Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be. It is just past 11:30 p.m. in "The City."

We had a great day today, unless you count the unplanned watering session here at the PE. We were planning that trip to The Camera Shop for those aforementioned questions and camera accessories, when I noticed that some of the plantings were looking a might droopy. That meant that although we had just returned from our morning walk with the fur-children, I had to take time to thoroughly water all of the thirsty vegetables and flowers. Oh well, at least I can skip that for today.

But back to our day. We made our stop at the The Camera Shop, but had also decided to continue to the town of Hart. MI further north, for some apples and other items that we don't grow here at the PE. On the way up, we made a pit-stop at one of Michigan's roadside rest areas. Unlike some rest areas we have visited in Illinois, this one also had a short 10-minute trail behind it. 

That trip netted us some nice pictures.

Much better than we had expected.

One of the picnic tables in the woods near the rest stop.

What can I say, just very inviting.

It is amazing the things you notice when you take the time to look.

Mary walked right by this mushroom that was growing in the path until I pointed it out. She then took this great pic.

I asked her to snap this pic of a burl growing on one of the trees along the trail.

What would be a rest stop without a spot for the fur-children of all the visitors.

 We finally made it to the fruit-stand in Hart to buy those apples and things.

We decided as we were leaving that we'd take the back roads home, rather than the very busy, by Michigan standards, Rte. 31 that we'd traveled on the way north. We did make a stop at the Ace Hardware™ store in Hart, but they didn't have what I was seeking. But, Mary did take a picture of yours truly there.

I had never been in a hardware store that wasn't of the big-box type that was this large.

The less-populated areas we also saw/visited, included New Era, MI, Rothbury, MI, and Shelby, MI, where we visited a newly opened yarn store. Mary bought something there and I took her picture, a rare occurrence.

Before we left Shelby, I took this pic of a flower-covered bicycle that sat outside the adjacent floral shop.

Sometimes, photo-ops are where you least expect them.

We finally continued our journey, that ultimately found us back on Rte. 31. We made a stop in Spring Lake @ Stan's and then came home to the impatiently waiting fur-children. While STWD is never a concern, in the past, we have taken Ginger to daycare to avoid any problems. She is getting to be a big girl and she was totally behaved during our nearly five-hour absence.

The temperature today was on the warm side, but not bad overall. We have a current temperature of 72° as we drop to the overnight low of 63° under mostly-clear skies. Tomorrow, the high temperature forecast from the NWS is 82° under mostly-sunny skies. The sun will rise tomorrow @ 6:46 a.m. and set later @ 8:52 p.m.

Tomorrow night/early-morning, we are hoping for clear skies, as it is peak-time for the Perseid Meteor Showers. One of the things I bought at The Camera Shop was a tripod that should facilitate taking some pictures if we can find a spot without the light-pollution that is all around us. Here's hoping.

Baseball news today/tonight was all good. My beloved 82 - 35, 1st in the AL East Red Sox, thumped their rivals, the 36 - 81 Orioles in a divisional game, 19 - 12. That win included some fireworks off the bat of Andrew Benintendi, who hammered a 3-run home-run to put the Sox ahead 14 - 10 en route to the win. The Sox play the Orioles again tomorrow in a make-up game @ 1:05 p.m.

The 67 - 48, 1st place in the NL Central Cubs, eked out a close-one over the visiting, 59 - 57, 3rd in the NL East Nationals, 3 - 2. The Cubs and the Nationals play tomorrow @ 4:05 p.m.

The 47 - 68, 3rd place in the AL Central Tigers, defeated the 53 - 62 2nd place Twins, 5 - 3. Wow, a win following that disastrous 0-fer West Coast road trip. The Tigers are home again in Comerica Park to face the Twins again tomorrow @ 6:10 p.m.

The MWL East, 59 - 57, 3rd place Caps, defeated the 75 - 41, 1st place Hot Rods, 2 - 0. The Caps are off to Fort Wayne, IN to play the T53 - 62, 4th place TinCaps tomorrow night @ 7:05 p.m.

We have work to do tomorrow, so we will walk the fur-children and then stay home and keep busy. Ciao.