Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just after 5:30 a.m. in "The City."

As is the prerogative of any writer, I've decided to dispense with my regular way of delivering prose and just get to the meat of yesterday.

We had a great day yesterday! There, I'm done.

Well not really, but at least I piqued your curiosity..

We got up late, fed the fur-children and then went about our day. Some kitchen activities, some reading, and some errands. That's all folks!

Our errands took us to Holland in a futile search for a patio umbrella @ Teermans™ a purveyor of many things for the the home and garden.

We didn't get what we came for, but as Mick and his mates put it back in 1969, "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find, you get what you need."

But I digress, we did get some things that we didn't know we wanted, so the trip wasn't a waste. Plus, the route we took there and back provided many photo-ops for my trusty Olympus camera.

As we traveled, we made an executive decision to stop @ Olive Shores County Park on our way south.

One more beautiful park in the Ottawa County Parks System.

That decision allowed us to explore a couple of trails within the park's boundaries and to wisely avoid one trail that would have required us to traverse 125 steps going up and the same number going down.

The dunes overlooking the "Big Lake" provide a spectacular, but as is often said, sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor.

As I near my 68th birthday, my discretion caused me to miss the view from the top.

And yes, they are as steep as you think.

However as I said, there were many other photo-ops available within the park's boundaries too. When you have a digital camera, the only limit is the life of your battery and the space on the memory card.

Shot at just the right angle and voila, a pic of the "Forest Primeval."

Every part of the trails yielded a different perspective.

Including a vast meadow within the woods that attracts many butterflies.

Of course, walking in the woods can come with its own set of problems too.

I did my best to shoot this tree straight up instead of straight on.

Shadows can inspire their own set of stories.

Why not?

A factoid that we did not know.

But, it was time to move on to Holland, which provided its own set of photo-ops.

The talons of this machine are used to move tons of scrap from one portion of the site to another.

This is one huge recycling operation.

Once we were done in Holland, it was time to head back towards home. That part of the trip also provided some additional photo-ops.

A hidden stack from a bygone technology?

A rider enjoying the scenery at his own pace.

Part of Pigeon Lake and a haven for fishermen with small boats.

Though fall is still about four weeks away, some of the trees are already changing colors.

We made it to GH, stopped in for an annoying but necessary visit to that big-box nearly everything store, and then it was time for a mad-dash to Ace Hardware™ in Spring Lake, which was just about to lock its doors, for a small piece of tubing. Our outing culminated in a stop at Stan's and then home. By this time, the fur-children were not happy, as their dinner was way overdue. However, we were quickly forgiven as they chowed down.

During dinner, we watched a movie, a romance of sorts, entitled Find Me. This movie was both uplifting and a reality check, as an accountant tries to find his missing office friend. I liked it!

It is time to include a pic I took several days ago of the gladiolus that Mary had in her "Flower Room.

A photo can't do these gladiolus justice.

One more form of transportation available in GH.

Today, I hope to get to those artistic activities that I had planned for yesterday and also to do some reading too, but like I said earlier, "You can't always get what you want..." Mary plans to read, do more cross-stitching and perhaps some kitchen activities. Ciao.