Hawk's Head

In February Ken and I went to a charity auction. There were lots of nice things to bid on and we ended up winning all 3 of our bids. The one we'd been most looking forward to was a night's stay and round of golf at Hawk's Head in South Haven, about 40 minutes from home. Ken had golfed here a few times, but I'd never been there.

Afte we checked in, we left the hotel and went to dinner in downtown South Haven. It is a very nice area and the weather was perfect. We finished up just in time to catch the sunset from the end of the pier.

There were quite a few people sitting on the pier watching the sunset with us.

Somehow I captured a cool sunflare ring.

In the morning we got up earlier than we expected, so we ended up being the first and pretty much only people on the course. It was a very pretty course, with lots of small rolling hills and a few trails thru the woods. It was so empty that Ken was able to get 27 holes in -- 18 when he did the entire course the first time, then the back 9 over again.

It was so early the sprinklers were still on.

I was way too busy taking pictures to even think of trying to golf :)

Besides being busy taking pictures, my attire wasn't exactly appropriate for golfing.

The sun coming thru the trees was so pretty.

Stripey shadows from the trees.

How did we survive before iPhones? Ken found an app that told him everything about the course. Better than having a caddy.

Unexpected and Unlikely Visitor

Friday after work Storm and I went for walk to the pond. It only takes about 20 minutes to go there, let her run around and come home. We were coming down the road and our house was in sight when I noticed a large(ish) lump on the driveway. It definitely wasn't there when we left a little while ago. I was so confused because it was the exact shape of a turtle. I figured it was a towel or something Ken had dropped on the driveway. I kept looking at it trying to figure out what in the world it could be as we got closer and closer to it.

We made it across the road and to our sidewalk when I decided it wasn't a random lump or towel or any of the other things I'd thought of. It really was a turtle sitting on the driveway!

Ken had looked out the garage door about the same time I was walking up inspecting the turtle in the driveway. His first words were to keep Storm away and not get too close in case it was a snapping turtle. No sooner had he said that than the creepy thing literally jumped in the air with its mouth open trying to snap us! We were not close at all -- Storm was still on her leash so I could hold on to her and it was well out of range of the length of the leash.

We were definitely more scared of it than it was of us. Every time it jumped up Syd and I would scream and back away even more.

It moved much faster than we thought it would or could. It tried to keep all of us in sight all the time and would walk in a circle jumping and snapping. Ken held it still by weighing down its back.

Front view of the ugly creature. Its beady little eyes were sunken in its head and its little clawed feet looked very sharp.

Ken picked it up by it's freakishly long tail and dragged it to the grass. We went inside and ate dinner, then 30 minutes or so later the neighbors across the road saw it by their house.

I really have no idea where it could have come from. There isn't any water source around our house. There are several empty lots but no good place a turtle would want to live. I also have no idea where he wandered off to. Making the rounds of Wyndstone I suppose.