the door waiting for a table, and then we made our way over to the Krasl about 10:30 am. We purchased "Krasl Bucks" this year which allowed us to take advantage of preferred parking at the Krasl. Saweet! The Krasl Bucks package also included a ticket to breakfast at Port 412 but my understanding was that it was a "Continental Breakfast". We were looking for something more substantial hence breakfast at Thorntons. We were given a "goodie bag" (part of the Krasl Bucks package) which consisted of an art fair poster, a pencil and pen, a key ring, a writing journal, hand sanitizer, and a printed piece about the permanent sculptures that belong to the Kra...

Another glorious beach day! The sand is very hot on the feet so bring your thongs. The sky is cloudless so don't forget the sunscreen. The water is cool and refreshing... what are you waiting for? Come on down! Published with Blogger-droid v1.3.9

Sunny and hot today! Published with Blogger-droid v1.3.6

Wow! We had a wicked summer storm last evening! It had been hot (90F) and humid all day yesterday so evening thunderstorms were no surprise. And since the National Weather Service and local media had kept the public abreast of the possibility of severe weather all day the fact that we got a monster storm was no surprise either. But boy, I was still amazed at the ferocity of this particular storm! D and I enjoy storm chasing.  For us, it's all about the photo op. We seek out good opportunities to photograph storms. Which is kinda funny really because as a kid I was terrified of thunderstorms and tornado warnings. And now I find it a fun challenge to capture Mother Nature's fury with my camera. Anyway, I kept an eye on the local radar throughout the day. When it looked like the storm was imminent, we headed down to Silver Beach. Unfortunately, the beach was closed and everyone had been asked to evacuate. So we went on to Lion's Beach where we found ourselves among ...

[Continued from Memorial Day Weekend, Summer is Here! ] Sunday The sun was shining when we woke up on Sunday but the weather forecasters were suggesting that the sky would cloud up in a few hours. So we made a bee line for our photo destination of Michigan City, IN bright and early. We've been to Michigan City before but this time we made the trip specifically to photograph the lighthouse. I've seen the lighthouse in several publications and it looks identical to St Joseph's inner lighthouse to me. I'm guessing it was the same designer who is responsible for both. It was sunny when we left St Joe, cloudy most of the drive down to Michigan City, and sunny again when we got there. :-) We had a bit of trouble finding Washington Park. We should have used our GPS, the map we had wasn't detailed enough to get us there from I-94. But we did get there! It took us approximately 35 minutes from St Joe. Washington Park is a pretty park with lots of grass and trees and p...

Summer came to Southwest Michigan with gusto the past couple of weeks. The weather was sunny and in the mid to upper 80s much of the time. Woo Hoo! (I love it hot!) I worried that the heat wave would be over by the time the weekend got here but that was not the case.  :-) Friday D and I arrived in St Joe at dinner time on Friday and since the weather was soooo beautiful we decided to head over to the Bistro on the Boulevard where we could dine out on the patio overlooking the lake. It was much cooler in St Joe than I expected (64F) due to a north breeze off Lake Michigan. I was glad I'd thought to bring a light jacket (always a good idea to have a sweater or light jacket handy when you're in a beachtown ;-). I ordered filet mignon and D ordered a spicy tomato-pasta-shrimp dish. Both were excellent, but as usual when I dine at the Bistro, everything was not as expected. This time the Yukon Gold mashed potatoes were cold, not luke warm mind you, but cold. Every time w...

Friday, May 7th, was a special night in St. Joseph. It was the night that Barrage came to town. D and I were fortunate enough to get tickets to the performance at St Joseph High School. Oh what a treat it was! If you're not familiar with Barrage I'll give you the synopsis and refer you to their web site . In short, it is an 8-member musical group consisting of 5 violinists, 2 guitarists, and a drummer. But they are so much more than that! They sing and dance while playing amazing music... it's a very theatrical performance! I'd like to tell you more about it but it's one of those things that you just have to experience in person to truly appreciate. I understand this was the third time this group has played in St. Joseph and if they should make a return visit I'd strongly encourage you to see them. They play a wide variety of music including, country, rock, Russian folk tunes, jazz, and classics... and some music that just can't be classified ;-) He...

Well, we've been busy finishing up our condo remodeling and redecorating projects for the year. Thankfully, they are now all done! :-) One bedroom painted, one bathroom gutted and redone, a few doors replaced, and all the wood moldings on the first floor painted. Yeah! Now, about the Grand Floral Parade in St. Joseph on May 1st,... It was charming! I've been to my share of parades (plenty) in and around the Motor City, including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, but I've never seen such a wonderful down-home, true Americana parade. There were several differences I noticed from the parades I'm used to. The primary difference was the lack of politicians, LOL! There were no politicos riding in convertibles waving to the crowds with phony smiles plastered on their faces while their family members and campaign volunteers walk along side wearing tacky banners and throwing pieces of hard candy to the crowds lining the streets. Nope, not a one! :-D This parade was all...