Trip to Marquette

Yesterday, I went to Marquette with friend, Kim. In addition to getting the brakes fixed on my car fixed, I also purchased materials needed to make billboards for the museum as well as plants and other items for my garden. Thanks to friends, Jimmy and Helen, we were referred to a mechanic who saved me quite a bit of money on the car repair. Thank you Jimmy and Helen! We stayed at their house and enjoyed a competitive game of ping pong, as well as one of Jimmy's gourmet dinners, and meeting a friend of theirs, Kawami, from Ghana, Africa. Thanks Helen and Jimmy for a terrific time!

I'm looking forward to helping to make the signs for the museum. Although Grand Marais is not a big town, I am hoping that the billboards will direct people to the museum, which as many of you know, is located a block off main street. Kim is an artist and has significant experience making signs. I've hired her to design and hand-paint 3' x 4' signs to advertise the museum. A friend (Georgina) is letting me put one on her property at four-corners between Sable Lake and Sable Falls. Another friend (Patsy) is letting me put one at her lot line on M-77, a couple of miles south of town.

While in Marquette, I also met with a rockhound acquaintance, Jeff, and his wife. Although I didn't really want to spend any more money on rocks -- I did. I bought a 29 pound piece of Ocean Jasper as well as a whole pile of Argentina agates. Some of the Argentina agates are shadow agates. So for any of you rockhounds that want to add some high quality agates to your collection -- I have quite a supply right now of the Chinese Rain Flower agates I featured the other day, as well as these and other Argentina agates, and much more.





Jeff also donated some datolite nodule halves, and a copper crystal specimen that is coated with datolite.



When Kim and I were driving through Munising, I asked her if she had ever been to Memorial Falls. She had not -- so we doubled back and went for a short hike. The property is owned by the Michigan Nature Association. It is located a mile or so east of Munising, across from Sand Point. There are grottos with waterfalls. To get from the first to the second grotto, you have to crawl through a hole in the rock, as demonstrated by Kim.